33 pages • 1 hour read
Aldous HuxleyIsland
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Transcendence and Being Present
At the heart of Pala’s lifestyle is a drive to transcend the realm of the abstract by developing acute and consistent awareness of the physical realm. The way toward enlightenment depends on this acute awareness; the more you develop it, the more you are able to stay out of your own head. Mental and emotional problems common in the West are not common in Pala. Huxley points out that in the West, we tend to get caught in abstractions, such as what the future will bring. By turning our attention away from abstractions, we turn away from corresponding negativity.
The young nurse Radha argues in favor of self-awareness versus what substitutes for introspection in the West. She speaks of one occasion when doctors visited from America. Of their protocol’s and approaches, she says—“they never attack on all fronts; they only attack on about half of one front” (79). She adds: “[M]ind abstracted from body—that’s the only front they attack on” (79). Radha’s criticism reveals the West’s failure to consider the entire person, body and mind. Attention to sensory experience unifies the mind and body.
The novel’s final chapter best explores transcendence. Will takes the Moksha medicine, meaning “liberation.” At first, Will feels euphoric: “Light here, light now. And because it was infinitely here and timelessly now, there was nobody outside the light to look at the light. The fact was the awareness; the awareness the fact” (327). With the help of Moksha, Will finally achieves the fullest sense of presence that he has ever felt. The only thing that exists is the light he sees during his hallucinations; there is no shame from his past; there is no dread of the future. Although his hallucinations become somewhat scary, he simply observes and absorbs. When Susila asks him to open his eyes, Will sees her as he never saw her before. She touches him, and the tactile sensation is so acute that he feels like he’s never really been touched before. The medicine has shown him what true sensory perception is and how it can help someone transcend their current state.
Accepting Death and How to Give Life Meaning
Will’s perception of death is cynical. He does not understand why one should live a good life and be a good human being when we all die in the end.
He says: “One thinks one’s something unique and wonderful at the center of the universe. But in fact, one’s merely a slight delay in the ongoing march of entropy” (292). Will’s nihilistic view of life runs deep. He tells Susila about the death of his dog Tiger when he was four years old: “[T]hat was my first introduction to the Essential Horror” (288). He connects this experience with the death of his Aunt Mary, “the only person I ever really loved” (288). Will doesn’t know how to live with death’s inevitability. Susila’s succeeds at helping him. Will opens up to her and reveals these traumatic moments.
Susila does not deny death’s horror. Will cites a passage from 1 Corinthians—“let us eat, and drink, for tomorrow we die” (291). Susila says that this is good advice. She adds that “animals live that impersonal and universal life without knowing its nature. Ordinary people know its nature but don’t live it, and, if they ever seriously think about it, refuse to accept it” (291). She speaks of people like Will; Will has considered death’s nature but refuses to accept it.
As an alternative, Susila says “an enlightened person knows it, lives it, and accepts it completely. He eats, he drinks and in due course, he dies—but he eats with a difference, drinks with a difference, dies with a difference” (291). This is a call to action. The way to enjoy life is by developing awareness. When Susila is at Lakshmi’s bedside, Will sees how much different the experience of death is for those who have accepted death and for those they will leave behind. What he witnesses is the exact opposite of what he witnessed with his Aunt Mary, whose death experience was filled with angst and rage. Through acceptance, one gains dignity.
Greed and the End of Utopia
Once Will discovers that he has landed in Pala, he sees it as an act of serendipity. He considers the industrialization of Pala as inevitable and sees himself merely as its instrument. Will has no qualms negotiating with Colonel Dipa and his associate Bahu.
Murugan sees untapped economic benefit in industrialization, which he equates with personal wealth and the possible accumulation of goods and things. He loves objects, as evidenced when looking through the Sears catalog. He sees in Pala all that it is lacking in comparison with Western, modernized countries.
Huxley suggests that unfettered industrialization only leads to policies that elevate avarice. By sending him the Sears catalogs, Colonel Dipa is appealing to Murugan’s greed. Will likens the Colonel to the serpent in the Garden of Eden— “the tree in the midst of the garden was called the Tree of Consumer Goods” (163). Colonel Dipa, like the serpent, exploits weakness and appeals to avidity. Understanding the power of this strategy, Will suggests that Murugan import “a million of these catalogs and distribute them gratis” (163). The more people see goods juxtaposed with their absence, the more people will want change. They will not stop to consider consequences.
The scheming between Will, the Rani, and Colonel Dipa leads to the novel’s conclusion. Murugan ascends to the throne, and as his first order of business, he kills off the leader who most represented the antithesis to consumerism. As he is paraded through the village, he mentions oil and progress. Presumably, now that he is Raja, he will Westernize Pala. Huxley suggests that so long as there is greed, there is no possibility for Pala’s sustained utopia.
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