On The Communicative Predicaments In Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point

Aldous Huxley is the outstanding representative of British novelists. Point Counter Point is a great novel written by Huxley between the two world wars. The work delicately describes all kinds of characters, truthfully records the communicative confusions under the temptations of money and power, and reflects the distorted interpersonal relations which are inharmonious with the development of society.The German philosopher Habermas has some unique ideas on modern interpersonal behaviors, and the communicative theory adopted by him argues for rebuilding the relationship by language, calls for rational communication, and puts forward the three principles for speakers: the validity claim to rightness, truthfulness and truth. Viewed from the perspective of the communicative theory and the historical background of England in 1920 s, the Point Counter Point is of great realistic social significance for the researchers.The thesis has selected three typical characters Spandrell, Burlap and Sidney, and analyzes their communicative predicaments from the aspects of kinship, friendship and love relationship. It aims to explain the anxiety and confusion individuals feel about family values, the money relation and self-recognition. And besides, the thesis aims to show the problems in people’s discourse—the loss of rightness, truthfulness and truth. In the first part of the thesis, a literary review and a brief introduction to the communicative action theory are given. It puts forward three concrete questions: how could the hero Spandrell have become degenerated as to be alienated from his own mother? How could Burlap have misplaced friendship and money? How does Sidney package himself out of his vanity in his relationship with an Indian woman? The first chapter is mainly designed to analyze the alienated communication between Spandrell and his own mother. The remarriage of his beloved mother after his father’s death has left an indelible scar in Spandrell’s heart. And this has sowed the seeds for his future frivolity and viciousness. He debates with his mother in a rude attitude. Their alienated communication in kinship has completely deviated from the rightness of the intimate parent-child relationship. The second chapter is to analyze the monetized communication between Burlap and his friend, Rampion. As the editor of a periodical, Burlap puts money in the first place. Even his friend has become the object which he trades for benefits. The way Burlap deals with business has deteriorated their friendship and his sincerity is at stake. The third chapter mainly analyzes the illusioned communication between Sidney and an Indian woman called Gladys. As a married man, Sidney wants to pursue a sense of superiority to satisfy his vanity in his love relationship with Gladys. He habitually packages himself in word and deed and his proclamation of his own identity doesn’t follow the claim of truth. His recognition of himself is solely based on illusions.From the analysis of the communicative predicaments indicated in the three chapters, we can see that Huxley discloses a throwback in people’s communicative behavior in the highly developed society: Spandrell can’t find his right position as a son and he is gradually estranged from his mother; Motivated by personal gain, Burlap lives and works as a slave of money; Sidney merely attaches importance to his own superiority and cannot rectify his self-recognition. These reflect the author’s dissatisfaction with modern society and his strong appeal for humanistic concern. So it is necessary to restore the status of communication in social life, to recover family values, to rebuild monetary relation and to reshape people’s self-recognition, which may be the possible ways to get people out of irrational communications.