Huxly's Brave New World example essay topic

Imagine living in a world where everyone is exactly the same, where there are no families, and a personal identity is regarded as a global threat. This is the futuristic society portrayed in Aldous Huxly's Brave New World. To garuntee complete happiness to its denizens, the government raises myriads of people in a single test tube, and then conditions them to conform to their assigned caste, (such as Alpha, Beta, etc. ), and to behave in a 'safe' manner. This method of upbringing creates a society full of clones completely lacking any personality, conditioned to love only three things: Henry Ford, their idol; soma, a wonder drug: and physical pleasure.

Huxly tells the story through the eyes of several characters, but mainly through those of a deformed Alpha, Bernard Marx, and a young 'savage' named John. The story's conflict begins when Bernard Marx becomes romantically involved with Lenina Crowne, and they travel together to a Savage Reservation. While at the reservation, which is one of the few remaining places in the world where people live with out modern conveniences such as soma, birth control, or helicopters, Lenina and Bernard meet a young boy, John, and his mother Linda. Linda, who was originally from the civilized world, had become pregnant several years before and had been lost on a trip she had made to the reservation. Because it was so shameful that she was pregnant, she was forced to stay. Both savages are brought to the new world, and John becomes a celebrity.

At this point in the novel, Huxly uses Bernard as a paradigm to show how fickle a person can be, and how the need for acceptance can override a persons morals. Bernard, who had always been outcast, seizes the chance to take responsibility for John, therefore also becoming popular. All of Bernard's criticism of his society quickly vanished when he gained the respect he had dreamed of his entire life. He became to good for his old friends, and believed he was invincible. But, just like Caesar who thought he was 'as constant as the northern Star', Bernard's overconfidence led to his downfall. On the other hand, John, who was excited about the brave new world he had entered, becomes disillusioned, and becomes torn when his values and morals clash with those of the new society.

Finally, after a mad rampage, he isolates himself in an old lighthouse; he had not been accepted at the reservation because he was not Indian, and had not been accepted into the civilized world because his ideas were savage. Huxly addresses the important role family has in our society. In the novel, a new, more efficient way to be born and raised has done away with family and brought in a strict class system controlled by the hours of conditioning each child is subjected to. There are five distinct classes in the world, each with its own clothing, jobs, and level of intelligence.

The classes are enforced from birth by various methods of conditioning. For example, a dislike of roses and books is developed through electric shock while a person is still an infant. Hypnopaedia, a series of suggestions played while a child is asleep, teaches a child about all the classes, and why his class is the best. Children learn not to mourn a death by visiting hospitals where there are dead people, and then receiving candy and other such treats. Through the suggestions that make up a adult's childhood, the State chooses the way a child will learn according to where the child would have most use.

The relationship between a mother and a father and their child has become a dirty idea, and all feelings of family and loved ones has become obsolete. It is the lack of family that helps keep the different classes in place. Instead of a person acting as an individual, he acts as part of his class. Also, things that could create disruptions in the class system, such as parents wanting more for their children, have been eliminated along with the family. Huxly's novel takes a look at human's obsessions with pleasure. In fact, the governments main goal is for everybody to be happy so that they have no need to rebel.

In this futuristic society, their are several quick ways to feel good. Primarily their is soma, a readily available wonder drug that is a daily part of people's lives. Soma allows people to escape their lives for up to a few days, without any of the consequences modern drugs have; and, unlike modern drugs, soma is handed out to the lower classes after work so that they have no time to actually think for themselves. The feel ies are another form of entertainment.

The audience sees, hears, smells, and feels a sort of action-adventure adult movie. Casual sex is another popular way to spend spare time. Since 'everybody belongs to everyone' commitment is not an issue; often, people are eschewed from being involved with anyone for more than a couple of days. Brave New World also points out the effects of advances in science and technology on human society. In the novel, Huxly describes how science and technology are what keeps society moving forward, and what keeps a society from becoming the stable, monotonous, stagnant one that is shown in the novel. Although Huxly shows science in a positive light, he also points out how problems raised by new technology can be handled poorly.

For example, when mass production becomes simple, the new society allows productions to increase and requires consumption to increase, making a society where people have no attachments to anything or anyone, and everything is replaceable. Huxly provide a strong warning against the misuse of science. Through factories that mass produce children, drugs that take the place of true passion, and conditioning that takes the place of family, technology becomes a dehumanizing force. When Huxly first wrote his novel, he projected that a society similar to the one he had described could come about in about six hundred years. Later in his life, he stated that he had overestimated, and that the horrors of Brave New World could come about in the next century. His drastically changed outlook is not so hard to believe when one looks at our modern society.

For example, marriage has changed from a life long commitment, to a relationship that in about fifty percent of couples only lasts for a couple of years. Cloning, although not yet in humans, and far from being perfected, is no longer only in science fiction novels, but in our daily lives. There are many other similarities between our society and that of Brave New World, making it all the easier to accept Huxly's outlook on society's future..