A Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley
 
The novel "Brave New World" is like no other in fantasy and
satire. It predicts a future overpowered by technology
where the people have no religion. Has Huxley written about
a degrading way of life or has he discovered the key to a
perfect world that should be called Utopia? This essay will
show that upon close analysis the way of life in the novel
is justifiable and all the precautions that are taken are
needed to preserve their lifestyle. This essay will also
show that however different and easily looked upon, as
horrible as their lives seem to be, in actuality it is
better than ours.
 
The first argument that would contradict the fact that
"Brave New World" is a Utopia is the government
overpowering the world, causing the loss of freedom and
liberty in the people. Before judging their lives the
reader must ask himself one simple question: Is it really
that bad? Obviously no it's not. In the novel, the people
don't have to worry about having a job. One must remember
that being born and raised in Utopia, one does not know
what freedom is and therefore does not know what is
missing. Freedom leads to happiness, and if one already
possesses happiness, then there is no need for freedom,
especially if your government is making sure that all your
needs are satisfied.
 
 Religion plays an important role in people's lives. It
represents our principles and values. Religion guides us,
gives us something to believe in and a set of rules to live
by. However, who is to say that one hundred years from now
people will still believe and practice religion? Mustapha
Mond when referring to the Holy Bible says that "they're
old; they're about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God
Now" (Huxley, p.237). Mustapha Mond is saying that with the
evolution of time the need for religion has disappeared and
has been replaced by the worship of another God who is
Ford. They basically live a fulfilled life and then they
die. Also thanks to their conditioning they do not fear
death but accept it as a way of life. That alone is a task
that our world still has not been able to accomplish. In
our world we must go through the ritual of the funeral.
After one has died, his family must go through an enormous
task of planning, organizing and dealing with the death of
their now gone loved one.
 
In utopian civilization, the people are isolated from one
another, divided into five different classes. The classes
range from the Alphas, the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas
and finally, the Epsilons. The members of each class are
ranked according to their mental capacity and physical
appearance. During the D.H.C.'s lecture to his students he
tells them how by depriving certain embryos of oxygen will
affect their stature. "The lower the cast, the shorter the
oxygen." (Huxley, p.13) It seems unfair that even before
you are born, your future is already written out for you.
However upon further study, one will realize that this sort
of precaution is necessary. In our world, one has to face
racism and stereotypes because people feel threatened by
what is different. This conditioning is how the utopian
society eliminated the problem. First of all, each class is
conditioned to love their ranking and to realize that
everyone is important and is indispensable to the society.
The important thing here is that the lower classes are not
jealous of the superior classes but even believe that their
work is too tiring for them. The mental inferiority is very
important for the survival of the utopian society. If the
lower classes got too smart they would want to move up in
life and that would ruin the stability of the society.
 
Another precaution taken to prevent chaos to the society is
the restraint of history, culture and art to the utopian
civilization. According to our views, these things are
unquestionably important and we would go as far as saying
that we could not live without them. But for these people,
they are insignificant. Education to us leads to knowledge
and for us knowledge is power and power runs the world.
However for them there is no need for education because
they do not need power. Power will not get them any farther
in life then what is already written out for them. The only
kind of books in Brave New World accessible to the public
are reference books. Books with opinions and emotions are
non-existing. This discretion is needed because those types
of books could challenge the hypnopaedic propaganda served
to the people. The hypnopaedia was given for a reason, it
is the tool used to stabilize the society. If stability is
threatened so will be the utopian world.
 
Of course some will say that they will miss their families
and relationships and most of all, love. But the people in
Utopia once again have never experienced any of these. They
were brought up in conditioning centers and feel that
parents and family are primitive. The mere sound of the
word annoys them. "Mother, he repeated loudly rubbing in
the science ; and, leaning back in his chair, these, he
said gravely are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most
historical facts are unpleasant" (Huxley, p.23). In our
world, parents pass on to their children their own values
and principles. What they may become as a result of their
upbringing could be doctors, lawyers, accountants, robbers,
rapists and murderers. In the utopian society everyone is
raised and conditioned the same way abolishing the bad
apples in our society. Monogamy is discouraged by the
utopian society and considered improper " Four months of
Henry Foster, without having another man --- why, he'd be
furious if he knew..." (Huxley, p.40). This restrains
peoples from getting too emotionally involved and putting
their loved one's needs before the society's. In the
utopian society, everyone belongs to everyone else.
 
One might easily point out that these precautions are too
extreme. But one thing that can not be ignored is that in
Brave New World there is no war, no diseases and no old
age. For people in our world that would be "utopia". In the
utopian society, "you're so conditioned that you can't help
doing what you ought to do" (Huxley, p.244). Thanks to
their conditioning, nobody even considers fighting. And if
ever anyone gets angry or depressed, there is always soma.
In our world soma would be seen as a drug and should not be
used. Nevertheless as one of their hypnopaedic quotes says,
"they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol"(Huxley,
p.53). That statement proves that once again values are
what changes one's views towards situations. Our alcohol is
their soma except for the fact that soma has no
side-effects. 

There are only three characters in the "Brave New World"
that do no like their lifestyle. Bernard Marx is an
alpha-plus and therefore should be living the "good life".
But even though his mental status is that of an Alpha-plus,
his physical appearance is similar to that of an Epsilon. "
They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the
bottle---thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his
blood-surrogate" ( Huxley, p.46 ) He quickly becomes an
outcast and does not get along with the opposite sex.
Bernard criticizes the utopian civilization until he
discovers John the Savage in the savage reservation and
introduces him to society. Bernard then becomes somewhat of
a celebrity and quite popular among the ladies. At that
point, Bernard is always bragging about how many girls he
has slept with and stops his complaining about the utopian
life. All this proves that if someone hadn't made that
mistake, Bernard would not have become an outcast, women
would have liked him and he would have liked this world.
Bernard Marx is an exception of bad conditioning; his life
should have been different from the start. 

Helmholtz Watson also does not like the utopian
civilization. The problem with him is they let they him get
too smart. That led him to want a better life, a dream he
felt was unobtainable in Utopia. Once again, if his
conditioning had been done right and his intelligence had
been controlled, he would not have had a problem with his
world. 

Finally, the third character unhappy in Utopia is John or
better known as the savage. As a matter of fact, he should
not even be considered as an unhappy civilian because he
was not raised in the utopian civilization but in the
savage reservation. He does not like it because he was not
conditioned to be happy with who he is. In the savage
reservation, he learned about God, religion and freedom,
all things which are not taught in Utopia. His values are
different from a utopian's. For instance, he beats himself
with a rope to get a good harvest, which proves that a
person can not judge others through his or her own values
but through theirs.
 
In conclusion one can clearly see that human beings can
adapt to anything. The question is: do we want to adapt to
a society like Utopia? This is a world that one can not
help but be happy, a world that replaced not destroyed
religion, a world that even eliminated racism and
stereotypes. It is a world where you only possess knowledge
you need, where everyone has the same values and
principals. Finally here is a world with no war, no disease
and no old age. This question seems difficult to answer at
first. Let's rephrase this question. Forget adapting, is
this a world you would want to be born in? That changes
everything because you can no longer judge by your own
values, principles and standards. You now have to picture
how much you would like it if you were born there and
followed the same treatment as the others. It was best said
by Mustapha Mond at one point. "The key to happiness is
enjoying who you are and what you do". ( Huxley )