’s Brave New World Essay, Research Paper
Aldous Huxley s Brave New World, was a very odd book. It portrays many of the moral
dilemmas that we now are approaching in our society. I really enjoyed the book, it had just
enough science fiction content to keep the reader interested in the book. It also had a very
interpretive content in it to mesmerize, and elude the reader. I related myself to, two of the
characters. During the opening quarter of the book, I related Bernard Marx to me. I am
much different from the average teenager, I am sort of an outsider much like Bernard
Marx. Bernard Marx was someone who was regarded as an outsider because of his height,
mentality, and originality of ideas. I am an outsider because I enjoy indulging my mind in
science and math, but I also enjoy being alone. I do not like being around other people
constantly like the people in A Brave New World. They are taught at a very young age that
it was wrong to be alone for an extended period of time. Later in the book when John the
savage was introduced, I related myself to him. He was a stranger to a planet that he had
always lived on. I am beginning to feel the same way. The closer I come to graduation, the
more foreign my world is becoming. I have lived on this planet for seventeen years, and I am
just now beginning to learn what it is all about. The book taught me that it is O.K. to be
different. If you are not, the world would be a very boring place. Everything would be the
same, there would be no surprise. There is almost no reason to live. When people are
different, it adds a variety to society. An almost infinite number of possibilities to everything,
which adds an element of surprise, because you do not know exactly what to expect. The
point of view that Aldous Huxley chose, was a third person, or omniscient point of view.
This point of view was vital to the book. Had he not used this point of view, the book would
have been almost impossible to write. Or it would have taken him a much longer amount of
time to illustrate what was happening in the book. He uses many of the thoughts of the
various characters to give a feeling of the over all book. If he had used a different point of
view, you could not get this feeling from the characters as well. But the point of view he did
use, did make it a little confusing. Aldous Huxley would begin to jump from person to
person, and sometimes it was hard to follow. Since the narrator was in third person, he used
some terminology that was either made up, or not commonly known, because he was all
knowing. The title of the story was stated by John the savage many times after he visits the
outside world of his reservation. He got it from one of Shakespeare s works called The
Tempest. He used this quote to portray the similarities of society he sees, and the play The
Tempest. Aldous Huxley used the opening pages to set up a parameter for what the society
of the story is like. He describes the method of creating life without a mother or father. He
also answers some questions such as why the society was created, what is socially
acceptable, and what isn t. He spends the entire first forty pages describing what this brave
new world are like. The major characters of the story were: Lenina Crowne, Henry Foster,
Hemholtz Watson, John the savage, Linda, Bernard Marx, Mustapha Mond, and Thomas. A
description of each is listed below. Lenina Crowne. Lenina Crowne was a freemartin who
was a pretty girl who was just like any other girl in this society, she believed in having sex
with anyone she wants. It frustrates her much when John would not do it because he loved
her. Lenina did not understand what love was, she believed that everyone belongs to
everyone else. She was a little different than normal girls, because she had dated one man
for a fairly long time, but since that was socially unacceptable, she decided to go on a
holiday with Bernard Marx. Henry Foster. Henry Foster was a scientist in the Hatchery. He
was the ideal person of this society. Although he does not do much in the story, he does help
set up the parameter for the society during the first part of the book. Hemholtz Watson.
Hemholtz Watson was a man who began to realize that there was something more to life
than just sex, drugs, hypnop dia, and work. When John the savage comes along and
introduces him to the work of Shakespeare, he begins to learn more about what things should
be. Although in the end, his conditioning keeps him from going any deeper than that. He
only scratches the surface. John the savage. John the savage, was raised by a mother which
was unheard of in this culture. He was raised on a reservation in New Mexico, in which
Lenina and Bernard take a holiday to. Before Bernard takes him back to London, John gets
a hold of some works from Shakespeare. These works of Shakespeare, enlighten him beyond
what he had learned from his mother and from the savages on the reservation. John was
troubled deeply by the death of his mother. She dies by an overdose of soma, which was
really planned. John could not understand why everybody thought of her death as no big
deal, and that just added to his pain. And Lenina wanting to have sex with him also hurt him
because he wanted love, and she just wanted sex. Both of these factors are what initially
drove him to suicide. Linda. Linda was John s mother. She becomes pregnant by Thomas.
That was quite ironic for today, because I always here about someone using a condom and
birth control, and yet still becoming pregnant. That just illustrates that man was meant to
bare children regardless of all the precautions taken. Living quite some time in this savage
reservation, she grows old and fat, because she did not have the drugs with her to keep her
looking young. Bernard Marx. Bernard Marx was one of the most original men in this entire
society. He has original ideas, which as a result, gets him sent to Iceland. Bernard was the
man who makes arrangements to have John go to the brave new world. Bernard was also
excluded from a part of the community because people hypothesize that too much alcohol
was added to his bottle during fetal development, which stunted his growth. So was
considered of someone of a lower caste. He was enjoying being unhappy which is part of his
freedom, but socially unacceptable. Mustapha Mond. Mustapha Mond was one of ten
controllers in the world. He is an incredibly intelligent man compared to the rest of the
people in the society. He uses his intelligence, and deductive reasoning for the good of this
society. He makes the rules so therefore he can break them, so he has read all of the
forbidden books such as the bible, and works by Shakespeare. When he was Bernard s age,
he also had a chance to go to one of the remote islands, but he decides to take the job of a
controller. Which made him a very powerful man that is also intelligent, the most dangerous
of combinations. This helps this society flourish. Thomas. Thomas was the director of
hatcheries and conditioning. He does not have a real major part in the story, but he was
John s biological father, and when John came back to London, Thomas was completely
humiliated, and was forced to resign. The ending of the story was strange. Although you
anticipate that John will commit suicide, you do not really expect it. But all-in-all, I though
the ending was very satisfactory. The ending appealed to real life. Many people commit
suicide because they are unable to deal with real life situations such as John s. The setting of
the story played a major part of the story. Primarily the time of the story was the most
important, and from that came the sub-settings. The time is about 534 years in the future.
From time, came futuristic buildings, flying machines, drugs, and a twisted society. Such as
when Lenina and Bernard are in the helicopter over the ocean. The ocean symbolizes a
loneliness, which is what they are programmed to hate, that is one example why the setting
was important to the story. The society of the story, much of which has already been
explained, is a very bizarre twisted one. To start of, people have no mother s or father s.
They are all hatched out of bottles so-to-speak. There are several social class ranks. Each of
the ranks, or castes, are adapted to do a certain job at the beginning of development. They
may add a sickness to the bottle, or add alcohol to stunt growth. After they are ready to be
hatched, they start the hypnop dia, or sleep teaching. They are taught not facts, but morals,
and emotions. They are taught to like only one s caste, hate solitude, be insensitive to death,
want sex, want drugs, and so on. All of these things create a very strange society where
everybody has sex wit
soma (drug) holiday (high or stoned). So they never have to deal with any painful reality.
The themes of the book, are very direct. The major one would be: With the advancement of
science, we need to be careful with it. It may someday turn against us, and without us
knowing it, change our lives in a very bad way, but most will not even notice or care. With
the recent advancement in cloning, this theme plays a particular role to us as a society
today.: Without a mother and a father, it is difficult for most to learn how to behave and act,
and that is a main reason why promiscuity is such a big part of the people s lives in the
society. Happiness and freedom are also the subject of a theme: Happiness is not always the
same for all people. The same as freedom. Some people may see their freedom as the
freedom to be happy, and unhappy. In this society, people for the most part do not have a
choice. They have happy, or they have a soma holiday. Sex is also a subject of a theme:
Love is a virtue, you should live it and love it, because in this book, sex is thought of as
nothing more than a drug. Love has nothing to do with sex in this book, which is part of the
reason why John is hurt so bad by Lenina when she practically throws herself on John.
Genetic engineering, and other scientific advancements are explored thoroughly in this book,
but I hope politicians do not view this book as what could happen if cloning experiments
continue, because I do not believe that anything like this would ever happen as a result of
these experiments. But it does raise some moral issues about cloning that are currently on the
hot plate in political offices. Bill Clinton has banned all federal aided, or funded programs
that deal with cloning, because the issues still have not been resolved, such as: Will the clone
have a soul? In this book, it is almost portrayed that they do not have a soul. And the only
one in the book who has been born by a mother, John, actually acts as if he does have a soul.
I believe that the author s purpose for writing the book was to warn us that science may
begin to destroy what we value most in life such as love. He is trying to get us to reevaluate
what we are actually doing to out world, and what it may become. Some cause effect
relationships include: The nine years war, caused this Utopia (literal meaning: land of no
place), because people after the war just wanted a stability, so science created this utopia to
satisfy everyone, and no one objected, because they were happy. Another relationship
includes: Fanny s argument with Lenina caused Lenina to go to Bernard, and accept his
offer to take a holiday to New Mexico. If she had not gone on this holiday, Bernard may not
have gone, and then most of the book could not have been written. And yet another
relationship includes: Foster went to New Mexico with Linda, and Linda got lost and
injured, which caused her to stay in the reservation and have the baby. Had she been in
London, the baby would have been aborted, because it is socially unacceptable to bare live
young. One of the statements that the narrator made was especially prominent to me, and
that was Straight from the horse’s mouth. Although not original, it does portray that the
society is almost unable to generate an original idea by themselves. Another statement is
Electro-magnetic golf was a waste of time. Then what is time for? This illustrates, that
time has not any real meaning there, and yet in a sense it does, when the rocket is a few
minutes late, it is scandalously late. Another one is Ford. They often use the word Ford in
place of Christ or God. This symbolizes the replacement of God with science and
technology. The author’s style in this book is simple, he uses a fairly equal balance between
dialog, and description. But he also uses either made up words, or scientific words such as
hypnop dia, caste, surrogate, viviparous, and flivver. But other wise, his book is fairly easy
to read and follow. Why did the author have John kill himself? I believe that Aldous Huxley
did it to illustrate, that in this world, you can either give in to the horrid Utopia, or die, and I
think that Linda also chose to die because of the condition. Would you or I enjoy living in
this Utopia? I would not enjoy it, perhaps it is the way I have been conditioned, but
none-the-less, I could not because I enjoy unhappiness in a sense, I also enjoy love, hate, and
the feeling I get during solidarity. Will Bernard, in the long run, enjoy, and be truly happy in
Iceland? I think he will enjoy the rest of his life in Iceland, because that is where he can be
truly himself, and not what hypnop dia created him to be. I am sure he will find a true love,
and get married. But this might be my escape literature side speaking also. Do you think that
cloning or genetic engineering is morally and ethically acceptable? I believe that I am what I
make myself to be. My genetics play a part in my make up, but it is not all of me. Half of
what people are, are their experiences, their environment. And from that, I believe that their
soul is created. Do you think that this Utopia could ever exist I think that something close to
this could exist, but the overall experience of the book, is just to far great for it to ever exist.
People enjoy their freedom to do whatever they choose, including, being happy, unhappy,
mad, furious, vengeful, and all of the rest of the feelings that can be defined. If these
freedoms were taken away, people would then be unhappy, and people generally like to be
unhappy all of the time. Author question: Did you write this book to actually warn us, or did
you write it to astound us? I believe he would say he wrote it to astound us, because he has
written many science fiction novels. I think that he added the warning part in on purpose, but
that wasn t the real reason for writing the book What were your personal reasons for writing
this book? I cannot answer this question, because I have not read enough of his books, or
essays to really understand why he writes at all.
If I would have been the author, I would have ended the book by letting John go to Iceland
with Bernard. There they begin a revolutionary group that strikes at the Utopian culture, and
changes it back into something more reasonable. No more babies in a bottle, no more
everyone belongs to everyone else. Women begin to have live birth again, marriage
becomes a common thing again. And they could do all of this through the hypnop dia. The
primary reason I would do this, is because I am and escape reader. I understand interpretive
literature, but I like escape literature when I read for pleasure. The main character is not
quite definable, because half of the story was Bernard, and the other half was John, so I am
going to tell how I am like John. I am different than other people, I know things that most
teenagers do not, just like John knowing Shakespeare. Another is that I am venturing into
college territory, and it is kind of frightening, much like John is frightened by the new
society he is in. I wish to love a girl but cannot for personal reasons, Just like John, he cannot
because Lenina just wants sex. I enjoy to talk to people about knowledge and science, just
like John likes to talk to Hemholtz, about Shakespeare. I desire to change politician s views
about cloning, just like John wants to change the views of everybody about taking soma.
This book is very relevant to our day in age. It brings out the dilemmas of cloning, and
genetic engineering, but I think that it is a step back for those of us who want to continue in
the research of cloning. If politicians take this book seriously they may believe that this
could actually happen, when in reality it is just fiction, and it will never happen. This book
gave me a perspective on life, especially the part on love. It made me realize that love is one
of the true great things in life that are truly worth living for, and it may stay with me for the
rest of my life, and then again, it is fresh in my mind and I may forget about it in a few days.
One thing I will remember about this book it the statement Straight from the horse’s
mouth. That statement tells me that my originality is what is truly great about me. I do not
have to be straight from the horse’s mouth, I can be original, I can be me. This book
reminded me of something that happened to me in A.P. Biology last year. I said something,
that seemed bizarre and odd, and of course the kids laughed, but the next day I brought proof
that I was right. Why it reminded me of that, is because John tried to convince the people
that soma was bad, and they should change, and they did not like that.