Shock and Irony

"If you knew the amount of overtime I had to put in after the last Japanese earthquake!" - Henry Foster, Brave New World, page 10.

For my first blog entry, I am going to discuss both my personal reaction to this quote and also the example of irony that it provides.  First off, I thought it quite odd that Henry Foster was able to talk of the death of obviously so many people with humor as described by Huxley as he "laughed goodhumouredly."  This is a perfect example of how people during this time are seen somewhat as disposable "wastages" that can easily be replaced.  Foster was more focused on the amount of time he had to spend replacing these people than the actual lives that were lost.  We, being the people living in the twenty-first century and more specifically 2012 A.D., can truly understand the preciousness of life and can not help but wonder what would cause a person to talk about the death of innocent people jokingly.  Now, the irony I find with this quote is that it is without a doubt something that can be related to in our world.  Just recetly, a momentous earthquake/tsunami struck Japan, killing over 10,000 people (this number resulting from both the earthquake and tsunami)!  In the day and age of Huxley's Brave New World, the lives of others can easily be replaced and therefore, have less importance or value, if you will.  The effect this literary device has is to help us cherish the lives of others because we know that they can never be replaced.  Hopefully, our world will never come to be in any way similar to Huxley's vision of future Earth, for it would truly be sad for the value of life to be forgotten.