Monday, June 13, 2011

Please Welcome World Controller Mustapha Mond!, Indirect Characterization

"His fordship Mustapha Mond!" -pg 34

In the middle of page 34 there is a paragraph in the narrator's voice, but clearly portraying the thoughts and attitudes of children eagerly awaiting 'his fordship', one of the World Controllers. Next, Mustapha Mond begins a soliloquy of sorts about history and its strangeness to the decanted children of Brave New World (or what we consider normal). I thought this process of introducing such an important character was interesting. A World Controller is apparently the highest title that there is, and there are only ten in the entire world. Huxley started Mond's profile by giving the perspectives of children who were waiting to meet him. Without describing his appearance or anything else about where Mond was or what he looked like, Huxley moved straight into Mond's dialogue. Mustapha Mond spoke scathingly about family, mothers, fathers, and viviparous reproduction. The children were aghast.

Mustapha Mond is a significant character not only in terms of the novel, but also because he is the only one who remembers, or knows anything about the old world. Knowing this, its interesting that Huxley chose to indirect characterization as they way to portray him. Not only was he introduced indirectly, but Huxley used other people's thoughts to build Mond's reputation. Since Mond was not thoroughly described, I made the assumption that he is not a major character, but merely a channel to describe in length the view the people in the novel had about the past and why they despised it and preferred the stability of their present.

No comments:

Post a Comment