Hanna Pauline
The World State
In the World State, the words God, Lord and Jesus are substituted by the name Ford. Henry
Ford (1863-1947) was an American industrialist. His famous Ford T-model was the first mass produced car model. Ford sponsored the development of the assembly line, and making mass production a way of producing cheaper products in a faster way. That the citizens of the World State refers to Ford instead of God, is an important point in understanding how the World State has developed its structure and way of living. “Ending is better than mending”, is a phrase the civilized is conditioned to believe. This can refer to products, to keep the wheels of the society going. But also to human lives, if a World State citizen is old and can’t contribute to the society in a productive way, it won’t take long time before that person is sent to die. Religion has been replaced by the importance of efficient production and technology.
-All crosses had their tops cut and became T’s. There was also a thing called God. (p. 52)
There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality. (p. 52)

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The Reservation
The community Malpais lives in the Reservation, which is located in New Mexico. When
Bernard and Lenina visit Malpais, one of the first things they see is a religious ritual performed by inhabiters of the village. The villagers are singing and dancing around in circles to the beats of drums, and then they continue with putting up pictures of a man on a cross and an eagle. The ceremony ends with a village boy being whipped until he becomes unconscious due to pain. The rituals described in the Reservation resemble the rituals to the indians living there at the time Huxley wrote Brave New World (1930s). This shows that the Reservation is not affected by the Fordian development.
The World State
Soma is a very important part of an everyday life in the World State. It is a drug most people are addicted to. Because the average citizen in the World State doesn’t think there are any defects to the drug, they are encouraged to use it on a daily basis. Soma makes people happy and jolly, and if you take a greater amount it will send you on holiday. Throughout the book, conditioning phrases about soma are mentioned. These are some of the most mentioned phrases:
A gramme is better than a damn.
One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy.
A gramme in time saves nine.
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Everybody’s happy nowadays.
When the individual feels, the community reels.
I can take a gramme and only am.
In the World State, soma is in many ways a substitute to religion. Instead of solving an emotional problem by finding support in a God, the citizens take soma to forget their problems. Soma is referred to as having all the advantages of religion (mentioned:
Christianity) and alcohol, and none of their defects.
Religion is often something personal that is a part of creating an individual. In the World
State, the community has no benefits from individuality. If a citizen would ever feel something different from what they are conditioned to believe about their feelings, they are the same way conditioned to take soma in that very moment.
On page 53, it is written that you can take a holiday from reality and come back without a mythology. This also refers to religion, and that you solve your problems by not believing in something bigger than yourself or in your own soul but by going on holiday, a place where

Hanna Pauline you cannot hear any of the doubtful or negative comments and thoughts about life and society.
The Reservation
John is the character from the Reservation that is the most written about in Brave New
World. The views an average Savage will have on drugs and mood are at some points different from John’s. This is because his mother Linda has conditioned him, and he is treated as an outcast amongst the other savages in the Reservation.
The Reservation does not offer the uncivilized soma . Several of the savages drink mescal.
Pope gives this to Linda, she says drinking it made her forget what she was ashamed of in the moment, but made everything worse the day after. When Linda gets back to the World
State, she kills herself with soma . As she is conceived in a bottle, and very well conditioned this reflects the phrase: “A gramme in time saves nine.” Linda took twenty grammes a day.
The views on death in the Reservation are different from the World State’s because of individuality. When John sees his mother killing herself with soma, he reacts to the incident very differently from the other civilized people. He is again alienated in another society.
John refuses to take soma
: “Don’t take that horrible stuff. [...] Poison to soul as well as body.” (p. 167)

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John understands how soma contributes to controlling the society in the World State, and sees the contrasts between his own beliefs and the way of living in the World State. In his conversation with Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, they discuss soma and the effects of it:
-But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. “In fact” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.” “All right, then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” (p. 186)
The World State
In the World State, the population is conditioned to view Ford as Jesus or an idol. This is to promote efficiency in producing. When mass production was created, it allowed things to be equal and not personified or special. This way of thinking also concerns the way of viewing individuals as insignificant and focusing on the society as a whole; “Everyone belongs to everyone else”. The society relies on the population being conditioned not to need God:
-"One of the numerous things in heaven and earth that these philosophers didn't dream about was this" (he waved his hand), "us, the modern world. 'You can only be independent of God while you've got youth and prosperity; independence won't take you safely to the end.' Well, we've now got youth and prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God. 'The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses.'
But there aren't any losses for us to compensate; religious sentiment is superfluous. And why should we go hunting for a substitute for youthful desires, when youthful desires never fail? A substitute for distractions, when we go on enjoying all the old fooleries to the very last? What need have we of repose when our minds and bodies continue to delight in activity? of consolation, when we have soma ? of something immovable, when there is the social order?" (p. 182)
In this quote we can again see the significance of soma , and how it is a substitute to religion.
From a young age, children in the World State are brought to Hospitals of the Dying. They are supposed to have a fun time whilst staying there, and they are given ice cream. This is a part of the conditioning which makes them associate death with happiness.
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“They say that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years.” (p. 182)
This shows us that one of the reasons for conditioning the population to associate death with happiness is to prevent them from turning to religion.

Hanna Pauline
The Reservation
The Reservation does not have conditioning in the same way as the Word State. However, in all societies there are forms of brainwashing, especially in religious and political ones.
That the young boy during the Savages’ ritual is willing to be whipped on the back until he passes out due to the pain, while everyone around is celebrating, is a form of conditioning.
If a person sees this from a small age, it becomes casual and the right way to sacrifice yourself to religion. Viviparous relationships can also have a significant effect on brainwashing (the Reservation’s word for conditioning); children believe almost everything their parents tell them. Parents can be idols for their children in the same way the civilisation view Ford.
-“ I ought to have been there.” The young man went on. “Why wouldn’t they let me be the sacrifice? I’d have gone round ten times -twelve, fifteen. Palowhtiwa only got as far as seven. They could have had twice as much blood from me. The multitudinous seas incarnadine.” (p. 97)
-The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"
"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the
Controller sarcastically. […] One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons – that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to." (p. 183)
The World State
In the World State many aspects of the daily life are linked to sex and sexuality. The way the people are conditioned to play erotic games from a small age makes it acceptable to have sex with several people at the same time, without having a strong relationship or knowing the other person. “Everyone belongs to everyone else”. This is also due to the fact that there is no religion; no one needs to be married before having intercourse. The individual is insignificant, and what matters is the happiness of the whole population. The acceptance of having sex with anyone and everyone changes the population into having a closer relationship to the World State than to any other individual. They also have orgies as a casual enjoyment.
Sex makes people happy, but relationships are not stabile enough to be accepted in the
World State. The fact that no one is parents makes them more youthful and irresponsible.
They can have as many relationships as they want, without having to think about consequences or burdens.
-“I really do think you ought to be careful. It’s such horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man. At forty, or thirty-five, it wouldn’t be so bad. But at your age, Lenina!
No, it really won’t do. And you know how strongly the D.H.C. objects to anything intense or long-drawn. Four months of Henry Foster, without having another man - why, he’d be furious if he knew ...” (p. 43)

Hanna Pauline
The Reservation
When Linda came to the Reservation, she was unknowingly breaking norms in the village’s society. Linda was used to having relationships with several people, without feeling attached to them in any way. In the Reservation, monogamy is the norm and mistresses are not accepted. When the women in the village found out about Linda sleeping with their men, they came to punish her. Linda doesn’t have sympathy for the women, because she doesn’t have understanding of how it is to be married and in love.
Religions emphasises on the morality of being faithful to your partner. Emotions can lead to instability, for example when a person is in love with a person that is unfaithful to them.
This kind of instability is likely to happen in the Reservation, but very unlikely in the World
State.
Lenina and John’s relationship is a good example of the clash between the Reservation and the World State. Lenina wants to have sex with John quite early in their relationship, while
John is not used to this kind of behaviour and finds Lenina promiscuous (bad connotation).
John is frightened by Leninas promiscuity, at calls her a strumpet several times.
Lenina liked the drums. Shutting her eyes she abandoned herself to their soft repeated thunder, allowed it to invade her consciousness more and more completely, till at last there was nothing left in the world but that one deep pulse of sound. It reminded her

Hanna Pauline reassuringly of the synthetic noises made at Solidarity Services and Ford's Day celebrations. "Orgy-porgy," she whispered to herself. These drums beat out just the same rhythms. (p. 94)
This shows us a connection between the Reservation and the World State. However, what the drums beat reminds Lenina of are orgy porgies. This is something sexual and it is as close as she gets to religion.
In several parts of the novel, it is possible to interpret that Huxley is including opinions or knowledge from his own culture and society.
One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons – that's philosophy. People believe in
God because they've been conditioned to. (p. 183)
Is Huxley referring to brainwashing in his own society? He wants to point out that an outsider from a society can see faults and errors better than a person that is happy in a society, which does not look for faults or is brainwashed.
On page 37, Huxley also refers to the culture of sex and relationship in his own society, and contrasts it with how different the way of living in the World State is.
In the 1930s, it was normal to be married before having sex. Religion was an important part of his society, emphasising on Christianity. It was essential to be religious, to be a good
Christian, for being accepted in several parts of the society.
As it is not correct to say that Huxley is predicting the future with Brave New World, the
World State does have some similarities with the western world today:
Many people are not religious, you don’t have to be married to have sex, many people choose not to have children because of freedom and you can sleep with more than one person in a lifetime. The acceptance of not being religious and not being married is much bigger today than in the world Huxley lived in. However, today there are in many ways harder to be conditioned because of the many different impressions and opinions we get from the media, family, friends and education. It is also possible to relate the western world today to the Reservation. It is not accepted to be unfaithful and it is not accepted in most of the society to have several partners at the same time.
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Hanna Pauline
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