Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Book Report/Review Example

Rui Huang Staley Writing April 22, 2008 Literary Analysis: Brave New World The novel, Brave New World (first published in 1932) by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), portrays the abuse of science in order to create an ultra-modern dehumanized society so that the state is in total control over the society. The birth of the "brave new world", (the title taken from Shaksepeare's play, Tempest) is calculated from the day the T-series automobile was launched by Ford, bringing forth the era of mass production. Even human beings are mass produced and are conditioned - in neo-Pavlovian style -in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center to form emotionless social norms. Among the two main characters, Bernard Marx is the nervous, cowardly, perplexed and critical Alpha-Plus, who is initially a little hesitant but ultimately follows the rules; and John "The Savage" is the outsider whose moral disdain, revulsion and fright for the "New World" society leads him to commit suicide. John thus becomes the modern tragic hero and is a warning to what modernity, conditioning and mass production can do to a humane, feeling man. The aim of the Hatchery is to churn out "generalities", that is people without individualities so that the status quo - "stability" is the motto of the state - can be maintained. It is assumed that the utopia of happiness can be brought about by increased production and consumption. The near religious belief in technology is the pillars of the state and its stability. And to achieve stability, rigorous conditioning of the mind is necessary. The caste structure, in which the Alpha and Beta are the rulers of the society and the Gamma, Delta and Epsilon are the laborers, is also created with specific tools. Because of the conditioning - prenatal and post-birth - people are unable to behave in any manner other than that they are designed for. They are conditioned to hate books, flowers and nature but to love country sport, like the "Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy" using complicated machines, and transportation. Any reference to terms like "father", "mother" or family are embarrassing and considered pornographic in this world order of technologically driven life. "History is bunk", the World Controller, His Fordship Mustapha Mord, quotes Ford, rationalizing why children are not taught history in this world. The novel, though a parody of H.G. Well's Time Machine written in the midst of the Great Depression and the birth of fascism, is an indictment on capitalism and mass production, where individualism, emotions and humane qualities are things past (Firchow, n.d). The satirical tone of the novel describes the scientific achievements of human cloning, rapid maturation and prenatal conditioning that together replace live birth, human interface and family bonding, evoking a dystopia (or anti-utopia) over excessive emphasis on technology and production. In the first six chapters of the novel, Bernard Marx is a misfit in the depicted society. Bernard seems to be the last remnant of what we know as humanity - exuding emotions, love and repulsion for the technology-driven process of life and death. Bernard is an Alpha plus (the highest position in the class system) psychologist who is considered an outcast in the World State because of the accidental injection of alcohol in his fetus in his pre-natal stage. His physical and mental departure from the conventional norms are considered suspect. Initially, Bernard voices his differing opinion, giving the impression that he is here to change the world but his protests are weak. He is elated when Lenina, the Assistant Predestinator, who offers him to "have her" for some time, accepts his offer to go to the Savage Reservation with him although he is embarassed of her declaring her acceptance in public - considered the right thing for brave new worlder to do to make private things public. At the Savage Reservation, he finds John the Savage, the son of Linda, whom the Director had left behind twenty five years ago and who could not return to the World State for being pregnant with John, pregnancy being banned there. Bernard finds a way to outsmart the Director, who plans to transfer Bernard to Iceland for disobeying orders, and bring back John to the World State. In the process, he becomes immensely popular with the people, who are enamored by John's good looks and mysterious past. John finds the World State infectious because of the material happiness that there is in this world. However, it soon becomes evident that John's arrival in the brave new world is nothing but Bernard's attempt to showcase a rare species. And John finds it is inhabited by mechanized people unworthy of any feelings or emotions. Bernard has not aimed for anything as dramatic as a political change in the World State but has simply endeavored to change the society in a way that suits his purpose and enable him to fit into it. His courageous step of bringing John to the World State did not have any other magnificent moment than simply to avoid his exile to Iceland and to teach the Director a lesson. The allusion to Karl Marx in Bernard's name gives out Huxley's intention. Bernard Marx is no political hero. All he wants is to gain sufficient recognition from his fellow citizens. There is no urgency to radically change the system for the well-being of the people. In this utopia, where people are expected to be happy but be bereft of any sort of individualism or emotion, is a product of the consumption-driven society of the 1930s. Bernard does not really understand as a psychologist that the hypnopaedic education (the other name of propaganda that the fascist regimes had embarked upon in the 1930s) was really a way of brainwashing people. He feels something wrong in the system simply because he does not fit in his class exactly. The Marxian philosophy of socialism, where there is no role of individual property, is turned on its head in the World State where everything, including sexual relationships, are common property. Promiscuity is a quality that is rewarded. Through the characterization of Bernard Marx, Huxley shows that trivialization of pleasure is the real cause of dystopia rather than grinding deprivation Wommersely, 2004). Despite the fact that the brave new worlders have all the material well-being, they are morally insecure and hesitant to shake off conventions however detesting they are. Bernard gives in to the temptations once he gets the respect due to his caste although initially he hated the same qualities. John is one of the a few residual "savage reservations" who assimilates into the World State but ultimately the clash of values ruins him. "Savage John," has heard about the glories of the "Other Place" from his mother since his childhood and he is initially spellbound. Through the rest of the novel, John is a pondering, self-searching, spiritual entity, unbothered by earthly gain, split between tradition and modernity, undecided between the savage past or the consumerist present. John, the outsider, values William Shakespeare more that the New World. His extensive knowledge of Shakespeare facilitates him to express his own intricate responses to censure New World values, offering him with the language to hold his own conviction to counter the impressive oratory skill of Mustafa Mond, the avid reader of Shakespeare and the Bible, a free thinking scientist, the most influential and sharp advocate of the World State, who gags new ideas in order to rule a dictatorial state. However, when John's mother, whose natural age has made her too ugly to live in the suave New world society, dies in soma-induced hallucinations, he rebels by withdrawing to a lonely refuge where he suffers from torment and revulsion. He and his ideals end in insane self-destruction. Lenina, despite her conditioning, can faintly sense a longing for the other, greater world John tries to show her and is ruined along with him. This indicates the death of hope, something that was never there in the World State. John is the only one who identifies in his own nave way the unholy union of capitalist, fascist, communist, psychoanalytic, and pseudo-scientific ideologies that have brought about the end of history. In the New World, he is shocked to find that the word "Mother" is equated with obscenity and that the family is outmoded. He outrages this society by mourning for his dead mother and by refusing to cosset in soma, the mind- changing drug that enables brainwashing. By the end of the novel, John shows the perverted effects of the Oedipal complex that makes him to whip and kill Lenina, perform flagellation, as practiced in the Savage Pueblo culture, purportedly a blend of ancient Pueblo and Christian penitentes cultures. After self-flogging, he gives in to a soma-orgy and then commits suicide by hanging. Huxley's last description of John the Savage is of his body dangling at the end of a cord, hanging from a vertical shaft around the staircase, his death being the upshot of the social values of the Brave New World s and his Freudian complexes. Thus, John has been thrown into a challenge in the New World, where he has to defend the values of "Mother, monogamy, romance." John also belongs to that rare species in the New World who still feels "strongly", something that the society of the World State detests. Unable to withstand the clash of values, John ends up with self- thrashing, madness and suicide. John thus has all the traits of a classical tragic hero, who fights against destiny, represented by Mustapha Mond, that he knows will eventually destroy him. Works Cited Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World, Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Original 1932, Reprint edition, 1998 Womersely, David, Brave New World - Aldous Huxley, The Social Affairs Unit, November 4, 2004 retrieved from http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000206.php Firchow, Peter. "The Satire in Huxley's 'Brave New World.'" Contemporary Criticism. 8: 266. Read More