REPETITIONS

From the day you are born

you have one path
set forth before you by Society
never to be questioned.

The painful dig

of nails into a shoulder;
hissed words of:
Thats not ladylike.

Like sheep to the slaughter

herded endlessly through life.
A lone, droning voice haunting,
reminding you of your place.

Five hundred repetitions

once a week
from thirteen to seventeen
(Huxley 100).

(the words were there,

unforgotten,
unforgettable
after so many night-long
repetitions) (Huxley 74).

A young man of twenty

sits, slumped, on a street
corner.
Fingers curled around around the
white pages of a rejection
letter.
Mind flickering back to every
image
on TV of a boy just like him.

At the age of a five

a young boy falls.
Knee crying crimson
matching the stains on his
cheeks.
The harsh hand of Society
heavy on the boys shoulder.
Chiding voice whispering:
Boys dont cry.
One hundred repetitions
three nights a week
for four years (Huxley 47).
A girl of thirteen
sits, legs sprawling
plate of dinner in front of
her.
She swallows the food down:
a prisoner with her last meal.
The angry eyes of Society
narrowed in on her
spread legs,

Violence and gangs

and the steady rhythm of
gunshots
the soundtrack of his future.
Societys pitiful sneers
reminding him time and time
again:
You will never make it out.
Two hundred repetitions,
twice a week
from fourteen to sixteen and a
half (Huxley 94).
Two women of twenty-five
and twenty-seven
Sit, giddily, across from each
other.
Lips painted with rainbows,
pride shading their shame
the two fit like puzzle pieces.

They ignore Societys face

twisted with repulsion.
Ignore the hissed words
of:
You dont deserve love.
They had heard the words
repeated a hundred and
fifty times
every night
for twelve years (Huxley
75).
And each one will stop,
the herd pressing at their
back.
Pressing them forward
forcing them to conform.
The longer they fight,
the harsher Society will
stare,
reminding them that:
If ones different,
ones bound to be lonely
(Huxley 137).
And the phrase was
repeated,
parrot-fashioned,
again and again (Huxley
256)
until they finally broke.
Because if
Sixty-two thousand
four hundred repetitions
make one truth (Huxley
47).
Then what is truth?

ravenous hunger.

Thesis:
Throughout Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses the sense of hypnopaedic thought to show
how the people within the Utopia are controlled.
Thematic Statement:
Continuous repetitions of a certain phrase through a persons life can lead to false truths later on
in life.
Explanation:
One thing that really caught my eye through most of the novel was this hypnopaedic thought,
and how the citizens of this Utopia continuously repeat the phrases they learned throughout their
childhood late on in their life. I started to look more into my own life, and all the phrases Ive
heard repeated time and time again that lead to deep rooted insecurities that I really have no
control over. I thought about how much I was held back as a young girlcontinuously being
told not to act a certain way because it wasnt lady like and being seen as weaker because of
my gender. I also went a little more personal, remembering all my fears I had when I started to
realize I was gay, I started to think of all those phrases that fell from my parents mouths, and
how much that ruined me from being comfortable with myself for a long time. So I used these
concepts, and wrote a poem about how repetitions of phrases can be both helpfullike in Brave
New World, as theyre the backbone of Societyand how harmful they can be. Hopefully I
caught that desperate feeling with this poem.