Responses to War and Colonialism

Words and Behavior

READING 6 Analyze the effect of
Essay by Aldous Huxley
ambiguity and subtlety in literary
essays. 10A Evaluate the merits
of an argument, action, or policy Meet the Author
by analyzing the relationships
among evidence, inferences,

Aldous Huxley
assumptions, and claims in
text. 10B Draw conclusions 1894–1963
about the credibility of persuasive
text by examining its implicit and In both his fiction and nonfiction, 1920s, established his reputation and also
stated assumptions about an
issue as conveyed by the specific Aldous Huxley offered brilliant satiric brought him a certain popularity as a
use of language. commentary on political, social, and rebel. During the 1930s, Huxley’s writing
cultural trends. He is best known for his focused on political and cultural trends.
novel Brave New World (1932), a chilling
West Meets East In 1937, Huxley settled
work about a false utopia populated by
in southern California, where both the
mass-produced, genetically engineered
climate and new medical treatments
people. The novel is considered a classic
improved his vision. About the time
did you know?
science fiction work of the 20th century.
he emigrated, he became increasingly
Aldous Huxley . . . Loss of Vision Aldous Huxley was born concerned with the lack of spiritual
in Surrey, England, into a family of gifted focus in contemporary life, noting, “For
• was one of George
Orwell’s teachers. intellectuals that included scientists, too long Europeans and Americans
educators, and writers. As a student have believed in nothing but the values
• died on the same
day President John at Eton College, Huxley contracted arising in a mechanized, commercialized,
F. Kennedy was keratitis, an eye disease that resulted urbanized way of life.” He began to study
assassinated. in near blindness. He had intended to and write about Hinduism, Buddhism,
pursue a career in science or medicine, and Christian mysticism.
but he abandoned that ambition because
Although Huxley had never intended
of his illness. Learning Braille to continue
to make the United States his permanent
his education, he studied English
home, he remained there for the rest
literature at Oxford University, where his
of his life, finding work in Hollywood
sight showed signs of slight improvement.
as a screenwriter and continuing to
He was awarded an honors degree in
produce novels, essays, literary criticism,
1916, the same year he published
pu his first
and philosophical writings. Toward the
book, a collection of poetry.
end of his life, Huxley the social critic
Literary Rebel After
Afte working remarked, “It is a bit embarrassing to
as a teacher and a journalist, have been concerned with the human
concentrated on his
Huxley concentrat problem all one’s life and find at the end
moving away from
own writing, movi that one has no more to offer by way of
poetry to fiction and
an essays. The advice than ‘Try to be a little kinder.’”
witty skepticism of his first two
novels, published
pub in the
Author Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML12-1264

1264
elements of nonfiction: deductive reasoning
Huxley’s essay is a well-reasoned and well-supported argument
that is based on deductive reasoning. When writers use
deductive reasoning, they begin with a general principle, apply
How can
it to a specific situation, and then arrive at a logical conclusion.
Here is Huxley’s reasoning early in the essay: words
• General principle—We use words to falsify facts because
doing so benefits us in some way.
deceive?
• Specific situation—war In “Words and Behavior,” Aldous
• Conclusion—We create a verbal alternative to the reality Huxley examines how words are used
of war to preserve our self-esteem. to mislead people and manipulate
truth. Some say there’s an art to
As you read, notice how Huxley uses deductive reasoning such deception, which we can see in
at the beginning of the essay and toward the end. everything from pop-up ads on our
Review: Rhetorical Devices computers to speeches given by world
leaders. What motivates people to use
reading skill: analyze an argument deceptive language?
The cornerstone of every argument is its claim, the writer’s QUICKWRITE Suppose that you
position on an issue. In “Words and Behavior,” Huxley’s claim accidentally broke an expensive and
is the conclusion about war that he reaches via deductive beloved item in your house. Write a
reasoning. To convince readers that a claim is valid, a writer note to your parents explaining what
must provide support, which may consist of happened. Before you write, consider
• reasons that explain or justify an action, a belief, or a decision how your choice of words will affect
their impression of your behavior. Share
• evidence in the form of facts, examples, statistics, or the
your note with several classmates, and
views of experts
discuss the specific words you used to
As you read, write down the reasons and evidence Huxley describe the accident.
offers in support of his claim.

vocabulary in context
Huxley uses the following words to develop his argument.
Complete each sentence with one of the words.

word abstraction euphemism propound

list balefully iniquity vitiate
entity intrinsically

1. He used a(n) ________ to avoid offending his audience.

2. She _______ knew the story was fabricated.
3. Is the group an offshoot or an entirely new _______?
4. Will the senator_______ a new solution?

Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

1265
 WORDS
AND
BEHAVIOR Aldous Huxley

Words form the thread on which we string our experiences. Without them we
should live spasmodically and intermittently. Hatred itself is not so strong that
animals will not forget it, if distracted, even in the presence of the enemy. Watch
a pair of cats, crouching on the brink of a fight. Balefully the eyes glare; from far balefully (bAlPfEl-C) adv. in
down in the throat of each come bursts of a strange, strangled noise of defiance; as a manner that threatens
evil or harm; ominously
though animated by a life of their own, the tails twitch and tremble. With aimed
intensity of loathing! Another moment and surely there must be an explosion.
But no; all of a sudden one of the two creatures turns away, hoists a hind leg in a
more than fascist salute1 and, with the same fixed and focused attention as it had
10 given a moment before to its enemy, begins to make a lingual toilet.2 Animal a a ANALYZE AN
love is as much at the mercy of distractions as animal hatred. The dumb creation ARGUMENT
What contrast is Huxley
lives a life made up of discrete 3 and mutually irrelevant episodes. Such as it is,
drawing between
the consistency of human characters is due to the words upon which all human humans and animals
experiences are strung. We are purposeful because we can describe our feelings in in this passage about
rememberable words, can justify and rationalize our desires in terms of some kind the cats?
of argument. Faced by an enemy we do not allow an itch to distract us from our
emotions; the mere word “enemy” is enough to keep us reminded of our hatred, Analyze Visuals
Summarize the message
of this poster.
1. fascist (fBshPGst) salute: a salute, used in Nazi Germany, in which the arm is rigidly extended forward,
slightly above the horizontal.
2. make a lingual toilet: clean itself with its tongue, as cats commonly do.
3. discrete: separate; distinct.

Together, World War II Poster. Color lithograph.

1266 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature Private collection. © Bridgeman Art Library.
 to convince us that we do well to be angry. Similarly the word “love” bridges for
us those chasms of momentary indifference and boredom which gape from time
20 to time between even the most ardent lovers. Feeling and desire provide us with
our motive power; words give continuity to what we do and to a considerable
extent determine our direction. Inappropriate and badly chosen words vitiate vitiate (vGshPC-AtQ) v.
thought and lead to wrong or foolish conduct. Most ignorances are vincible,4 and to corrupt or weaken
in the greater number of cases stupidity is what the Buddha pronounced it to be,
a sin. For, consciously, or subconsciously, it is with deliberation that we do not
know or fail to understand—because incomprehension allows us, with a good
conscience, to evade unpleasant obligations and responsibilities, because ignorance
is the best excuse for going on doing what one likes, but ought not, to do. Our
b DEDUCTIVE
egotisms are incessantly fighting to preserve themselves, not only from external REASONING
30 enemies, but also from the assaults of the other and better self with which they are In lines 1–35, Huxley
so uncomfortably associated. Ignorance is egotism’s most effective defense against develops his general
that Dr. Jekyll5 in us who desires perfection; stupidity, its subtlest stratagem. If, principle from a series
of ideas about language.
as so often happens, we choose to give continuity to our experience by means of Summarize the reasoning
words which falsify the facts, this is because the falsification is somehow to our that leads to Huxley’s
advantage as egotists. b general principle.
Consider, for example, the case of war. War is enormously discreditable to
those who order it to be waged and even to those who merely tolerate its existence.
Furthermore, to developed sensibilities the facts of war are revolting and horrifying.
To falsify these facts, and by so doing to make war seem less evil than it really is,
40 and our own responsibility in tolerating war less heavy, is doubly to our advantage.
By suppressing and distorting the truth, we protect our sensibilities and preserve
our self-esteem. Now, language is, among other things, a device which men use
for suppressing and distorting the truth. Finding the reality of war too unpleasant
to contemplate, we create a verbal alternative to that reality, parallel with it, but
in quality quite different from it. That which we contemplate thenceforward is not
that to which we react emotionally and upon which we pass our moral judgments,
is not war as it is in fact, but the fiction of war as it exists in our pleasantly
falsifying verbiage. Our stupidity in using inappropriate language turns out, on
analysis, to be the most refined cunning. c c DEDUCTIVE
50 The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are REASONING
Huxley states his
individual human beings, and that these individual human beings are condemned
conclusion in lines 43–48.
by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels Explain how he uses
not their own, to inflict upon the innocent and, innocent themselves of any crime deductive reasoning to
against their enemies, to suffer cruelties of every kind. reach this conclusion.
The language of strategy and politics is designed, so far as it is possible, to
conceal this fact, to make it appear as though wars were not fought by individuals abstraction (Bb-strBkPshEn)
n. something that cannot
drilled to murder one another in cold blood and without provocation, but either be perceived by any of the
by impersonal and therefore wholly non-moral and impassible forces, or else by five senses; an idea or a
personified abstractions. quality

4. vincible (vGnPsE-bEl): capable of being overcome.

5. Dr. Jekyll (jDkPEl): an idealistic medical researcher transformed by an experimental drug into the
murderously evil Mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

1268 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

60 Here are a few examples of the first kind of falsification. In place of
“cavalrymen” or “foot soldiers” military writers like to speak of “sabers” and
“rifles.” Here is a sentence from a description of the Battle of Marengo:6
“According to Victor’s report, the French retreat was orderly; it is certain,
at any rate, that the regiments held together, for the six thousand Austrian
sabers found no opportunity to charge home.” The battle is between sabers in
line and muskets in échelon7—a mere clash of ironmongery.8
On other occasions there is no question of anything so vulgarly material as
ironmongery. The battles are between Platonic ideas,9 between the abstractions
of physics and mathematics. Forces interact; weights are f lung into scales; masses
70 are set in motion. Or else it is all a matter of geometry. Lines swing and sweep;
are protracted or curved; pivot on a fixed point. d d ANALYZE AN
Alternatively the combatants are personal, in the sense that they are ARGUMENT
Reread lines 60–71.
personifications. There is “the enemy,” in the singular, making “his” plans,
How do these examples
striking “his” blows. The attribution of personal characteristics to collectivities,10 of descriptive language
to geographical expressions, to institutions, is a source, as we shall see, of support Huxley’s claim?
endless confusions in political thought, of innumerable political mistakes
and crimes. Personification in politics is an error which we make because it is
to our advantage as egotists to be able to feel violently proud of our country Language Coach
and of ourselves as belonging to it, and to believe that all the misfortunes Roots and Affixes A
80 due to our own mistakes are really the work of the Foreigner. It is easier to word’s root may contain
feel violently toward a person than toward an abstraction; hence our habit of its core meaning. The root
of egotists (line 78) is the
making political personifications. In some cases military personifications are Latin ego (“I”). An egotist
merely special instances of political personifications. A particular collectivity, is a self-centered person.
the army or the warring nation, is given the name and, along with the name, Several other words come
the attributes of a single person, in order that we may be able to love or hate it from ego. Identify some
more intensely than we could do if we thought of it as what it really is: a number of these words and their
connotations (associated
of diverse individuals. In other cases personification is used for the purpose of feelings).
concealing the fundamental absurdity and monstrosity of war. What is absurd
and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be
90 trained to murder one another in cold blood. By personifying opposing armies
or countries, we are able to think of war as a conflict between individuals. The
same result is obtained by writing of war as though it were carried on exclusively
by the generals in command and not by the private soldiers in their armies.
(“Rennenkampf had pressed back von Schubert.”) The implication in both cases
is that war is indistinguishable from a bout of fisticuffs 11 in a bar room. Whereas
in reality it is profoundly different. A scrap between two individuals is forgivable;

6. Battle of Marengo: a battle fought in 1800 in which French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte defeated
an Austrian army near the town of Marengo in northern Italy.
7. échelon (DshPE-lJnQ): an arrangement of groups of soldiers in a steplike formation.
8. ironmongery (FPErn-mOngQgE-rC): ironware.
9. Platonic (plE-tJnPGk) ideas: In the teachings of Plato, the fourth-century B.C. Greek philosopher, all things
in the concrete world are actually mere copies of immaterial realities.
10. collectivities: groups of people.
11. fisticuffs (fGsPtG-kOfsQ): fighting with the fists; bare-knuckle boxing.

words and behavior 1269

 mass murder, deliberately organized, is a monstrous iniquity. We still choose to iniquity (G-nGkPwG-tC) n.
use war as an instrument of policy; and to comprehend the full wickedness and immorality; wickedness
absurdity of war would therefore be inconvenient. For, once we understood, we
100 should have to make some effort to get rid of the abominable thing. Accordingly,
when we talk about war, we use a language which conceals or embellishes its
reality. Ignoring the facts, so far as we possibly can, we imply that battles are not
fought by soldiers, but by things, principles, allegories, personified collectivities,
or (at the most human) by opposing commanders, pitched against one another
in single combat. For the same reason, when we have to describe the processes
and the results of war, we employ a rich variety of euphemisms. Even the most euphemism
violently patriotic and militaristic are reluctant to call a spade by its own name. (yLPfE-mGzQEm) n. a
weaker word or phrase
To conceal their intentions even from themselves, they make use of picturesque
used in place of another
metaphors. We find them, for example, clamoring for war planes numerous in order to be less
110 and powerful enough to go and “destroy the hornets in their nests”—in other distasteful or offensive
words, to go and throw thermite,12 high explosives and vesicants 13 upon the
inhabitants of neighboring countries before they have time to come and do the
same to us. And how reassuring is the language of historians and strategists!
They write admiringly of those military geniuses who know “when to strike at
the enemy’s line” (a single combatant deranges the geometrical constructions of
a personification); when to “turn his flank”;14 when to “execute an enveloping
movement.” As though they were engineers discussing the strength of materials
and the distribution of stresses, they talk of abstract entities called “man power” entity (DnPtG-tC) n.
and “fire power.” They sum up the long-drawn sufferings and atrocities of trench something that has
definitive existence;
120 warfare in the phrase, “a war of attrition”;15 the massacre and mangling of human
a creation
beings is assimilated to the grinding of a lens.16
A dangerously abstract word, which figures in all discussions about war, is
“force.” Those who believe in organizing collective security by means of military
pacts against a possible aggressor are particularly fond of this word. “You
cannot,” they say, “have international justice unless you are prepared to impose
it by force.” “Peace-loving countries must unite to use force against aggressive
dictatorships.” “Democratic institutions must be protected, if need be, by force.”
And so on. e e ANALYZE AN
Now, the word “force,” when used in reference to human relations, has no ARGUMENT
Reread lines 106–127.
130 single, definite meaning. There is the “force” used by parents when, without
What evidence does
resort to any kind of physical violence, they compel their children to act or refrain Huxley provide to support
from acting in some particular way. There is the “force” used by attendants in his idea that even
an asylum when they try to prevent a maniac from hurting himself or others. supporters of war are
There is the “force” used by the police when they control a crowd, and that other uncomfortable with its
reality?

12. thermite: a mixture of chemicals that burns very intensely, used in certain kinds of bombs.
13. vesicants (vDsPG-kEnts): chemical agents, such as mustard gas, that cause inflammation and blistering
of the skin and internal tissues.
14. “turn his flank”: turn the right or left side of the enemy’s attack force.
15. attrition: a gradual process of wearing down.
16. assimilated . . . lens: likened to the process by which glass is ground into lenses.

1270 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

 Come Lad, Slip Across and Help, World War I Poster. © Topham/The Image Works.

“force” which they use in a baton charge.17 And finally there is the “force” used
in war. This, of course, varies with the technological devices at the disposal of
the belligerents, with the policies they are pursuing, and with the particular
circumstances of the war in question. But in general it may be said that, in war,
“force” connotes violence and fraud used to the limit of the combatants’ capacity.
140 Variations in quantity, if sufficiently great, produce variations in quality. The
“force” that is war, particularly modern war, is very different from the “force”
that is police action, and the use of the same abstract word to describe the two
dissimilar processes is profoundly misleading. (Still more misleading, of course,
is the explicit assimilation of a war, waged by allied League-of-Nations powers18
against an aggressor, to police action against a criminal. The first is the use of
violence and fraud without limit against innocent and guilty alike; the second
is the use of strictly limited violence and a minimum of fraud exclusively against
the guilty.)

17. baton charge: the beating back of a mob by police officers wielding wooden clubs.
18. League-of-Nations powers: countries (including Britain) who joined the League of Nations, a former
international association of nations organized after World War I with the stated purpose of promoting
peace.

words and behavior 1271

 Reality is a succession of concrete and particular situations. When we think
150 about such situations we should use the particular and concrete words which apply
TEKS 6
to them. If we use abstract words which apply equally well (and equally badly) to
other, quite dissimilar situations, it is certain that we shall think incorrectly. f f SUBTLETY
Let us take the sentences quoted above and translate the abstract word “force” In this paragraph, Huxley
explores the subtleties,
into language that will render (however inadequately) the concrete and particular
or fine distinctions, of
realities of contemporary warfare. language. The subtle
“You cannot have international justice, unless you are prepared to impose it differences Huxley points
by force.” Translated, this becomes: “You cannot have international justice unless to in descriptions of
you are prepared, with a view to imposing a just settlement, to drop thermite, “force” might appear to
be unconscious choices:
high explosives and vesicants upon the inhabitants of foreign cities and to have perhaps writers aren’t
160 thermite, high explosives and vesicants dropped in return upon the inhabitants even aware that they
of your cities.” At the end of this proceeding, justice is to be imposed by the are making choices. But
victorious party—that is, if there is a victorious party. It should be remarked that Huxley’s point is that
writers are not thinking
justice was to have been imposed by the victorious party at the end of the last war.
deeply enough about the
But, unfortunately, after four years of fighting, the temper of the victors was such relationship between
that they were quite incapable of making a just settlement. The Allies are reaping language and reality.
in Nazi Germany what they sowed at Versailles.19 The victors of the next war Does this criticism seem
will have undergone intensive bombardments with thermite, high explosives and fair to you? How might
writers do a better job?
vesicants. Will their temper be better than that of the Allies in 1918? Will they
be in a fitter state to make a just settlement? The answer, quite obviously, is: No.
170 It is psychologically all but impossible that justice should be secured by the
methods of contemporary warfare. g g ANALYZE AN
The next two sentences may be taken together. “Peace-loving countries must ARGUMENT
Compare the quoted
unite to use force against aggressive dictatorships. Democratic institutions must
statement with Huxley’s
be protected, if need be, by force.” Let us translate. “Peace-loving countries must translation in lines
unite to throw thermite, high explosives and vesicants on the inhabitants of 156–161. How does his
countries ruled by aggressive dictators. They must do this, and of course abide translation serve as
the consequences, in order to preserve peace and democratic institutions.” Two support for his claim?
questions immediately propound themselves. First, is it likely that peace can
propound (prE-poundP)
be secured by a process calculated to reduce the orderly life of our complicated v. to put forward for
180 societies to chaos? And, second, is it likely that democratic institutions will consideration; propose
flourish in a state of chaos? Again, the answers are pretty clearly in the negative.
By using the abstract word “force,” instead of terms which at least attempt
to describe the realities of war as it is today, the preachers of collective security
through military collaboration disguise from themselves and from others, not
only the contemporary facts, but also the probable consequences of their favorite
policy. The attempt to secure justice, peace and democracy by “force” seems
reasonable enough until we realize, first, that this noncommittal word stands,
in the circumstances of our age, for activities which can hardly fail to result in
social chaos; and second, that the consequences of social chaos are injustice,

19. The Allies . . . Versailles (vEr-sF): The peace treaty ending World War I, signed at the Palace of Versailles
near Paris in 1919, imposed humiliating punishments on Germany, which led to the rise of German
nationalism and Nazism in the 1920s and 1930s.

1272 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

190 chronic warfare and tyranny. The moment we think in concrete and particular
terms of the concrete and particular process called “modern war,” we see that a
policy which worked (or at least didn’t result in complete disaster) in the past
has no prospect whatever of working in the immediate future. The attempt to
secure justice, peace and democracy by means of a “force,” which means, at this
particular moment of history, thermite, high explosives and vesicants, is about
as reasonable as the attempt to put out a fire with a colorless liquid that happens
to be, not water, but petrol.20 h h RHETORICAL DEVICES
What applies to the “force” that is war applies in large measure to the “force” What effect does Huxley
create through repetition
that is revolution. It seems inherently very unlikely that social justice and social
of the phrase “thermite,
200 peace can be secured by thermite, high explosives and vesicants. At first, it high explosives and
may be, the parties in a civil war would hesitate to use such instruments on vesicants”?
their fellow-countrymen. But there can be little doubt that, if the conflict were
prolonged (as it probably would be between the evenly balanced Right and Left of
a highly industrialized society), the combatants would end by losing their scruples.
The alternatives confronting us seem to be plain enough. Either we invent
and conscientiously employ a new technique for making revolutions and settling
international disputes; or else we cling to the old technique and, using “force”
(that is to say, thermite, high explosives and vesicants), destroy ourselves. Those
who, for whatever motive, disguise the nature of the second alternative under
210 inappropriate language, render the world a grave disservice. They lead us into
one of the temptations we find it hardest to resist—the temptation to run away
from reality, to pretend that facts are not what they are. Like Shelley (but without
Shelley’s acute awareness of what he was doing) we are perpetually weaving TEKS 6

i AMBIGUITY
A shroud of talk to hide us from the sun
Ambiguity is a technique
Of this familiar life.21 writers use in which a
word, phrase, or event has
We protect our minds by an elaborate system of abstractions, ambiguities, more than one meaning
metaphors and similes from the reality we do not wish to know too clearly; we lie or can be interpreted in
more than one way. An
to ourselves, in order that we may still have the excuse of ignorance, the alibi of ambiguous statement
stupidity and incomprehension, possessing which we can continue with a good demonstrates an
220 conscience to commit and tolerate the most monstrous crimes: i inexactness of meaning
in language. In what
way does Huxley believe
The poor wretch who has learned his only prayers
ambiguity can protect our
From curses, who knows scarcely words enough minds from monstrous
To ask a blessing from his Heavenly Father, crimes? As you read the
Becomes a fluent phraseman, absolute poem that follows, watch
And technical in victories and defeats, for an example of this
type of ambiguity.
And all our dainty terms for fratricide; 22

20. petrol (pDtPrEl): gasoline.

21. Shelley . . . familiar life: The romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote these lines in his 1820 poem “Letter
to Maria Gisborne.”
22. fratricide (frBtPrG-sFdQ): the killing of one’s brother or sister.

words and behavior 1273

 Your Talk May Kill Your Comrades (1942), Abram Games. World War II Poster. The Granger Collection, New York.

1274 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

 Terms which we trundle smoothly o’er our tongues
Like mere abstractions, empty sounds to which
We join no meaning and attach no form!
230 As if the soldier died without a wound:
As if the fibers of this godlike frame Language Coach
Were gored without a pang: as if the wretch Homographs The noun
Who fell in battle, doing bloody deeds, gore is unrelated to the
verb. The noun, from Old
Passed off to Heaven translated and not killed;
English gor (“filth”), means
As though he had no wife to pine for him, “blood from a wound.”
No God to judge him.23 The verb, from Old English
gar (“spear”), means “stab.”
The language we use about war is inappropriate, and its inappropriateness How does the noun affect
the connotation of gored
is designed to conceal a reality so odious that we do not wish to know it. The (line 232)?
language we use about politics is also inappropriate; but here our mistake has a
240 different purpose. Our principal aim in this case is to arouse and, having aroused,
to rationalize and justify such intrinsically agreeable sentiments as pride and intrinsically
hatred, self-esteem and contempt for others. To achieve this end we speak about (Gn-trGnPzG-klC) adv. in the
manner of the true nature
the facts of politics in words which more or less completely misrepresent them. . . .
of a thing; inherently
The evil passions are further justified by another linguistic error—the error of
speaking about certain categories of persons as though they were mere embodied
abstractions. Foreigners and those who disagree with us are not thought of as
men and women like ourselves and our fellow-countrymen; they are thought
of as representatives and, so to say, symbols of a class. In so far as they have any
personality at all, it is the personality we mistakenly attribute to their class—a
250 personality that is, by definition, intrinsically evil. We know that the harming
or killing of men and women is wrong, and we are reluctant consciously to do
what we know to be wrong. But when particular men and women are thought
of merely as representatives of a class, which has previously been defined as evil
and personified in the shape of a devil, then the reluctance to hurt or murder
disappears. Brown, Jones and Robinson are no longer thought of as Brown,
Jones and Robinson, but as heretics, gentiles, Yids, niggers, barbarians, Huns,
communists, capitalists, fascists, liberals24—whichever the case may be. When
they have been called such names and assimilated to the accursed class to
which the names apply, Brown, Jones and Robinson cease to be conceived as
260 what they really are—human persons—and become for the users of this fatally
inappropriate language mere vermin or, worse, demons whom it is right and
proper to destroy as thoroughly and as painfully as possible. Wherever persons
are present, questions of morality arise. Rulers of nations and leaders of parties
find morality embarrassing. That is why they take such pains to depersonalize

23. The poor wretch . . . judge him: These lines are from “Fears in Solitude,” a poem that romantic poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote during what he called “the alarm of an invasion” of Britain by French
forces near the start of the Napoleonic wars.
24. heretics . . . liberals: terms used to disparage groups of people. Yids is an offensive term for Jews, and
Huns was a derogatory term for Germans during World War I.

words and behavior 1275

 their opponents. All propaganda directed against an opposing group has but one
aim: to substitute diabolical abstractions for concrete persons. The propagandist’s
purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are
human. By robbing them of their personality, he puts them outside the pale of
moral obligation. Mere symbols can have no rights—particularly when that of
270 which they are symbolical is, by definition, evil. j j DEDUCTIVE
Politics can become moral only on one condition: that its problems shall REASONING
In lines 237–270, Huxley
be spoken of and thought about exclusively in terms of concrete reality;
applies his general
that is to say, of persons. To depersonify human beings and to personify principle to politics.
abstractions are complementary errors which lead, by an inexorable25 logic, to Summarize the deductive
war between nations and to idolatrous worship of the State, with consequent reasoning in this passage,
governmental oppression. All current political thought is a mixture, in varying and describe what Huxley
offers as support for his
proportions, between thought in terms of concrete realities and thought in terms of claim.
depersonified symbols and personified abstractions. In the democratic countries
the problems of internal politics are thought about mainly in terms of concrete
280 reality; those of external politics, mainly in terms of abstractions and symbols. In
dictatorial countries the proportion of concrete to abstract and symbolic thought
is lower than in democratic countries. Dictators talk little of persons, much of
personified abstractions, such as the Nation, the State, the Party, and much of
depersonified symbols, such as Yids, Bolshies,26 Capitalists. The stupidity of
politicians who talk about a world of persons as though it were not a world of
persons is due in the main to self-interest. In a fictitious world of symbols and
personified abstractions, rulers find that they can rule more effectively, and the
ruled, that they can gratify instincts which the conventions of good manners and
the imperatives of morality demand that they should repress. To think correctly k k GRAmmAR AND STylE
290 is the condition of behaving well. It is also in itself a moral act; those who would To convey his ideas about
think correctly must resist considerable temptations. m this serious topic, Huxley
uses formal language.
Notice the sophisticated
vocabulary and complex
sentence structure in
lines 286–289.

25. inexorable (Gn-DkPsEr-E-bEl): not able to be moved or influenced; unrelenting.

26. Bolshies: Communists. The word is shortened from Bolsheviks, members of the Russian Communist
faction that came to power in the 1917 revolution.

1276 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall According to Huxley, what is the main reason why people use READING 6 Analyze the effect of
language inappropriately when discussing war? ambiguity and subtlety in literary
essays. 10A Evaluate the merits of
2. Recall What does Huxley find “absurd and monstrous” about war? an argument, action, or policy by
analyzing the relationships among
evidence, inferences, assumptions,
3. Clarify According to Huxley in lines 237–243, why do politicians often and claims in text. 10B Draw
use inappropriate language? conclusions about the credibility
of persuasive text by examining its
implicit and stated assumptions
Literary Analysis about an issue as conveyed by the
specific use of language.
4. Examine Rhetorical Devices Huxley uses repetition throughout his essay to
emphasize ideas. For each example that follows, explain how the repetition
enhances his argument.
• “ignorance” and “stupidity” (lines 23–49)
• “force” (lines 129–139)
• “Brown, Jones and Robinson” (lines 255–262)
5. Analyze an Argument Review your notes on the reasons and evidence that
Huxley offers in the essay. What do you consider the strongest support
for his claim that inappropriate use of language allows people to deceive
themselves and others about the true nature of war? Explain your answer.
6. Draw Conclusions About Deductive Reasoning In his statement of the
premise on which he bases his deductive reasoning, Huxley says that “words
give continuity to what we do.” Why might it be especially difficult for a
nation’s leaders to maintain such continuity in wartime?
7. Evaluate the Essay In your opinion, how well reasoned and persuasive is
Huxley’s argument? Cite examples from the text to support your answer.
8. Compare Texts Reread the war poems by Yeats, Brooke, and Sassoon starting
on page 1242. Which of these poems best captures the reality of war as
described by Huxley? Explain your response.

Literary Criticism
9. Historical Context Huxley wrote “Words and Behavior” in 1939 in reaction
to developments in Nazi Germany and other European nations. In his essay,
he warns against the manipulation of language—both by political leaders
and by ordinary citizens—to justify war. To what extent do you think his
observations are true today? Explain your answer.

How can words deceive?

Think of some commonly used euphemisms. Choose one, and describe how it
obscures the complexity of the real world.

words and behavior 1277

Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice word list
Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the abstraction
vocabulary words. balefully
1. What kind of person is likely to stare balefully? entity

2. When factors vitiate a cause, what do they do? euphemism

3. What is an example of an abstraction? iniquity

intrinsically
4. What type of situation is clearly an iniquity?
propound
5. What phrase is a euphemism for an old person?
vitiate
6. What must an entity have?
7. If you propound an idea, what do you do?
8. What traits are intrinsically part of a person?

academic vocabulary in speaking

• approach • assume • environment • method • strategy

Find an example of an editorial calling for a specific policy or supporting a

particular position. Then, employ Huxley’s method of analysis by closely
examining the words that are used in the editorial. With a partner, analyze the
author’s use of language. Use an Academic Vocabulary word in your discussion.

vocabulary strategy: using context clues to find nuance

A word can have many shades of meaning, or nuances. Though the word
abstraction generally denotes a removal from concrete reality, its context—the READING 1B Analyze textual
context (within a sentence) to draw
surrounding words—can express various nuances. For example, if you say conclusions about the nuance in
a car that runs on water is a “mere abstraction because the technology is word meanings.

nonexistent,” your use of mere and nonexistent technology suggests that the
idea is unrealistic.

PRACTICE Use context to determine the nuance of abstraction in each sentence.

1. The film’s vivid imagery makes poverty in Africa more than an abstraction.
2. In a state of abstraction, Amelia put on her slippers instead of her shoes. Interactive
3. The entire gallery was filled with abstractions in glass, plastic, and bronze. Vocabulary
4. Professor Ponce spoke in abstractions, making him difficult to understand. Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML12-1278
5. The abstraction of key ideas from the articles required a critical editor.

1278 unit 6: modern and contemporary literature

Conventions in Writing
grammar and style: Use Appropriate Language WRITING 16 Write persuasive
Review the Grammar and Style note on page 1276. Huxley uses formal language texts. ORAL AND WRITTEN
CONVENTIONS 17 Understand the
that is appropriate for the seriousness of his topic and the sophistication of his function of and use the conventions
argument. Here is an example from his essay: of academic language when
speaking and writing.
A particular collectivity, the army or the warring nation, is given the name and,
along with the name, the attributes of a single person, in order that we may be
able to love or hate it more intensely than we could do if we thought of it as
what it really is: a number of diverse individuals. (lines 83–87)

Notice that the passage contains key elements of formal language, including
complex vocabulary and sentence structure, and a lack of contractions.
PRACTICE Rewrite the following sentences using formal language. An example
sentence has been done for you.

Politicians can’t always say the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
especially if a war is going on.
Politicians cannot always speak with complete openness and honesty, especially during
wartime.

1. When a place is getting attacked by some bad guys, the government first
of all has to protect its people.
2. After the war’s over, educated types can get picky about the things their
leaders said.
reading-writing connection


YOUR Expand your understanding of persuasion by responding to this
prompt. Then, use the revising tips to improve your rebuttal.
TURN
writing prompt revising tips
WRITE A REBUTTAL It’s very clear in “Words and • Clearly state your opposing
Behavior” how Huxley feels about language claim.
being manipulated to deceive. Write a three- or • Provide a strong example to Interactive
four-paragraph rebuttal to his essay in which support your claim. Revision
you make the case for why language must
• Use forceful and specific Go to thinkcentral.com.
sometimes be manipulated.
language. KEYWORD: HML12-1279

words and behavior 1279