Essay: Brave New World – summary, characters, review

General Info
Author: Aldous Huxley
Title: Brave New World
Year of publication: 1932
Number of points: unknown
Number of pages: 229
Analysis
The world Controllers have created a perfect society by brainwashing and recreational sex, but Bernard Marx wants to escape.
Summary
In the first chapter the director of the Central London Hatchery And Conditioning Centre gives a group of students a tour of the facilities. He shows the students various machines used to grow embryos. And Predestinators decide what future job the human is going to have. The society is made of five tiers of humans, the Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Alphas have the most intellectual knowledge and Epsilons have almost no intelligence.
Next they watch Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning, this is used to train infants. The use of electrical shocks is used to modify the behavior of Deltas. This restrains them from gaining more knowledge and potentially destabilizing the society. They also view sleeping babies who listen repeatedly to a tape which teaches Betas to believe that they are better than Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons but lower class than Alphas.
The students go outside, they watch a bunch of children playing a game which requires complex machinery. They teach them that rely heavily on machinery because it increases consumption of goods and it boosts the economy. The children are also thought to play erotic and sexual games. If a boy doesn’t want to play with a girl they are send to a psychologist.
The students go to a few other subject and learn about how the rest of the society works. This is mainly written to teach the reader about the cruel society these people live in.
Bernard Marx is a strange guy, he is an Alpha but his appearance is not like other Alphas. He is in love with Lenina, a Beta, but he doesn’t want to immediately have sex with her, which is a considered normal in their society. Because of his strange behavior he is banished to Iceland because he might be a danger to the balance of the order.
Just before he is send to Iceland he goes on a trip with Lenina to New-Mexico. Here they visit a Savage Reservation where the old perfect life continues. They meet John who lives among the savages. John and Lenina start to like each other but is doesn’t work out because of the cultural differences. John is the son of Tomakin, the director of the Central London Hatchery And Conditioning Centre, Tomakins wife got pregnant and it’s against the rules to bear children. So he left her at the reservation and that’s where he was born and raised.
Bernard makes a request to take John and Linda to London. His request is granted. When they arrive Bernard confronts the director with his behavior in the past and de director immediately resigns. Bernard is considered as Alpha and everybody admires him.
John doesn’t like the life outside of the reservation. Lenina wants to date him but actually he would like to marry her. On the other hand Linda likes to be back in London, but everybody dislikes her because they are not accustomed to seeing old wrinkly women. She takes an overdose of a medical drug called soma, made to cure sadness, and shortly after dies in the hospital.
John refers to the freedom because he feels unhappy in London and causes much destress. He becomes a danger to the balance of the society and s banished to a deserted location, but he is not left alone. The press is at his house asking him to mortify himself. Lenina visits him but he loses his mind completely and kills her. When he comes to sense and remembers what happened he hangs himself from the lighthouse.
I guess you could call the theme: relationship, but it’s much more than that
Characters
Bernard Marx is an Alpha, but people think something went wrong while “creating” him, when he brings a savage to London his popularity increases.
Lenina Crown is a Beta and likes Bernard, she lives by most of the norms but she has sex with few men which is considered strange. Later in the story she meets John and she falls in love.
John de Wilde was raised in a reservation in Mexico but his father is the director. Bernard brings him to London with high expectations but he is disappointed by the life in London and it drives him insane.
When
The story takes place in the future, in the story they call the year 632 A.F. (Annum Ford, after the first car was made by ford)
The story is also told chronologically.
Where
The story is mostly set in London and a little bit in the savage reservation in Mexico. And people who don’t behave themselves are send to Iceland.
Who
The story is told by the author, it’s not focused on a specific character.
Title
Brave new world is a line said by John when he hears about going to London, he wonders what the life is like in the wonderful controlled society. But his hopes are crushed when he arrives
Deeper meaning
There is definitely a deeper meaning. Utopias become more and more realistic, nowadays we have to think about how to not become a Utopia. Maybe a new era will dawn where people are trying to find ways to go back to the non-utopian times, less “perfect” but freer.
Evaluation
I liked this book, I like these conspiracy books, this probably why I also liked reading the circle because it might be the inevitable future of the human race.
I don’t know if I want to recommend this book, it is a bit weird. Maybe if you like weird books I will.
I liked the first part where the students are guided through the system of the society because that is the part where you really learn what kind of story it’s going to be. And it will either draw people in to read the book or warn people of what’s to come.
It took a couple weeks to read this book.