Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Fun Facts
His full name is Aldous Leonard Huxley.
He was born on July 26, 1894.
His family members were prominent figures of the English
ruling class and intellectual elite.
His father was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley (great biologist
who helped to develop the theory of evolution).
His mother was the sister of Mrs. Humphrey Ward (novelist).
His mother was the niece of Matthew Arnold (poet).
His mother was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold (famous
educator and headmaster of Rugby School who also became a
character in the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays.
Huxley’s ancestry “brought down on him a weight of intellectual
authority and a momentum of moral obligations.”
---Gerald Heard (longtime friend)
Aldous Huxley
When he was 16 years old, he was a student at the prestigious school of
Eton.
He suffered an eye illness which almost made him blind.
He was able to attend Oxford University and graduate with honors.
He was not able to fight in World War I. or engage in scientific work.
He later became an author and screenwriter.
He published his first book, which was a collection of poems in 1916.
He also married Maria Nys in 1912.
They had one child named Matthew.
The family traveled to London and Europe in the 1920s.
The family also traveled around the world in 1925 and 1926.
His experiences in these places provided material to be used in Brave
New World (ie. Benito Mussolini led an authoritarian government that
fought against birth control in order to produce manpower for the war)
Aldous Huxley
Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931. This was after WWI.
and at the onslaught of the Great Depression. This was also
before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and Joseph
Stalin became responsible for the deaths of millions of people
in Germany.
It took him four months to write.
It was published three years after his best-seller, Point Counter
Point.
He also wrote six books of stories, essays, poems, and plays in
those three years. He would go on to write other books and
produce 47 before he died.
In the 1950s he became interested in LSD. He took LSD over a
dozen times in 10 years. It is said that he was looking for a drug
that would allow him to escape from himself.
He died on November 22, 1963 (the same day that President John
F. Kennedy was assassinated).
Important Terms
Utopia: Imaginary; indefinite place of ideal perfection
(especially in laws, government, and social conditions)
Are people really happy?
Totalitarianism: The political concept that the citizen should
be totally subject to an absolute state authority
Caste System: division of society based on differences of
wealth,
inherited rank or privilege, profession, occupation, or race
Caste System in Brave New World
Huxley was influenced by the
previously established caste
system in Hinduism, which was
abolished in 1949.
Caste systems were created by
predestination and their function
in society.
The caste system in Brave New
World includes 5 major castes
named after Greek letters (ie.
Alpha to Epsilon)
There are differences in the
members of castes (ie. outer
appearance, intelligence,
livelihood).
As a result, everyone is happy
and stability is achieved.
Introduction
Thomas (The Director)
Administrator in the year 623AF of the Central
London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The
Director runs a futuristic baby-factory where the
assembly-line production of genetic castes is
streamlined and controlled, and maturing
youngsters are conditioned to be happy about
their state-allotted roles in life.
Structure
10 World Controllers
Alphas (ruling elite)
Alphas (elite)
Betas
Gammas
Deltas
Epsilons
Function of Caste System
The society in Brave New World
seeks to create happiness for
everyone. Everyone is happy to
belong to his or her caste. The caste
system is needed to cover every little
part of the processes that form the
society (ie. work, housing, etc.).
Everyone works for everyone.