Aldous Huxley's Brave New World Revisited Essay

Submitted By cevans06
Words: 1579
Pages: 7

Courtney Evans
Brave New World
May 14, 2013

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley opens up in 632 A.F.- this is seven centuries after the 20th century. At this point in time, they went by the caste system. The caste system was divided by different groups of people or castes. Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Alphas and betas were as the top of the caste system, they were known as the leaders or thinkers, like scientists or politicians. The gammas, deltas, and epsilons were at the bottom of the system; they were the world’s working classes. During the time of the caste system, they had a drug called soma. Soma was a drug that was given to every member of the caste system, they would never feel pain nor would they even go unhappy.
The novel opens at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. The director of hatchery is there with a group of boys giving them a tour of the facility. They show how an assembly line is used to create embryos, using the latest scientific advancements. They watch the process to produce more babies and watch the process of separation of embryos into various castes. The world controller of western Europe “Mustapha Mand” comes meet the boys and tells them about how it used to be when people; when people used to be parents and have kids with a live birth. He says that this led families to emotions that affected their happiness and stability. After the war and economic crisis, people finally allowed world reformers to seize control. The reformers stabilized society with the caste system and use of “soma”. A couple of moments, Bernard are a short dark haired alpha, which has a crush on Lenina. Lenina has been dating Henry Foster for months, but sine long term relationships are discouraged I the caste system, she agrees to go out with Bernard. Bernard and Lenina go to the savage reservations, where they meet John. John tells them that his mother Linda left the reservation 20 years ago. John wants to learn all about the utopian world. After a conversation with John, Bernard and Lenina find out that Linda is the woman who henry left at the reservation because she got pregnant and that is frowned upon in the caste system. Bernard tries to use this against Henry to avoid going to Iceland, and receives an approval to go back to London.
When he returns, he meets with Henry. Henry publicly embarrasses him and tells him he must go to Iceland. Bernard’s laughs as he introduces Henry to Linda and John. Henry is so humiliated that he ends up resigning. Bernard quickly becomes famous for knowing John Savage. He starts to date numerous women and becomes very arrogant. Meanwhile, Lenina develops a crush on John and while talking John tells her he loves her. Lenina gets so excited and wants to sleep with him right then and there and he gets extremely angry and starts to hit and chase her. In the midst of their fight, he gets interrupted with a phone call. Linda has overdosed on soma and is in the hospital. John blames himself for her death because when she awakes in the hospital she chokes and dies. Once he leaves the hospital, he begins to see hundreds of identical twins. They are all waiting in line for their daily dose of soma. Johns gets angry and decides he wants to make a change in society. He starts going on a rage and throwing out all of the soma. The deltas angrily start to attack john. Bernard and Helmholtz receive a phone call saying to go to the hospital. When they arrive, they see him in the middle of a mob. Helm laughs and joins, while Bernard gets too scared and watches.
The three men are then forced to go and see Mr. Mond where he tells them hey must go to an island where they have a more individualistic view on society compared to the society in London. Mustapha and John go back and forth arguing, when Mustapha finally tells him, “you are claiming the right to be unhappy”. Bernard and Helmsworth go to the island, but john refuses to go. He ends up running away to an abandoned