Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, was written in 1931. The Brave New World society is a satire on modern Western civilization. Brave New World is set in the year AF (After Ford) 632. Most of the people are clones with identical DNA. Thus, Brave New World reflects many criticisms of society made by Aldous Huxley. Humans are treated as machines in Brave New World, who do not have to make decisions or take actions for themselves. Everything is decided for them from the time they are born until the day they die.
Brave New World shows a society where these people will turn into passively obedient and conformist citizens that never question anything, just like machines that follow orders without thinking. The citizens of Brave New World must enjoy whatever pleasures they’re given and seek entertainment whenever possible. They must never show unhappiness, dissatisfaction, boredom or other negative emotions such as anger or sadness because these feelings would be considered dangerous and unacceptable. The character John displays this when he is described as feeling “bored and restless” [1] while attending a banquet that he doesn’t really enjoy.
Brave New World does not allow anyone to be different from the others or to think for themselves. In Brave New World, each generation is conditioned to fear and avoid anything unusual or unexpected. Brave New World’s society emphasizes conformity and obedience and denounces all emotions and actions alike as “wrong” and evil if they do not conform with this Brave New World behaviour code. The citizens of Brave New World do not question anything because their conditioning makes them believe that everything is normal and logical no matter how strange it may seem.
For example, Bernard Marx feels like an outsider when he visits London because everyone there is just doing what they’re told without feeling any emotion about it whatsoever. Bernard says: “I would like to feel free and damned and rebellious and all the other good things, but I do as I’m told”. Brave New World is a dystopian society where conformity and obedience are enforced by technology, psychology and pharmacology. Brave New World shows how human beings can turn into mindless robots if they allow themselves to be conditioned this way.
Brave New World was published in 1931 during the Great Depression era. In Brave New World, the countries have been divided into six regions: America, Europe, Eastasia, Oceania, Melanesia and Polynesia. Brave New World questions topics such as reproduction without sex or love; genetic manipulation of citizens to eradicate flaws from humanity; pacification of potentially revolutionary forces through pleasure; psychological conditioning to wipe out certain behaviour and emotions; and a society where everyone is biologically engineered to fulfill predetermined roles.
Brave New World questions the use of technology in human life, which was a common theme among many works of literature written during the time period when Brave New World was published. Brave New World has been seen as an inspiration for many dystopian novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Divergent by Veronica Roth and Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Brave New World’s view on human potential with technology was the inspiration behind Aldous Huxley’s later novel Island and inspired both positive and negative reaction to it.
Brave New World explores these themes through its characters: John – who is unhappy with his life in Brave New World; Bernard – who defends Brave New World’s way of life even though he is unhappy with it at first; Helmholtz – who fights Brave New World’s philosophy that everyone must be happy all the time; and Lenina Crowne – who represents the passive, pleasure-seeking citizens of Brave New World. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] In Brave New world, “soma” is a stimulant drug that keeps people calm and relaxed, but not fully aware or alert.
It makes them forget their problems and stresses from everyday life. In Brave New Word, soma also takes away feelings of guilt, anger, sadness and frustration so that nobody will have any reason to be unhappy. Brave New World’s society is conditioned to behave and think in a certain way, but Brave New World also uses soma to make the population forget their past and live only for pleasure and fun without wondering about questions such as “What is right or wrong?
What am I supposed to do with my life? ” Brave New World did not allow people to enjoy anything that did not contribute directly towards happiness and pleasure. Brave New World does not want its citizens to know of other ways of life outside Brave New World’s society so it controls what they see, hear and learn. [2] [3] [5] In Brave New Word, there are no individual identities because everyone has been conditioned from birth to behave in a specific way.
Brave New World’s citizens live in a world where there are no emotions or love because Brave New Word society has been scientifically designed to operate without them. Brave new word is a term coined by Aldous Huxley which describes a future utopian society that seems ideal but ultimately masks some terrible secrets and flaws in Brave New World’s society that the people seem ignorant of in Brave New World. Brave new word is also used to describe a state of ignorance, stupidity and foolishness caused by taking soma.
Brave New World is a novel about utopian society, and though it had been considered science fiction/dystopian (a genre that paints a dark picture of the future), those genres can easily be removed from this piece as it does not require that to tell its story.
Upon reading Brave New World , one may first ask: What is satire? Satire can at times be difficult to define. For an easy (but still very thorough) definition, we will consult The Merriam-Webster Dictionary : “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices”. satire has just overt hints but never directly states what it endeavors to expose. Brave New World is satire as it uses characters, events, and setting to criticize an idea or a society that Huxley finds flawed or dangerous.
In Brave New World , the main target for satire is organized religion as the members of Brave New World’s government decide to eradicate God from their everyday lives. However, this religion can also be considered a metaphor for any other religion in general. The following will explain how Brave New World demonstrates these ideas through its settings, characters, and language/literary devices
The novel takes place in London in 2540 C.E., though this date was not mentioned until chapter three which means that readers immediately have a sense of being thrust into a world very different from the one that they live in. Brave New World takes place in a utopia (a perfect world) which is dystopia’s (a very sad and imperfect world) opposite.
