Brave New World
Date
1932
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Chatto & Windus
Abstract
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is set in the year AF (after Ford) 632, or 2540 CE, in a highly controlled, dystopian society where technology, science, and conditioning dominate. People are created in Hatcheries, predestined into five rigid castes (Alphas to Epsilons), and conditioned from birth to accept societal norms such as promiscuity, consumerism, and conformity. Hypnopaedia, or sleep-learning, ensures that no one questions their role. Emotions, individuality, history, religion, and literature are suppressed to maintain social stability, with the drug ‘soma’ used to eliminate unhappiness.
The main characters include Bernard Marx, an Alpha who feels out of place, and John, the “Savage”, born naturally to a woman, Linda, who was abandoned on a “savage reservation”. When Bernard brings John and Linda back to London, the Director’s career is ruined when it’s revealed that he fathered John – a forbidden act. John becomes a sensation, but he is repulsed by the society’s moral decay, especially Lenina’s sexual advances, as he values monogamy and chastity.
John’s disillusionment deepens after Linda’s death, leading to a riot against soma and a confrontation with the Controller himself, Mustapha Mond. Mond explains that the World State suppresses individuality to maintain order. Bernard is exiled, along with a friend, while John isolates himself in a lighthouse, trying to purify himself through self-flagellation. However, he is hounded by the public, and after a night of soma-fueled debauchery, John, overcome with shame, takes his own life.