Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
May 2012

Brave New World

Brave New World idolizes the perfect future. This utopia seems infallible, but the pieces do not fit together. In this world, people take the easy way out, avoiding pain, and have a way of thinking that is not compatible with human nature. Life, altogether, has no meaning. There is nothing worth living for; no family, loved ones, or even God. Is this truly utopia? In fact, it is a chaotic society in which everyone thinks they are happy. At first inspection, it seems perfect in many ways: it is carefree, problem free and depression free. All aspects of the population are controlled: number, social class, and intellectual ability are all carefully regulated. Even history is controlled and rewritten to meet the needs of the party. Stability must be maintained at all costs. In this dystopian novel, Brave New World, presents a horrifying view of a possible future in which society has become a prisoner of the very technology it hoped would save us. In Brave New World Huxley's distortion of technology, religion, and family values, is much more effective than his use of literary realism found in his depiction of a savage reservation. Through his use of distortion Huxley tells a classic tale with the theme of, be careful what you wish for because it may not truly be what you wanted. Huxley effectively uses distortion in Brave New World through his depiction of social values of the future. For example, when Barnard Marx hears somebody talking about Lenina in the locker room, he becomes upset. Leaving the building, everyone he passes recommends soma for his bad mood. In the new world, which Huxley creates, if there is even a hint of anger, the wonder drug Soma is prescribed as the remedy to the problem. A colleague, noticing your depression, would chime in with the chant, "one cubic centimetre of soma cures ten gloomy." This slogan is taught to everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Unhappiness, intellectual curiosity, disagreement, suffering - none of these feelings are allowed in the world which Huxley creates. At the first sign of unhappiness, Soma is prescribed. Emotions of all types are strictly controlled to provide stability and predictability within the population. Huxley shows the reader that drug use is becoming more and more an acceptable way out for a weak society. He is showing society that we are becoming emotionally incapable of dealing with pain and hurt. Furthermore, the students, while speaking with the director of the London Hatchery, are told at one time people were viviparous, and were disgusted and outraged. Huxley is trying to warn society that its lack of commitment and endurance will eventually be its downfall. Lack of the experience of pregnancy severs the emotional ties of the woman and her child. An emotionless society feels no guilt. In addition, Lenina, when accused of lack of promiscuity by Fanny while in the locker room, religiously denies it. Monogamy requires commitment, pain, and work. Huxley is predicting humans progressing to a society of people who are unable to focus on anything but pleasure; unable to handle the work of a commitment. He knew the road we were on would lead the wrong way. Another of the panaceas for social ills is the belief that everyone would enjoy his or her work because he or she was "made" or trained for it when young. Consequently, from birth, everyone in Brave New World is slotted to belong to a specific social and intellectual stratum. In conjunction with this idea, all births are completely planned and monitored. There are different classes of people with different intelligence and different "career plans." The social order was divided into the most highly educated, the Alpha+, and then in descending intelligence, the following divisions: Alpha, Beta, Beta -, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon,