Table of Contents
A Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, is a frightening and conflicting work that contains the purpose of promoting individuality, freedom, and self expression. Composed in between the Great Wars, after the British Industrial Revolution, and at the end of the Great Depression, the political driven novel is aimed towards young adults and adults to spread this message: freedom of thought and not conforming to set societal norms.
The British Industrial Revolution in 1760 brought enlightenment, economic expansion, and advanced technology to Europe. A key component of the novel’s society is the civilization’s dependence on advanced technology. All the technology in A Brave New World’s society is government regulated and precise like a totalitarian regime. Without the highly advanced technology the society would not be possible, which is what Huxley is trying to warn readers of. Too much technology gives the government too much power over the people.
The novel mentions a massive world dilema: caste systems. The Great Depression, which lasted a whole decade, is connected to the novel by the division of social class. The gap between the upper, middle, and low classes drastically widened, leaving the middle and lower classes bankrupt and starving while the upper class lived in luxury. People affected by the Great Depression scavenged for anything they could find while the rich lived comfortably. The caste system in India for example, the concept of being untouchable, dirty, and inferior, is similar to how Epsilons are looked down upon. Epsilons in the novel are the exact equivalent when compared to the infamous Untouchables in India. All the members (excluding those like Bernard) of the castes have been brainwashed since birth to find comfort and counterfeit bliss in their caste, no matter how high or low they may be.
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Huxley Writes
Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able… (Huxley 35).
The three lower class systems, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are created to happily serve the two superior castes: Alphas and Betas. Both India and A Brave New World’s societies share a few things in common, such as not being able to change class, ever. Both are damned to the same fate.
Young adults are exactly in the middle stage of discovering their passions, career choice, and deciding which path to take down the road of life, which younger people are not considering yet. Young people are the perfect audience because they are the future of the world and the generation that will push certain ideals, philosophies, and agendas forward. They are the people that promote change – for better or for worse.
The specific genre that Huxley’s message is composed in, a novel, is the most effective way to make his philosophy and his ideals known to the world, leaving his message up to the reader’s interpretation, and most importantly to provoke readers into deep thought about who they really are and their place in today’s society. There is no way better to convey a philosophy then through a story.
Huxely presents logos in the novel with the consistent and addictive use of soma (drugs) as a coping mechanism to deal with misfortune and negative feelings. Soma takes away the memory and the feeling of having depressing or stressful emotions, like drugs that people use today to cope with their unfortunate circumstances. Taking a gramme of soma puts a person on a superficial cloud nine. In A Brave New World, it is ideal for the government to keep all the people, no matter what caste they are part of, happy and stress free by any means necessary. The logic behind the drugs is simple, force the Epsilons and Deltas and Gammas to forget about their hardship and misfortune to keep peace and order within the society.
If they cannot recall why they feel sadness, there is no issue. James L. McGaugh, director of UC Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory says, ‘We’ve learned that if you can prevent the system from working, give a drug that blocks the action of stress hormones (upon the amygdala and brain), then you may be able to prevent the influence of making stronger memories.’ Blocking away unpleasant memories and emotions with soma makes the system of A Brave New World’s society possible. Being under the influence of drugs removes one’s aspirations and feelings and dreams, things which are essential to being human.
Huxley uses situations in the novel to appeal to his readers pathos by making them feel outraged about the society and its practices for keeping control and order. The society exercises the usage of death conditioning and shocking children to erect trepidation and disgust out of the audience. In chapters one and two, the Controller gives a group of scholars a tour of the lab where the embryos are created, where the caste fate is decided. The Controller gives the scholars a brief explanation of how Epsilons, Gammas, and Deltas are created: the change in rotation and temperature the embryos are kept. For a fetus to grow properly and healthy, it must receive a sufficient amount of oxygen. By reducing the amount of oxygen, the embryo does not mature properly, thus the fetus develops disabilities. The embryos with reduced oxygen are the three lowest castes in the novel. The government gains power over the members of the lower castes by giving Epsilons, Gammas, and Deltas disabilities.
“Reducing the number of revolutions per minute,’ Mr. Foster explained. ‘The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par.’ Again he rubbed his hands (Huxley 24). This quote from chapter one gives readers a glimpse of the frightening precision of the society and a glimpse into the inhuman practices of the government. Texts such as this is what triggers heavy emotion and thought from readers. The thought of deliberately starving the embryos of oxygen for control erects fear and outrage out of readers.
Huxley applies ethos to the story by the switching of narrators in the first chapter. In Chapter three, a mix of male and female characters are each discussing separately their sexual status and feelings. Lenina and her friend, Fanny, are discussing her dangerous monogamous feelings, Bernard and Henry Foster discuss Lenina’s sexuality, and the Controller continues to talk with the Alpha Plus scholars about the creation of humans and conditioning. With the continued switching of narrators throughout the dialouge, readers can see the different views of the society’s standards of love and sex and the character’s differing opinions and situations. Henry Foster specifically boasts about how wonderful Lenina is sexually and says that any man must “have her”. Fanny talks Lenina into being more promiscuous. The Controller continues giving the tour of human creation. This certain section of dialogue gives readers input on human creation and upbringing and how it applies to their sexuality.
Throughout the text Huxley uses a serious tone to drive his purpose and agenda. There is little to zero figurative language used in the entire novel because A Brave New World has a serious setting. His usage of syntax and diction is minimalistic as well. However, Huxley creates a vivid picture of the setting by his detailed descriptions of the events taking place, the creation of humans in the test tubes, the Savage Reservation, and the manipulation of the castes. Huxley’s descriptive use of imagery defines the current situation and setting that the characters are currently in, such as when Bernard and Lenina visit the Savage Reservation and John sees Lenina for the first time.
‘Oh!’ He gave a gasp and was silent, gaping. He had seen, for the first time in his life, the face of a girl whose cheeks were not the colour of chocolate or dogskin, whose hair was auburn and permanently waved, and whose expression (amazing novelty!) was one of benevolent interest. Lenina was smiling at him; such a nice-looking boy, she was thinking, and a really beautiful body. The blood rushed up into the young man’s face; he dropped his eyes, raised them again for a moment only to find her still smiling at him, and was so much overcome that he had to turn away and pretend to be looking very hard at something on the other side of the square (Huxley 111).
In this excerpt from the text, Huxley writes with heavy detail about the lust and attraction that John experiences for the first time and the same attraction that Lenina shares him. Huxley compares Lenina’s features to the other native women with chocolate and dog skin because she is nothing like he has ever seen before. His use of comparisons illuminate the differences between Lenina and the native women, such as her white skin compared to the native’s dark chocolate skin. Comparing Lenina’s skin to food and animals drives the point of the excerpt home: Lenina is exotic.
Readers can interpret the purpose of A Brave New World in numerous ways. The novel’s countless warnings are clear. The dangers of highly advanced technology, the unachievable perfect utopia, complete government control, and the loss of freedom and individuality. Huxley presents his purpose through heavy detail and description and applying to the readers’ logos, pathos, and ethos. Huxley cohesively combines all the techniques together to create a vividly terrifying novel that strikes fear and sadness and deep thought into readers. With all the devastatingly dangerous components of the novel combined together, an equivalent to the constricting, suffocating, and miserable prison of A Brave New World is terrifyingly possible.
