Blog #1 - Brave New World

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley


Brave New World was a novel written about technology’s affect on society (in a negative way); it is an example of a dystopia. Aldous Huxley used this novel as a way to communicate to the World what might happen if society continues down the path that it was traveling down in 1932, when the novel was published. It is a depressing book that takes place in the future where there is one world government that holds all the power and limits the freedom of the citizens of the World. The citizens are divided into different castes based on intelligence, which is decided and limited at birth. Aldous Huxley also takes into consideration the use of drugs, or in the Brave New World what is called Soma. Soma is the way the people forget about anything bad occurring in their life and is similar to drugs that exist in the real world, minus the side effects. The people in this Brave New World are living in a state of ignorance because of the government’s power and ability to control every aspect of a person’s life and believe they are happy in doing whatever they are told because they were brainwashed to think so at birth. Aldous Huxley is exhibiting all this in his novel to expose the dark side of the world and help create a change. The novel is written so that it the Brave New World comes off in an appalling manner, while The Reservation is a place for sympathy. Through this you can see where the author’s values lay.

The novel follows a man named Bernard Marx who is an alpha male but doesn’t fit in because of his stature, which makes him insecure and leads him to realize his unhappiness with the World. Bernard becomes fascinated with the character Lenina who defies society’s expectations as much as a brain washed person can. The two then go on to The Reservation, where people live as natural, indigenous people. On The Reservation, where they are disgusted, Bernard meets Linda and her son John, who were accidentally left behind on The Reservation. Bernard then gets permission to bring them back to the Brave New World, where John becomes a star. The novel then goes on to describe John’s relationship with the Brave New World and the interactions that occur in this World.

Huxley visits many different themes in the novel such as Brave New World being controlled by technology and all under one powerful government, a society built on consumerism, and happiness through ignorance. The theme a society built on consumerism shows how buying makes the world go round. In this community typical phrases that would use God like “My God” are instead substituted with phrases like “My Ford” which shows the effect Henry Ford has had on the society. Henry Ford is best known for the creation of the assembly line, a systematic operation involving creating goods where every step is simple and small and can be done by anybody. The society uses this idea as a guideline for the way they live. For the theme happiness through ignorance the citizens are brainwashed from birth, an example of the controlling government, so that what they do makes them happy. They are taught to work to buy things, and a balance of this is what keeps society going. When the people feel any unhappiness at all they turn to Soma so that they forget all problems that may exist. This theme greatly relates to the power of the government who keeps the people stupid so that the world can be controlled. Even from birth, where they are separated into different castes and raised the way is a way of control.