Poster Session 2, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM: Concourse [B15]

Presenter: Lauren Ramos Martin

Faculty Sponsor: Matthew Brown

School: UMass Boston

Research Area: Literature

ABSTRACT

Brave New World depicts a futuristic society in which babies are grown in factories and individuals’ roles within their community are determined while they are still embryos. Although clearly dramatized, the novel was able to predict many social developments distinctive to our own era, making it a useful tool for critically imagining and assessing the long-term consequences of certain social phenomena. More specifically, this paper explores how the novel’s themes of performative individuality and consumerism mirror comparable trends in contemporary society, trends that contribute to the erosion of traditional forms of community. This is accomplished through an exploration of consumption and social belonging as depicted in the novel, as well as an analysis of the character Bernard Marx and his paradoxical struggle for freedom of expression whilst also craving acceptance into his extremely deindividualized society. Bernard’s attempt to form a community by flaunting his individuality parallels the way many people today seek alternative spaces like online communities when they feel excluded from traditional social environments. This paper argues that social belonging in the modern era is increasingly mediated by the ownership of particular objects and participation in aesthetic trends, and that deviation from consumer norms can lead to subtle forms of exclusion. This rejection ultimately results in a faux-individuality that is rooted in the desire for community and which can only be attained through consumerism.