Dystopia

Brave New World

 

Aldous Huxley

 

Aldous Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 and died on November 22, 1963, in Godalming of Surrey County located in southern England. He was the son of Leonard Huxley, an English schoolteacher and writer and Julia Arnold. Huxley was born into a family of renowned scientists. His two brothers, Julian and Andrew, became eminent biologists. And his grandfather was a famous controversial naturalist. The way Huxley was raised and his experiences greatly influenced his works of literature including Brave New World. For example the England of his day and the World State in Brave New World have many similarities. In his day, England had a rigid class structure, which influenced him to base the World State’s class structures on the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma system. Also the influence of the death of Huxley’s mother can be seen in Brave New World. Huxley lost his mother when he was 14, which he said gave him “a sense of the transience of human happiness”. Throughout the novel each citizen of the World State goes to great lengths to retain their happiness. Whether it is through soma or a “feely”, citizens deny any thought of death, rejection, or sadness.

 

 

Plot Summary

 

The novel first takes place in the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre, where the Directory and his assistant Henry Foster give a tour to a group of boys. They explain the Bokanovsky and Podsnap Processes that allow the Hatchery to produce thousands of identical human embryos. Then the embryos are ranked into five categories: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon (in order of superiority). The Director explains about the method called hypnopaedic (teaching children in their sleep.) Lenina tells Bernard she accepts his date to accompany her to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico, and Bernard then flies away to meet with Helmholtz (his best friend who shares a common dissatisfaction with the world state). Bernard and Helmholtz discuss each other’s problems: Helmholtz is unhappy because he is too intelligent for his job, and Bernard is disgruntled because he thinks that he is too weak and small to be an Alpha. They later meet the young man, John, and he tells them the story of his mother and how he was raised as the only real born child and grew up reading Shakespeare. John says that his mother, Linda was lost in the Reservation (Bernard soon realizes that Linda is the Directors past lover), John then starts to fall deeply in love with Lenina. Bernard then invites John back home so that he can expose the Director because there have been rumors that the Director is trying to exile Bernard. Once John arrives at the World State he becomes a celebrity and is called the Savage. And when the Director is confronted by John and Linda, he resigns in disgrace. Meanwhile Lenina describes how she cannot think of any other men besides the savage. She tries many ways to seduce him including taking him to a “feely” (a pornographic movie where you experience all of the emotions) but John rejects her and curses at her. John meets a group of Delta clones who are receiving their soma ration. He tries to convince them to revolt, throwing the soma out the window, and a riot results. Bernard and Helmholtz, hearing of the riot, rush to the scene and come to John’s aid. After the riot is calmed by police with soma vapor, John, Helmholtz, and Bernard are arrested and brought to the office of Mustapha Mond. Mustapha exiles Helmholtz and Bernard.  John and Mustapha then have a debate and conversation about the pro’s and cons of the world state. John leaves into the woods where he punishes himself.  Reporters follow John into the woods and they have an orgy including John. The next morning John discovers what he has done and kills himself.

 

 

Elements

 

Consumer Society: Individuals happiness is based on the ability to satisfy needs and success as a society is defined by economic growth and prosperity.

 

Happiness over Truth: Brave New World is full of people who try to avoid facing the truth. Taking the drug, soma, is one example of willful self delusion. Soma clouds the reality and replaces it with happy hallucinations.