FREE ESSAY ON BRAVENEW WORLD

BRAVENEW WORLD

Brave New World
Try to imagine yourself in an unnatural world where most people are produced in
factories, where there is no freedom or morality as you know it, and you are considered a
savage because of your human origin. It is exactly what Brave New World suggests.
Brave New World was first published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley. The "Brave New World"
describes a society that attempts to be a perfect world, where every one lives in
harmony. 
In Brave New World, people are created on an assembly line, and there are no mothers and
no fathers. People are typecast into their area of profession from before birth, if I can
call it that. People are given drugs, "soma", to control themselves, and there is no
personal freedom. This book also illustrates that a utopia created can be an Eden or a
hell, depending on the point of view. Personally, I think that Brave New World is hell! I
think Huxley wrote this book to warn us about the dangerous development in the society.
Biological experiments with gene-manipulation are increasing rapidly. For sure, there are
laws against cloning and gene manipulation but that will just slow down the speed of
these experiments. The challenge is too great for the scientist, and usually they are
sponsored by people that want to be well-known in the whole world.
The characters from this book are described in such a way that readers can easily
understand how they feel and have pain ( Bernard feels left out in the society) . In
contrast, the other characters are described as brainwashed and government controlled
individuals. While reading this, I felt like we (America) are entering in Huxley's Brave
New World today in 2000. Why? Because there are so many signals from the society on how
to behave, and what to do with your life. Today, people who don't behave the same as the
others are looked upon as weird people e.g. if you don't surf on the web, you are not
in!) 
Brave New world is about totalitarianism. The whole society is under control
(dictatorship) and the people that live there think that they are free and happy but they
aren't. They are not free because they lost the right to be unhappy and to have emotions.
The totalitarian regime must then ensure that people are happy with what they have , be
able to control the behaviour of each individual, and ensure that independent thinkers
like Bernard Marx are forbidden from disturbing the social fabric. That is the reason why
they want to transfer Bernard to Iceland. There is no physically violence under
totalitarianism. Instead, their police use soma-vaporisers to control the population. 
There is a fundamental principle behind Brave New World society. It is called
"utilitarianism", which describes a society that seeks to create the maximum happiness.
Through the use of science, people are not only created, but also conditioned to
guarantee they will be happy members of the society. Limiting the intelligence of each
person to fit the job which that person will be given is one way this society makes them
happy. Alphas are given challenging jobs and Epsilons are given scrap jobs which would be
boring for higher class members because they would be too much intelligent for that. 
A group of children are trained by the "Neo- Pavlovian Conditioning" method at the
Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. ( p.17 from the Flamingo Edition) The
Neo-Pavlovian conditioning is based on research by Pavlov who discovered the principles
of conditioning and behaviourism.. Pavlov showed that animals can be trained to do an
action through punishment and reward. This concept is extended to human by Huxley. Does
Huxley want to advice us that sooner or later, humans will be treated the same as animal?
The behaviour of Deltas is modified through the use of electric shocks and sirens
whenever the babies touch roses or books. This is done to discourage behaviour that might
destabilize society. Books and nature are banished from Brave New World. People who live
there are more encouraged to consume in order to create more job. 
Consumption is viewed as beneficial to Brave New World society. It is related to the
American Society of today where everybody is kind of forced to consume because of the
capitalism. We are viewed as consuming machines and think we are happy. Aren't we?
American are not free because they are condemned to consume all their life. This is not
freedom! The society believes that more consumption means that the more goods will have
to be made. This will increase the number of jobs and keep the society fully employed.
The best example is when citizens are encouraged by hypnopaedic phrases to throw away
their old clothes and buy new ones. 
Monogamy, sex and family ties generate most human emotions. That's the reason why it is
banned from Brave New World. The goal of the totalitarian society is to eradicate
emotions by replacing them with pure sexual desire. With this solution, emotions have no
place to exist. Community, Identity and Stability is the device of Brave New World. It
emphasizes sameness and monotony. With emotions, this device would have no reason to
exist. No emotions no love no wedding no babies no
responsibilities FREEDOM? It's not freedom because people from this society can't choose
who they want to be. 
The years '20 were the machine age. This novel is set in A.F. 632. A.F. stands for the
year of Ford, named for the great industrialist Henry Ford who refined mass production
with the Model T car. Everybody from Brave New World see Ford as a God because they apply
Ford idea to the real society. It is not really a new religion but rather a system of
ideologies which acknowledges Ford as its leader. The society replaced the Christian "Our
Lord" with "Ford" and uses the T in the special ceremony instead of a cross. It is the
new religion based on consumption. The real religion is banned from BNW because it's
viewed as dangerous and potentially corrupting. Religion goes with history and having
history gives people a sense of time outside of their own frame. That's the reason why
people, from Brave New World, have been early conditioned to avoid books. 
People from Brave New World are taking "soma" to eradicate emotions. At a early age, they
were conditioned to take "soma": "10 grams a day, keep emotions away!". Every single time
they see or hear something that they were conditioned to dislike, they take soma to
forget. Soma brings them in a kind of mental utopian world. We can relate "soma" with
Extasy. People who take extasy get the same effects than "soma". They are happy to live,
forget their problems and the best they don't have any headaches when the effects of soma
are over. "Soma" doesn't in any way promote personal growth. Instead, it provides a
mindless, inauthentic happiness. 
For those who are curious about the choice of the title, it is when John asked to go to
London and said: "Oh brave new world, that has such people in it" He remembered these
words from the William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", which once was found in the
reservation where John lived. He was really enthusiastic, but when he is in London, it
disappoints him as in the Tempest. You must have read The Tempest to have a better
understanding. 
Although this book was written more than 60 years ago, a renewed interest is warranted
because most of the technologies introduced in this book have, in part, become realities.
A good example of this that doctors are able to produce babies with specific traits based
on the gene pool of the chosen donors. Also, there are now drugs which can control moods,
if that is desired. Are we in Brave New World? We are not really in it because we can
still read book and express our thought and feelings but I can't say if it will be the
same in 60 years... 
Huxley via his book is trying to tell us to live with individualism in our society. If we
throw that away, we will maybe enter in the Brave New World where nobody has identity.
Lit 4545 Survey of English Literature
Donald Cuccioletta
Critical Summary of
Brave New world
By Stephanie Cousineau
COUS10577802
March 13th, 2000
Bibliography
Published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley