Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Summary of the Plot
The novel opens in the year 632 A.F. (which means After Ford, the god of the New
World). All of civilization has been destroyed by a great war. Then there is another war,
the Nine Years War, which ushers in the era of Ford, ensuring stability through
dictatorship. The society depicted in the novel is based on a rigid caste system. The
higher of the five castes enjoy superior tasks, while the lower ones perform menial roles.
Ten Controllers hold all the power in this new world and peace is maintained by
conditioning infant minds and by soothing adults with the tranquilizer, soma. The
population is further controlled through scientific methods; marriage is forbidden, and
children are not born but produced in an embryo factory.
When the novel begins, some students are being given a guided tour through the
London Hatcheries. Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne, two employees of this center, have
been dating each other a little too often, going against state rules. Lenina's friend Fanny
warns her against such promiscuity. As a result, Lenina decides to date Bernard Marx,
who is very intelligent but not quite like the others of his caste. Lenina and Bernard
decide to go on a vacation to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico, where people
considered unworthy of Utopia are confined. On the reservation, the inhabitants live in an
almost primitive manner. Before Bernard leaves for his vacation, he is warned by
Tomakin, the Director of Hatcheries, about his non-conformist ways and threatened with
exile to Iceland.
Lenina and Bernard accidentally meet Linda and her son, John the Savage, on the
Reservation. Bernard learns from John that long ago Linda had come to the Reservation
with Tomakin, who had abandoned her there. Discovering herself to be carrying
Tomakin's child, she knew that she could not return to Utopia; therefore, she stayed on
the Reservation and raised John. Hearing this story, Bernard goes to the Controller and
gains his permission to take John and his mother back to Utopia. When Bernard presents
the pair to Tomakin, the Director is shattered and resigns from his position at the
Hatcheries, having become an object of ridicule. Bernard no longer has to worry about
being exiled to Iceland.
While living in the custody of Bernard, John becomes the object of everyone's
curiosity and amusement. Bernard at first revels in the attention that he receives because
of the Savage. Things, however, do not go smoothly. John soon grows repulsed by the
ways of the New World and becomes unhappy. Despite his mood, Lenina finds herself
terribly attracted to John and tries to seduce him. John, however, fights his physical
attraction for her and resists her advances.
When his mother dies, John goes crazy. He then tries to convert the Utopians to his
way of thinking. Rebellion results and must be quelled. Bernard and Helmholtz Watson
are blamed for the rebellion. When the two of them are taken to Mustapha Mond, along
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with John, Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled. John is retained for further
experimentation. He resists and tries to flee into solitude, but the citizens of Utopia
continue to hound him. In a fit of misery and depression, John commits suicide.
Character List/Summary and Analysis of the Characters
John is son of the Director and Linda, John is the only major character to have grown up
outside of the World State. The consummate outsider, he has spent his life alienated from
his village on the New Mexico Savage Reservation, and he finds himself similarly unable
to fit in to World State society. His entire worldview is based on his knowledge of
Shakespeare’s plays, which he can quote with great facility.
Bernard Marx is an Alpha male who fails to fit in because of his inferior physical
stature. He holds unorthodox beliefs about sexual relationships, sports, and community
events. His insecurity about his size and status makes him discontented with the World
State. Bernard’s surname recalls Karl Marx, the nineteenth-century German author best
known for writing Capital, a monumental critique of capitalist society. Unlike his famous
namesake, Bernard’s discontent stems from his frustrated desire to fit into his own
society, rather than from a systematic or philosophical criticism of it. When threatened,
Bernard can be petty and cruel.
Helmholtz Watson is an Alpha lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering,
Helmholtz is a prime example of his caste, but feels that his work is empty and
meaningless and would like to use his writing abilities for something more meaningful.
He and Bernard are friends because they find common ground in their discontent with the
World State, but Helmholtz’s criticisms of the World State are more philosophical and
intellectual than Bernard’s more petty complaints. As a result, Helmholtz often finds
Bernard’s boastfulness and cowardice tedious.
Lenina Crowne is a vaccination worker at the Central London Hatchery and
Conditioning Centre. She is an object of desire for a number of major and minor
characters, including Bernard Marx and John. Her behavior is sometimes intriguingly
unorthodox, which makes her attractive to the reader. For example, she defies her
culture’s conventions by dating one man exclusively for several months, she is attracted
to Bernard—the misfit—and she develops a violent passion for John the Savage.
Ultimately, her values are those of a conventional World State citizen: her primary means
of relating to other people is through sex, and she is unable to share Bernard’s
disaffection or to comprehend John’s alternate system of values.
Mustapha Mond is the Resident World Controller of Western Europe, one of only ten
World Controllers. He was once an ambitious, young scientist performing illicit research.
When his work was discovered, he was given the choice of going into exile or training to
become a World Controller. He chose to give up science, and now he censors scientific
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discoveries and exiles people for unorthodox beliefs. He also keeps a collection of
forbidden literature in his safe, including Shakespeare and religious writings. The name
Mond means “world,” and Mond is indeed the most powerful character in the world of
this novel.
Fanny Crowne is Lenina Crowne’s friend (they have the same last name because only
about ten thousand last names are in use in the World State). Fanny’s role is mainly to
voice the conventional values of her caste and society. Specifically, she warns Lenina
that she should have more men in her life because it looks bad to concentrate on one man
for too long.
Henry Foster is one of Lenina’s many lovers, he is a perfectly conventional Alpha male,
casually discussing Lenina’s body with his coworkers. His success with Lenina, and his
casual attitude about it, infuriate the jealous Bernard.
Linda is John’s mother, and a Beta. While visiting the New Mexico Savage Reservation,
she became pregnant with the Director’s son. During a storm, she got lost, suffered a
head injury and was left behind. A group of Indians found her and brought her to their
village. Linda could not get an abortion on the Reservation, and she was too ashamed to
return to the World State with a baby. Her World State–conditioned promiscuity makes
her a social outcast. She is desperate to return to the World State and to soma.
The Director administrates the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. He is
a threatening figure, with the power to exile Bernard to Iceland. But he is secretly
vulnerable because he fathered a child (John), a scandalous and obscene act in the World
State.
The Arch-Community-Songster is the secular, shallow equivalent of an archbishop in
the World State society.
Popé Linda’s lover on the New Mexico Savage Reservation. He gave Linda a copy of
The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
The Warden is the talkative chief administrator for the New Mexico Savage
Reservation. He is an Alpha.
General Themes
-Dystopian Society
-The advancement of science as it affects human individuals
-Community, identity, stability vsindividual freedom
-The misuse of psychological conditioning
-The pursuit of happiness carried to an extreme
-The cheapening of sexual pleasure
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-The pursuit of happiness through drugs
-The threat of mindless consumption and mindless diversions
-The destruction of the family
-The denial of death
-The oppression of individual differences
Important Symbols
Soma (the drug) is a symbol of the use of instant gratification to control the World
State’s populace. It is also a symbol of the powerful influence of science and technology
on society. As a kind of “sacrament,” it also represents the use of religion to control
society.
Ford-The World State doesn’t really have a religion, but it does have a symbolic and
revered father figure: Henry T. Ford. Ford is the perfect “god” for World State society.
Shakespeare represents two things. First, he represents all of the art that has been
rejected and destroyed by the World State in the interest of maintaining stability. Second,
the powerful emotion, passion, love, and beauty on display in Shakespeare’s plays stand
for all of the noble aspects of humanity that have been sacrificed by the World State in its
effort to make sure all of its citizens are always happy.
Key Facts
Full title · Brave New World
Author · Aldous Huxley
Type of work · Novel
Genre · Dystopian fiction, Science ficiton
Language · English
Time and place written · 1931, England
Date of first publication · 1932
Narrator · Third-person omniscient; the narrator frequently makes passages of
“objective” description sound like the speech or thought patterns of a particular character,
using a technique usually called “free indirect quotation.”
Setting · in England and the Savage Reservation in New Mexico, the year is
2540 a.d. -referred to in the novel as 632 years “After Ford,” meaning 632 years after the
production of the first Model T car
Point of view · Narrated in the third person, primarily from the point of view of Bernard
or John but also from the point of view of Lenina, Helmholtz Watson, and Mustapha
Mond
Tense · Past
Tone · Satirical, ironic, silly, tragic, juvenile, pedantic
Important Quotes
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"Community, Identity, Stability"
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 1
"The operation undergone voluntarily for the good of Society, not to mention the fact that
it carries a bonus amounting to six months' salary." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New
World, Ch. 1
"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtueliking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their
inescapable social destiny."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 1
"What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New
World, Ch. 2
"These," he said gravely, "are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts
are unpleasant."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 2
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so
frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we
are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green,
and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And
Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear
black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World, Ch. 2
"Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the
child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The
mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these
suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World, Ch. 2
"You all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is
bunk."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 3
"Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches."
- Aldous Huxley,
Brave New World, Ch. 3
"All of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."
- Aldous
Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 3
"Bottle of mine, it's you I've always wanted! Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted?
Skies are blue inside of you, The weather's always fine; For There ain't no Bottle in all
the world Like that dear little Bottle of mine."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch.
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"Ford, we are twelve; oh make us one, Like drops within the Social River; Oh, make us
now together run As swiftly as thy shining Flivver. Come, Greater Being, Social Friend,
Annihilating Twelve-in-One! We long to die, for when we end, Our larger life has but
begun."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 5
"One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New
World, Ch. 6
"A gramme is better than a damn."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 6
"When the individual feels, the community reels."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World,
Ch. 6
"Cleanliness is next to fordliness."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 7”
"Lying in bed, he would think of Heaven and London and Our Lady of Acoma and the
rows and rows of babies in clean bottles and Jesus flying up and Linda flying up and the
great Director of World hatcheries and Awonawilona."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New
World, Ch. 8
"The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one
should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately,
Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offense is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior.
Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?"
- Aldous Huxley,
Brave New World, Ch. 10
Author Information
Aldous Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, at Godalming, county of Surrey, England.
His father was Leonard Huxley, a prominent literary man, and his grandfather was T. H.
Huxley, a biologist who led the battle on behalf of the Darwinian evolutionary
hypothesis. His mother was a niece of Matthew Arnold, the English poet, essayist, and
critic. His family background seems to have prepared him for a variety of interests everything from anthropology to zoology and from versification to mysticism. His
brother Julian is a leading biologist, and Aldous at one time intended to follow a
scientific career.
Having been educated at a preparatory school and at Eton, Huxley intended to become
a doctor. But having contracted keratitis (an eye disease resulting in near blindness) he
was forced to abandon this idea. He learned to read Braille; after two years he had
recovered sufficiently so he could read with a magnifying glass. He then attended Balliol
College, Oxford, studied English literature and philology, and took his degree in 1915.
It is interesting to note that Huxley considered the onset of eye trouble the most important
single event in his life. This enforced isolation acted as a stimulant rather than a
depressant - now more than he ever wanted to "see," know, and understand everything.
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And he did not want to "see" only what was apparent, but also what was implied. The
following comment of Huxley seems to summarize this point of view, "My ambition and
pleasure are to understand, not to act."
But it would be wrong to think that Huxley cut himself off from society in order to
meditate and write. He and his wife (Maria Nys) traveled extensively and entertained
frequently. They spent several years in Italy, had a cottage in France, visited India and
Central America, and finally settled in California. He was at home with many of the
leading authors and critics of his day - Siegfried Sassoon, Wyndham Lewis, the Sitwells,
and Robert Graves. He worked with John Middleton Murry on the staff of the Athenaeum
magazine, and his friendship with D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda has been widely
publicized. Some of the tremendous influence that his studies, his travels, and his
friendships had on his work will be alluded to later.
Huxley published several volumes of poetry between 1916 and 1920, when he
published Limbo, a collection of stories. In 1921 appeared his first novel, Crome Yellow,
which established his reputation. At the same time he was writing articles, reviews, and
essays for many periodicals. From the beginning of his literary career we can see his
interest in fact and fiction - in poetry and prose. This compulsion to communicate - this
desire to express his ideas and convictions on a variety of subjects and in a variety of
ways - manifested itself until his death in 1963.
Resources
http://www.gradesaver.com/brave-new-world/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmBraveNew05.asp
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bravenew
http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Brave_New_World_Huxley/Brave_New_World_Stud
y_Guide17.html
http://www.huxley.net/studyaid/index.html
http://www.huxley.net/studyaid/bnwbarron.html#theme
http://www.litcharts.com/lit/bravenewworld/symbol
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