Since its publication in 1932, Brave New World has been considered by many to be Aldous Huxleys greatest work. Most people think it is his only work but it is not. In that time this novel has been praised and condemned, dismissed and welcomed, a source of controversy, a subject for sermons, and required reading for many high school students and even college students. It has had twenty-seven printings in the United States. As of now three generations have read and discussed it. Aldous Huxley is a writer of science fiction, a writer of social commentary, a writer with prophetic vision, a writer with a tremendous depth of ideas, and a writer of satire.
Brave New World is a masterpiece of science fiction. Huxley has used his imagination greatly in employing existing scientific facts and theories to produce a classic. Few writers of science fiction have equaled Huxleys ability to make the unbelievable seem believable and to make the improbable seem probable. His own interest in science, its use and misuse, its peril and its promise, contributed to the accuracy of his presentation and to the horror of his envisioned utopia.
In A.F. 632, which is 632 years After Ford released the Model T, there is a World Society. People are made in bottles and conditioned to do predestined work. People have no family and marriage does not exist. People are taught to serve the production, to reach the states motto: Community, Identity. and Stability
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People are also made in different grades of intelligence. Bernard Marx is quite intelligent, but by an error in the Predestination Center he stayed small and weak. In this world this is unusual. Because of that hes and outcast, and is also often alone. Bernard has his own vision of Society. He will be displaced to Iceland. But before hes officially replaced he meets a pretty girl called Lenina Crowne. He takes her to a Savage Reservation where they keep all the people that still believe in the old ways and havent conformed to the world society. There, they meet John and his mother.
They take them back to the brave new world. John falls in love with Lenina. She wants to make love to him very soon; it is normal in her society. But John isnt used to that, he hits her and calls her a stumpet. Johns mother dies of too much soma, a drug that is widely manufactured to keep people happy. John is furious with the brave new world. He tries to make a riot. John and a friend are brought to Iceland. John isolates himself from the society, and starts living on his own, he wants to depend on nothing and no one. The press discovers and they chase him. John ends up committing suicide.
I believe some of what Huxleys novel is saying can be seen today. We have all turned into sheep living our lives according to the norms of society. If you step out of those norms you are shunned. Promiscuity in sexual matters has come in leaps and bounds from when this book was written. In 1932 children didnt date till they were 18. If they did go out with a member of the opposite sex there had to be a chaperone there. Now you got kids going on dates all night when their 13.
I think soma is a good example of beer and cigarettes in all countries. They are like societies way of regulating how we feel for a portion of time. They sold soma for when ever you are feeling angry or sad, whenever you feel like doing something that might not go along with society here take a soma.
I think the movie Demolition Man is a good example of a story like Brave New World. A man is frozen for a crime he did in a time that is very different from the time he is brought back in. It is very similar to how John the Savage was brought into the brave new world. John was born in the savage reservation. The other children pester him; he cant take part in the religion ceremonies, hes and outcast like Bernard. He wants to go to the modern world, but when hes there it disappoints him. This conversation that John had with the Controller, Mustapha Mond, is very powerful to me.
But I like the inconveniences.
We dont, said the controller. We prefer to do things comfortably
But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, and I want goodness. I want sin.
In fact, said Mustapha Mond, youre claiming the right to be unhappy.
All right then, said the Savage defiantly, Im claiming the right to be unhappy.
Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer, the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy, the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind. There was a long silence. I claim them all, said the Savage at last.
I think Huxley is trying to tell us that we should cherish what we have now, our freedom. Communism is a good example of the future world. World leaders in various countries will try communism till they get it right. I think the brave new world is very similar to communism. You are told what to do. You have a predestinated job for a predestinated wage that will never change in your whole life. You are either better or worse than the person standing next to you there are no traits you have in common. Everyone is equal in every way no matter what the work you do. I think Huxley wrote a very intriguing book. This book is information for anyone with a free mind. One that hasnt bended to society as the way it sees fit already. The warning is clear. This is what it could be like. Its not totally going to be the same but this is the current path. This is a scary satire of my utopia. I dont know really know what Huxley was thinking but I hope this is not the way he wants it to be. Because if it is freethinking is lost.
