Brave New World, Aldous Huxely
Leah Bennett
The novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is an insightful and sometimes
terrifying look into the future. It tells the tale of Bernard, a mundane, ordinary guy, who
follows the rules, but knows there is something more. In such a world, where babies are
engineered in test tubes, with grades of intelligence, Bernard is a little unusual. Some
believe that his tube was accidentally injected with alcohol-surrogate, which makes one
dull-witted. The truth is actually the opposite. Bernard is of above average intelligence
for his caste, and, like many today, seems a little weird and repellant to the masses as a
result. Bernard along with the help of a vacuous girl Lenina, stumble upon real life.
Someone who was not engineered in a test tube, who has grown up oblivious to the
modern technologies of of their world. You see, in this “brave new world” there is never
any emotion. All things that cause drama or sentiment have been removed from life thus
creating a world free of problems. (This is made possible by the help of a little while pill,
soma, that causes instant happiness like alcohol or drugs, but without any such harmful
side effects.) Through the comparisons between what the savage John knows and this
futuristic world, as well as the alternative to religion, does the reader understand that
this world has been engineered to better the lives of the people. As a race, human
beings are miserable.Though the theme of the book may be a far cry from the what the
future will be like, the overarching theme is inherently true: Human life is miserable, and
we’re all better off with a little soma.
Bernard hates the way life is. He is not as tall as all the other alphas or generally
as attractive. He never gets the vacuous girls he wants, until Lenina agrees to go out
with him. She is a beautiful and known for being a particularly excellent lover and
particularly pneumatic. The two travel to New Mexico, where they come into contact
with people, who are so primitive and grow old, and don’t know the luxury of being
eternally emotionless. There they meet John who is a sort of a half breed. Linda, John’s
mother, and a man who is a high powered figure known as the Director went there for a
vacation much like Lenina and Bernard. The misfortune struck when Linda was
accidentally left behind and happened to be pregnant (an unusual occurrence). So this
is how John comes about, born to parents of this New World, but growing up in the
primitive, native world in New Mexico. Bernard and Lenina bring John and Linda back
with them, but John has a hard time assimilating. He is used to the hardship of life,
alcoholism, bullying, violence, etc. John is definitely not fit for this futuristic society, he
thinks to much, puts too much value into the hardship of life.
John experiences many things that he’s not used to. All things that take the
meaning out of life. There is no family life, that causes too much drama. “Mother” is a
bad word. There is no partnership, everyone belongs to everyone in the ways of sex or
relationships. There is also very little education. People are taught the skills they need
for their profession. Back in New Mexico, Linda was trying to educate John, but all she
knew about was additives in the test tubes of babies, because she was a test tube
injector. She couldn’t even explain the reasoning behind it. Eventually, she gave up and
found a book of Shakespeare, which John educated himself with. One can imagine the
culture shock when Lenina took John to the feelies, a kind of movie take appeals to all
the senses, with a plot just as vapid and black and white as society. Then there’s the
enchantment of soma, a miracle drug that boosts the spirits but has no harmful effects.
Once Linda gets back she goes into a soma slumber, in which she takes so much that
she goes into pleasant unconsciousness. This does accelerate her death, but how else
Brave New World, Aldous Huxely
Leah Bennett
is she supposed to cope with the horror of life with the savages. The soma, the feelies,
the lack of family and meaningful relationships, and education are all ways that this
society has done away with unhappiness and displeasure, in order to make life better.
One interesting thing about the creative mind behind this brave new world is that
Huxley apparently felt that religion could not be totally done away with in the future. This
is exhibited by the weekly Solidarity Services that all citizens are required to attend.
These entail some group singing, followed by some group canoodling. It’s as though the
people who have built this society worked so hard to take out all the things that would
cause unnecessary emotion, but there still needed to be an outlet for the spiritual side of
people. Of course, it is so like these people to desecrate religion by mixing it with sex.
Another strange reference to religion that is made often throughout this book is in
reference to Ford. They use his name as an expletive, as we might use God. How
interesting that they worship (in the loosest way) the creator of the assembly line. This is
in great contrast to what John has grown up with. In New Mexico there was a strange
mix of native religion and Christianity. He is accustomed to prayer and worship. Though
the book never goes into Johns interaction with or reaction to the Solidarity Services,
I’m sure he would be totally shocked and appalled (as any sane person should). But,
alas, it’s all in the name of uniformity and stability. As the leader of this area of society
Mustapha Mond says, “You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth and
prosperity right to the end.” (Huxley 233) These people have got youth and prosperity
adn so they don’t need God, per se, but they do need some other outlet, however
meaningless it really is. “...once you began admitting explanations in terms of purpose-well, you don’t know what the result might be. It was the sort of idea that might easily
decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes--make them lose faith in
happiness as the Sovereign Good and take believing, instead, that the goal was
somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of
life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some enlargement of knowledge. Which
was, the Controller reflected, quite possibly true. But not, in the present circumstances,
admissible.” (177)
After John caused a scene after his mother’s death by soma, in which he threw a
days supply of soma, intended for some delta twins, out the window. John, Bernard, and
their friend Helmhotz get called in to talk to the controller himself, Mustapha Mond. This
experience is quite an honor, because all of these men are more intelligent than
average, but only in the presence of the controller is the display of this intelligence really
safe. This meeting is very telling as to why society has cut out emotion and connection.
The controller explains it like this, “The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get
what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe;
they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old
age...they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to
behave. And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma. Which you go and chuck out
the window in the name of liberty, Mr. Savage. Liberty!” (220) This is how society has
evolved for them. The introduction of new ideas would be far too unsettling, and the lack
of passion and age and any other sort of fear imaginable has created this environment
where nothing can go on, and peace is a constant inevitability. The question is, is it
better to live this way, or to live knowing the hardships and dangers and unrest of life?
Brave New World, Aldous Huxely
Leah Bennett
John is the only one who can shed light on this subject. Growing up in the way
that he did, in poverty and with great adversity, made John know what life is all about.
He believes that living is only living when one has to overcome challenges and
difficulties. Is life really life without the dramas of family, or true love, or competition,
anything more than neutral emotion? Human life, as we know it, is inherently miserable,
and causes chaos. But only when one takes away emotional connection, and hardship
can life become stable. And stableness is the key ingredient to productivity and
happiness. “ Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the
overcompensations of misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as
instability. And being contented has none the glamour of a good fight against
misfortune, none the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or fatal overthrow
by passion or doubt. Happiness is never as grand.” (221) While this futuristic society is
frightening and unsettling at best, it is much more productive than the society we live in
now, and despite the fact that none of the people know what their missing without
education or free-thought, they are happier than we are today.