- “Brave New World” -

By: Aldous Huxley

Author: Aldous Huxley was born in 1894, and died in 1963. He first went to Eton, and

then to Oxford. He was a brilliant man, and became a succesful writer of short stories in

the twenties and thirties. He also wrote essays and novels, like 'Brave New World'. The

first novels he wrote were comments on the young generation, with no goal whatsoever,

that lived after WW I. Before he became the writer as we know him, he worked as a

journalist and a critic of drama. In his books, especially the later ones, he sometimes

presents himself as a teacher or a philosopher, to literate us as readers. Next to novels,

essays and short stories he also wrote poems, biographies, plays, political/sci-fi books,

travel books and even a record of his experiments with drugs. 'Brave New World' was

first published in 1932, and has been reprinted many times after that.

Main Characters: Bernard Marx Lenina Crowne John Savage (Son of Tomakin, Bernard's

boss) Helmholtz Watson

Huxley tries to make a statement with this book, he tries to make something clear to the

reader. To do this he uses characters, but they're insignificant to what his real intentions

are, he merely uses them to express his ideas, therefor their characteristics and ideas are

not important in the whole picture. There is hardly any charaterisation in the book to

illustrate the individuals.

Theme: In the foreword Huxley states: "The theme of 'Brave New World' is not the

advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human

individuals." The picture of the world given in the book describes the condition of the

human individual in a western civilization in a 'near' future. The society has turned into a

well oiled machine, in which everything is controlled, even the future profession of the

individual is determined before birth. It's a society in which the human being only serves

a sociological and scientifical purpose, the individual thought is overruled by one big

totalitarian state, likewise emotion and initiative are ruled out. Giving birth is forbidden,

sex is the most normal thing on earth, and even drugs is taken with the routine and

amount of normal meals. Only a small group of the real man exists, be it's far outside the

'civilized' world. John Savage is one of them, representitive of individual freedom and

thought, torn between two societies. Huxley warns for material and technical

dependence, that will eventually bring destruction upon mankind. Characteristics: The

story is set in our world, in the future (some 600 years from now). It is in the year 632

after Ford. Society has turned into a controlled state, individual thought is bannished, and

the human being is only on this earth to serve a sociological and scientifical purpose.

There's no space for free speech, emotion or even literature that reminds of the free spirit.

The narrator is omniscient, as said before, Huxley expresses his political and scientifical

ideas through the characters, therefor he sometimes 'steps' in to their heads, but mostly

tells the story as he was telling their history. There is symbolism in the book, once again

Huxley warns us as readers not to grow to dependent of material wealth and science,

there's a moral to the stroy, "watch out or you'll end up like this...". The genre of the book

is that of alternative realism, but as it spreads certain ideas, it's also called a 'novel of

ideas'. The title is quite easy to explain: it comes from a work by Shakespreare, 'The

Tempest'. John once quotes it when he still thinks that this new world is only wonder and

beauty... The book is written in an easy readable way, no real difficult words, and not

much hard philosofical, mind twisting passages to overcome. The climax of the story is

when Bernard has picked up John and his mother, and suddenly has a certain grip on his

boss, who was about to fire him (John is the unlawful son of his boss). After that he also

gets the idea that his earlier urge to something individual has it's roots in true freedom,

and thus he wants to be free. But instead he uses John to get attention and 'respect' from

his fellow Alphas.

Summary: In the year 632 after Ford, the new Director of the Central London Hatchery

and Conditioning Centre explains the functionality of his plant to a group of students. He

tells them with pride that what they're watching is the process of becoming a human

being, he shows them the different stages of growth: First the eggs are taken from the

female body and fertilized in bottles (In Vitro Fertilization). The bottles contain a special

blood surrogate with nutritive solutions for each of the (later) social classes, from

Alpha-plus to Epsilon-minus. Here the future men and women's social status is

determined. Thanks to Bokanovsky each egg could produce as many as 96 exactly

identical human beings, therefor suited for standard tasks in society. Mass production is

the key word that ensures everybody of material welfare (developed by the great Ford). A

drug called 'soma' solves all the mental troubles man could encounter, it induceses

forgetfulness. No individuality whatsoever has remained, 'Community, Identity, Stability'

has become the slogan of the new world. When the babies are decantated (=born), they

are trained in their predestined place in the community. The students become very

impressed by the well oiled machine society stands for these days. Their great admiration

goes out to Mustapha Mond, one of the ten controllers. He tells them the gruesome story

of the once, long ago, so called family, with the father and mother, and that sex was

something intimate, not shared as a social obligation with the whole world like

nowadays... Few people are not quite happy with the new society, they long for

individuality and so on. Bernard is one of those people, Hhe is actually somewhat similar

to the pre-Ford man, be it that he was created in a bottle, in which, according to the

gossip, by mistake too much alcohol had been put, therefor he showed a slight difference

to the other people in his class. He adores Lenina Crowne, a female worker on the same

plant, in an old fashioned way, and wanted her for himself, and not shared with various

other men. Bernard and Lenina go on a rocket trip to the Savage Reservation in New

Mexico, on their holiday. In this region of the new world primitive society and the old

fasioned lifestyle were preserved in the interest of science. They meet John, one of the

few white men among the indians. John tells them that he is the son of a man called

Tomakin, he had visited the Reservation too, accompanied by a girl, many years ago.

Tomakin had returned to civilization without the girl. Without birth control she gave

birth to a son, John, who grew up among the indians. John taught himself to read and the

only learning he had was what he had picked up from reading Shakespeare. Bernard

guesses that John was thus the unlawful son of his boss, the director of the Hatcheries,

who once had been to New Mexico, a long time ago, and returned without his female

companion. Bernard invites John and his abominable mother Linda to come to the

civilized world with him, he wonderes what effect that might have upon the savage (and

his own personal life). John is eager to see the wonderful world of which he had been

told by his mother, and he is interested in Lenina. Bernard faces disgrace, back in

London, for the director publicly accused him of unorthodox behaviour, a great crime.

Bernard introduces Linda and John as a counteract, and a happy family reunion it is...

not! The director has to resign and disappear, this was an embarrassement too great. John

has become an attraction, with which Bernard lures popular people to meet him, John is

his discovery. The people come eagerly, although they didn't exactly come to meet

Bernard, who they still consider a strange 'mistake'. The ideas John had about civilization

are shattered by the lack of culture and humanity, all of which Shakespeare had taught

him the value. His love for Lenina mostly disappeares when she rudely just offered

herself to him, he wanted her for himself, and he wanted to conquer her as a lover

(courtly love and stuff...). He had gotten his ideas of love from reading 'Romeo and

Julliet' and flees from her in terror when she throws herself onto him. Linda, John's

mother, is glad to be back and enjoyes the renewed comforts and luxury to the maxx,

sometimes she is gone for days on her 'soma-trips'. Later she takes an overdosis and dies,

right in John's presence. In the hospital John is enraged by the lack of humanity, for they

show 'their children' the dead, to prepare them for their own death, that it wasn't a bad

thing... John shows that day's visitors otherwise. John starts a mutiny among the workers

about their weekly amount of soma, but the crowd cools down when becomes clear that

they won't get any if they don't stop. He is arrested and led before the great Mustapha

Mond, who explaineds to John, in the presence of Bernard and Helmholtz Watson

(Bernard's friend and the only one who understood John), on which basis society rests.

Stability is the pillar, and all threats (as arts, beauty and religion) have to be abolished.

The communal happiness has to carefully be preserved, even science is a threat... John

doesn't agree and sais he has the right to grow ugly, old and become ill. Mustapha lets

him go. John leaves London, to pick up his old way of life again, outside London in the

country. But people come to visit him, to view him and talk about him as a weird

specimen. Reporters and sensation seekers don't leave hime alone and keep pestering

him. To forget about his beloved Lenina he whips himself with a strong twig, but when

she comes to visit him too, he gets so enraged that he whips HER to death. After that he

hangs himself...

- The End -