FREE ESSAY ON BRAVE NEW WORLD

BRAVE NEW WORLD

BRAVE NEW WORLD 
Brave New World opens in a technically advanced future world. In the beginning of this
book, we see the Director of World Hatcheries lead the new hatchery students on a tour of
a Conditioning Center in London where babies are produced in bottles and pre-sorted to
determine which class level they will be born into. These class levels range from
Alpha-plus, the highest level, to Epsilon-minus, the lowest. There are no parents, and
babies are conditioned from birth to learn certain behaviors. 
All diseases have been eliminated, and when people are feeling down, they just take soma,
a wonder drug. Also, people are conditioned from birth not to love one person, so there
is no marriage and most people have many lovers. There is no God; instead, Henry Ford is
worshipped as the god Ford. Another accomplishment of this society is the elimination of
aging. 
Bernard Marx has unorthodox viewpoints and is outcast as an eccentric. He likes being
alone, but in this society being alone is discouraged. His isolation from society has
made him very different from everyone else. His only friend is Helmholtz Watson, an
accomplished intellect who writes government propaganda. Watson has grown wary of life as
it is, and his supervisors have him under close watch. 
Two co-workers are discussing Lenina Crowne, another worker, in a changing room. They act
as if she were property, able to be bought and sold. Bernard is disgusted by this, so he
decides to ask Lenina to go to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico. 
Bernard visits the Director for permission to go. The Director tells a story of when he
went to a Savage Reservation with Linda, a pretty colleague. During their visit, Linda
was lost, and the Director had to leave. 
So Bernard and Lenina go to the Savage Reservation, which is inhabited by Indians. They
quickly find Linda among the Indians. At first they do not realize who she is, but she
explains what happened. Linda is aged and obese. Also, Linda has a son named John who is
the Director's child. John is educated and mature, having read Shakespeare (forbidden in
civilization). 
Bernard takes the two back to London for study. Once back, Linda takes too much soma, so
she falls into a coma. John is displayed by Bernard, who becomes a hero. But the Savage
(as John is called) is frightened by the new world he sees. The fear and oppression he
experiences make him long for his old life. Lenina becomes infatuated with John, and her
candid attempts to make him love her end with his becoming angry at her openness. John
vows never to take soma, or to succumb to civilization. John believes he can save himself
if he avoids this brave new world. John enjoys conversations with Helmholtz, and Bernard
becomes jealous. They soon realize that the three of them are different from the rest of
society. 
At the bedside of his dying mother, John becomes enraged and throws the hospital soma
supply out the window. Helmholtz and Bernard arrive, and Helmholtz helps John destroy the
narcotic. Bernard deserts the two and calls a guard. 
The three are taken to see Mustapha Mond, an elder wise man. Mond knows that all three
harbor revolutionary minds, so he tells them that their only option is to live on an
island with other such people. Mond then explains how society has developed without
public knowledge of history or literature. He explains that, in order to keep society at
a balance where everyone is happy, only certain people can read these books. 
The two men leave for the island, but John takes up residence in an abandoned lighthouse.
He tries to purify himself from this awful society. Crowds soon come to see him, among
them Lenina, whom he mauls terribly. He is given soma. When he awakens, he realizes what
he has done, and he hangs himself. 
Huxley did an excellent job of portraying the possible future. The most prominent theme
is alienation. Helmholtz, John, and Bernard were shunned for not having conventional
beliefs. 
The future presented by Huxley is almost frightening, because in order to achieve
happiness, individuality and knowledge had to be sacrificed. Huxley wrote this book to
warn us. He wanted us to know that society should not be controlled, and that there is a
price for a peaceful society. Since society is still the same in the end, Huxley shows
the same hopelessness that George Orwell showed in 1984. 
I liked this book because Huxley paid attention to detail and created a thoroughly
engrossing literary masterpiece. Huxley's predictions have begun to become reality. For
instance, soma is strikingly similar to prozac. Huxley's thinking was truly ahead of its
time.