Good Report About Brave New World

Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. The story takes place in the future, 632 A.F., After Ford in the book’s time or 2540 A.D. The novel paints a future devoid of true feeling, psychological manipulation and sterility. Mankind is now being manufactured in laboratories and lives are planned and conditioned. The future is not bright and full of hope but a bleak and frightening.
Much of the inspiration for the novel grew out of the advances in science during the 19th and 20th centuries. The rise of industrial nations and manufacturing are also an important influence. Huxley takes what humans perceived as great advances of their time and shows them in an ugly manner in which their purposes are now perverted. Society was also becoming more liberal and open in behaviors and thinking.
The novel opens with a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. In this laboratory/factory children are created and developed. Children are grown from ova, nourished from tubes and injections and trained behaviorally using Pavlovian methods of conditioning. Children are created and developed in two distinct ways. The first is a mass creation of fetuses from ova that can blossom into 96 organisms. The fetuses are fed and handled differently depending upon which caste it was destined to become. Alphas and Betas are the leadership of the new society. The lower caste, workers are Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Alphas and Betas receive different nutrition and conditioning, they are allowed to mature more naturally. They are subjected to education through their sleep. The others are injected with hormones and chemicals to induce rapid maturation for the purpose of work. They are not nurtured to be thinkers or creative.
The Brave New World is completely planned and balanced. There is a set population globally so that resources are abundant and not exterminated by over consumption. Everyone has their place in society. There is no need for families since children are produced in laboratories. Death occurs at age 60. Individualism no longer exists. There are reservations in inhabitable regions where the Savages live. We are introduced to them as vacation areas.
The main character, Bernard is a psychologist who specializes in sleep training. Bernard is very different from most men in his society, he is shorter, he dislikes the casual sex and he prefers to be alone. He takes Lenina with him on vacation to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico. There they meet a woman, Linda who accidentally became pregnant and through misfortune ended up staying on the Savage Reservation after a vacation and gave birth to Joh. John, is now a young man who has been raised on the Savage Reservation and has some understanding of the two worlds: The Savages and Utopia.
The comparison between the Savage Reservation and Utopia shows the stark contrast between natural mankind and community and engineered humans and their society. The Savages practice religion, experience disease, grow old and die. It is not a wonderful existence compared to the Utopian society. In the World State, everything is happy and stable. Life is peaceful and there in want of anything. There is no illness and death is peaceful and tranquil.
The World State promotes consumerism. Buying products to replace used ones keeps the economy moving forwards, there are no recessions or economic depressions. The population is prepared for their jobs through their creation and development in the hatcheries. There is no competition. The pursuit of pleasure, especially through sexual activity is expected and practiced. The population is kept happy through daily rations of a happy drug, Soma. Bernard has difficulty living in this world. Throughout the novel it is commented that his surrogate had too much “alcohol”.
John, the Savage shows the contrast between the natural world he grew up in and the ridiculousness of the perfect society finds in the Utopia. He rejects Lenina’s sexual advances calling her a “strumpet” and is horrified by the lack of compassion from hospital workers when his mother dies. John cannot cope with the perfect life and ultimately commits suicide. He had requested permission to leave London and was denied by a leader, the controller. John tells Bernard and Helmholtz, “I’m damned if I’ll go on being experimented with. Not for all of the Controllers in the world. I shall go away tomorrow too.” (Huxley 415).
John could not escape the sterility and mediocrity of this perfect world. The lessons of the novel are thought provoking and serious. Many novels that described the future, spoke of wonderful inventions and an improved humanity. In Huxley’s work, humanity is “improved” but at a very high price. Emotions, feelings and contemplation are frowned upon. Individuality and freedom of behavior is restricted. People are dosed on drugs to maintain a homeostatic state of contentment. This society is not one of happiness and satisfaction. Those feeling can only come from a sense of achievement and love. Mankind is perfect in its imperfections. Our natures are meant to be challenged. Our minds need to be able to investigate and develop opinions and thoughts. Creative expression is what makes a homo sapiens a human being. The Savages recognized the soul that is in every person whereas the World State is attempting to breed away the soul of man.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print.