THEMES
This novel is about a
Utopia, an ideal state- a bad ideal state. It is therefore a novel about
ideas, and its themes are as important as its plot. They will be studied
in depth in the chapter-by-chapter discussion of the book. Most are expressed
as fundamental principles of the Utopia, the brave new world. Some come
to light when one character, a Savage raised on an Indian reservation,
confronts that world. As you find the themes, try to think not only about
what they say about Huxley's Utopia, but also about Huxley's real world-
and your own
1 COMMUNITY,
IDENTITY, STABILITY- VERSUS INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
2 SCIENCE
AS A MEANS OF CONTROL
3 THE THREAT
OF GENETIC ENGINEERING
4 THE MISUSE
OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONING
5 THE PURSUIT
OF HAPPINESS CARRIED TO AN EXTREME
6 THE CHEAPENING
OF SEXUAL PLEASURE
7 THE PURSUIT
OF HAPPINESS THROUGH DRUGS
8 THE THREAT
OF MINDLESS CONSUMPTION AND MINDLESS DIVERSIONS
9 THE DESTRUCTION
OF THE FAMILY
10 THE
DENIAL OF DEATH
11 THE
OPPRESSION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
12 WHAT
DOES SUCH A SYSTEM COST?
1 COMMUNITY,
IDENTITY, STABILITY- VERSUS INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM Community, Identity, Stability
is the motto of the World State. It lists the Utopia's prime goals. Community
is in part a result of identity and stability. It is also achieved through
a religion that satirizes Christianity- a religion that encourages people
to reach solidarity through sexual orgy. And it is achieved by organizing
life so that a person is almost never alone. Identity is in large part
the result of genetic engineering. Society is divided into five classes
or castes, hereditary social groups. In the lower three classes, people
are cloned in order to produce up to 96 identical "twins." Identity is
also achieved by teaching everyone to conform, so that someone who has
or feels more than a minimum of individuality is made to feel different,
odd, almost an outcast. Stability is the third of the three goals, but
it is the one the characters mention most often- the reason for designing
society this way. The desire for stability, for instance, requires the
production of large numbers of genetically identical "individuals," because
people who are exactly the same are less likely to come into conflict.
Stability means minimizing conflict, risk, and change
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2. SCIENCE
AS A MEANS OF CONTROL Brave New World is not only a Utopian book, it is
also a science-fiction novel. But it does not predict much about science
in general. Its theme "is the advancement of science as it affects human
individuals," Huxley said in the Foreword he wrote in 1946, 15 years after
he wrote the book. He did not focus on physical sciences like nuclear physics,
though even in 1931 he knew that the production of nuclear energy (and
weapons) was probable. He was more worried about dangers that appeared
more obvious at that time- the possible misuse of biology, physiology,
and psychology to achieve community, identity, and stability. Ironically,
it becomes clear at the end of the book that the World State's complete
control over human activity destroys even the scientific progress that
gained it such control
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3. THE
THREAT OF GENETIC ENGINEERING Genetic engineering is a term that has come
into use in recent years as scientists have learned to manipulate RNA and
DNA, the proteins in every cell that determine the basic inherited characteristics
of life. Huxley didn't use the phrase but he describes genetic engineering
when he explains how his new world breeds prescribed numbers of humans
artificially for specified qualities.
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4. THE
MISUSE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONING Every human being in the new world
is conditioned to fit society's needs- to like the work he will have to
do. Human embryos do not grow inside their mothers' wombs but in bottles.
Biological or physiological conditioning consists of adding chemicals or
spinning the bottles to prepare the embryos for the levels of strength,
intelligence, and aptitude required for given jobs. After they are "decanted"
from the bottles, people are psychologically conditioned, mainly by hypnopaedia
or sleep-teaching. You might say that at every stage the society brainwashes
its citizens.
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5. THE
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS CARRIED TO AN EXTREME A society can achieve stability
only when everyone is happy, and the brave new world tries hard to ensure
that every person is happy. It does its best to eliminate any painful emotion,
which means every deep feeling, every passion. It uses genetic engineering
and conditioning to ensure that everyone is happy with his or her work.
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6. THE
CHEAPENING OF SEXUAL PLEASURE Sex is a primary source of happiness. The
brave new world makes promiscuity a virtue: you have sex with any partner
you want, who wants you- and sooner or later every partner will want you.
(As a child, you learn in your sleep that "everyone belongs to everyone
else.") In this Utopia, what we think of as true love for one person would
lead to neurotic passions and the establishment of family life, both of
which would interfere with community and stability. Nobody is allowed to
become pregnant because nobody is born, only decanted from a bottle. Many
females are born sterile by design; those who are not are trained by "Malthusian
drill" to use contraceptives properly.
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7. THE
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS THROUGH DRUGS Soma is a drug used by everyone in the
brave new world. It calms people and gets them high at the same time, but
without hangovers or nasty side effects. The rulers of the brave new world
had put 2000 pharmacologists and biochemists to work long before the action
of the novel begins; in six years they had perfected the drug. Huxley believed
in the possibility of a drug that would enable people to escape from themselves
and help them achieve knowledge of God, but he made soma a parody and degradation
of that possibility.
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8. THE
THREAT OF MINDLESS CONSUMPTION AND MINDLESS DIVERSIONS This society offers
its members distractions that they must enjoy in common- never alone- because
solitude breeds instability. Huxley mentions but never explains sports
that use complex equipment whose manufacture keeps the economy rolling-
sports called Obstacle Golf and Centrifugal Bumble-puppy. But the chief
emblem of Brave New World is the Feelies- movies that feature not only
sight and sound but also the sensation of touch, so that when people watch
a couple making love on a bearskin rug, they can feel every hair of the
bear on their own bodies.
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9. THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY The combination of genetic engineering, bottle-birth,
and sexual promiscuity means there is no monogamy, marriage, or family.
"Mother" and "father" are obscene words that may be used scientifically
on rare, carefully chosen occasions to label ancient sources of psychological
problems.
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10.
THE DENIAL OF DEATH The brave new world insists that death is a natural
and not unpleasant process. There is no old age or visible senility. Children
are conditioned at hospitals for the dying and given sweets to eat when
they hear of death occurring. This conditioning does not- as it might-
prepare people to cope with the death of a loved one or with their own
mortality. It eliminates the painful emotions of grief and loss, and the
spiritual significance of death, which Huxley made increasingly important
in his later novels
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11.
THE OPPRESSION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Some characters in Brave New World
differ from the norm. Bernard is small for an Alpha and fond of solitude;
Helmholtz, though seemingly "every centimetre an Alpha-Plus," knows he
is too intelligent for the work he performs; John the Savage, genetically
a member of the World State, has never been properly conditioned to become
a citizen of it. Even the Controller, Mustapha Mond, stands apart because
of his leadership abilities. Yet in each case these differences are crushed:
Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled; John commits suicide; and the Mond stifles
his own individuality in exchange for the power he wields as Controller.
What does this say about Huxley's Utopia?
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12.
WHAT DOES SUCH A SYSTEM COST? This Utopia
has a good side: there is no war or poverty, little disease or social unrest.
But Huxley keeps asking, what does society have to pay for these benefits?
The price, he makes clear, is high. The first clue is in the epigraph,
the quotation at the front of the book. It is in French, but written by
a Russian, Nicolas Berdiaeff. It says, "Utopias appear to be much easier
to realize than one formerly believed. We currently face a question that
would otherwise fill us with anguish: How to avoid their becoming definitively
real?" By the time you hear the conversation between the Controller, one
of the men who runs the new world, and John, the Savage, you've learned
that citizens of this Utopia must give up love, family, science, art, religion,
and history. At the end of the book, John commits suicide and you see that
the price of this brave new world is fatally high.
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