Preview

A Summary of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1244 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Summary of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Brave New World Essay

What would you do for the chance to live in an ideal world? Well, curiosity killed the cat, unless readers heard of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, a utopian future. In the story, the readers are given a satiric vision of a utopia by a third person, omniscient narrator. In order to create an ideal world, humans are genetically bred, hypnopedia is used, and the society follows
“the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY” (pg.1). However, readers soon are given an appalling insight of the utopia by World State citizens’ and even an outsider. Through its pessimistic view of human nature, Huxley’s elaborates on the methods of achieving a utopia, depicting a future horror in reality. Using the artificially implanted ideas caused by hypnopedia, community is achieved when “everyone works for everyone else” (pg.91) in order to achieve maximum happiness for the whole society. One of the methods to achieve community is citizens practice a certain way of life that follows the rule that “everyone belongs to everyone else” (pg.43), meaning it encourages citizens to have multiple sex partners, or participate in many sexual orgy in order to reach solidarity. Also, the World State believes erotic play between children and adolescents as normal and moral. Next, the social caste system is a high priority to community, since each of the five castes’, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilons, conditioning is deluded into feeling as if they are part of the society and not a social outcast. With hypnopedia, each caste is thought to appreciate higher classes and conform to the caste one’s put in due to repetitive teachings such as, “Alpha children wear gray. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard.” (pg.27) The last method used is World State citizens’ are required to attend strictly regulated, scheduled social activities, such

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I think Huxley shows that fathers need to be respectful and inspiring to their kids. On page 125, when John stabbed his step father, he didn't flinch from the pain. I think this shows a father as being strong and inspirational because earlier in chapter six, John was wanting to prove his strength. I think that his father has inspired him to become strong and respectable in the tribe even though he is considered an outsider.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) is a satirical novel that presents grossly exaggerated and absurd constructs as the norm. This World State is described as the ideal place; it is the best thing that happened for humanity. It is civilized civilization. The World State is full of everything one could ever want: sex without commitment, easy access to drugs, and essentially guarantees a state of being content through conditioning. Moreover, death is no longer something to fear and feelings do not exist in their full spectrum. It is through Huxley’s use of satire and presentation of these ideals that made me aware of how those aspects form my definition of what it is to be uniquely human.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huxley thoroughly condescends the contemporary values of our society in Brave New World. He specifically uses point-of-view, allusion, and motif to create his ironic commentary for which his novel is best…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the esteemed political activist and professor Howard Zinn once said, “If those in charge of our society can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.” Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World exhibits a government that successfully controls the ideas of the masses. As Zinn acutely predicted, the need for police in the World State is nearly eradicated due to the tranquility of society. Individuals are predestined prior to birth to decide which niche they will fill in society. Upon the completion of the artificial birthing process, these new members of society are conditioned according to their caste. In this dystopia, love and the concept of family are…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of all the works that Aldous Huxley has produced the most intriguing and philosophical one would have to be Brave New World. Throughout his carrier Huxley has written many satirical novels about the flaws of society but none can compare the symbolism and depth that this novel presents. As the above quote suggests the citizens of this futuristic society known as the World State chose to live a life of hedonism devoid of emotions and beliefs rather than suffer any pain. Both Huxley's focus on the tragic flaws of this society and satirical development of the utopian scheme, lead us to believe the hypocrisy of such a utopian state. Furthermore there are many parallels that can be drawn between our way of life and the society portrayed in the book; these parallels include soma, hynopaedic messages and sex. Huxley uses this parallelism to warn us that the path that our society is taking will lead us to damnation.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Neil Postman argues Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World is a more relevant piece of literature based off the future than George Orwell’s 1984. The way I see it, Huxley’s vision focuses on what could go wrong from the inside, rather than Orwell’s idea of an outside force disrupting societal traditions. If the human body can evolve, so can the human mind. Huxley expresses that the people will grow to love their privileges. For example, feelies or orgy porgy make the citizens feel nice, and causes them to continue to participate. These activities do not enlighten or spark any interest in history, self-government, or even maturing as a person. It is what we love most that will kill us, instead of what we hate. We love pleasure, not pain. Orwell…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an utopian society, Brave New World functions seamlessly with little acknowledgement with the correlation that happiness and freedom have to offer. By which it societal standards prohibit happiness and freedom to cohesively exist among the citizens in this world. Where; conformity in society, sacrifices that involved the loss of freedom and ability to make your own decisions, reflect upon the daily lives of each individual ranging from the systemic pyramid that has the alphas at the top and epsilons at the bottom. Functioning systemically a society where continuous production is enveloped by technology. Everything is done for a reason where those who played their part lose freedom and obtain a false sense of happiness that is forced upon them by their higher beings.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Meckier, Jerome. "Debunking Our Ford: My Life and Work and _Brave New World_." South Atlantic Quarterly 78, no. 2 (Autumn, 1979): 448-459.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A cultural shift is not always an ideological one - or at least not always the one you imagine. Our norms are always evolving.” says David Harsanyi. As time goes by, everyday habits are altered to match current events and society. Neil Postman makes a point in Amusing Ourselves to Death by stating that modern society is becoming like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and not like George Orwell’s 1984. Postman includes many factors in his argument like the different forms of entertainment, control, and the concealment of truth and information. The society in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is controlled by pleasure, egoism, and the irrelevance of truth. Neil Postman is correct, modern society is becoming…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It is obvious why someone who believes in censorship might choose to object to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This ‘new world’ is built on sexual promiscuity, abolition of family, racism, and drug abuse in the most literal sense. A world which takes the positive aspects of Western society such as technological advances and individualism and turns it into a rigid caste system, in which the members of each caste are mass produced to the specifications of assembly line uniformity.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I his novel the people of the world state is designed and “programed” to fit within society’s standards. To fit into the country not stand out or have different beliefs or thoughts. This way of behavior control is the first idea that comes to mind. An idea that both the new world and the real world both share is the idea of the “perfect citizen” where how they both carry out this idea verries. In the modern world today “culture's system of social control” creates a social norm and a standard which, “Commonly held conceptions of appropriate and expected behavior in a society” (O’Neil). Dennis O’Neil’s study on global cultures explains that the society and the environment around the area will influence the social norm. Creating standards and actions that their home country wants to shape. In Huxley’s novel environment also plays a role to the shaping of behavior, but unlike the modern age the world state as a more efficient way of shaping its people. Unlike being born from a mother the new state, the people are raised from test tubes called the “Bokanovsky’s process” (Huxley). Allowing the world to create anyone they want by creating “ Ninety-six identical twins” to erase any free thought and creativeness from their society shaping “Community,Identity, Stability” (Huxley). With the same idea in mind both worlds have their own ways of pursuing it, but with the…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Utopia is a feeling within a society where perfect is achieved to create stability and happiness. In the novels Brave New World and Island by Aldous Huxley he explores this idea. In the novels the author demonstrates that happiness cannot coexist with truth. The use of lies, corruption and inhumane sacrifice are used to create a false sense of happiness.…

    • 2972 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    With the progressiveness of contemporary society, one would not suspect that the sociopolitical order would revert back to the oppressive bigotry of decades past. Social equality made monumental leaps when conventional gender roles are fought against, when love defies traditional interpretations, and when the oppressed can be heard. The revolutionary reforms of classical ideas have made humanity much more open to diversity; however, there remain remnants of intolerant bigotry that can potentially rain on progressivism’s parade. Amidst the new administration that is “Trump’s America”, many have raised the question of whether this election is the beginning of a tyrannical state after all. In many ways, America is heading down a similar path as…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Community, Identity, Stability” ( Huxley 1). The dystopian society of the future lives by this motto in everything it does. One of the first things Huxley mentions in his novel is this hypocritical slogan. Community and identity are controlled by the apparent stability that the government has created. There is no true identity or community when the free will of each person is being suppressed. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, the author uses John's life into the tribe and sudden submergence in the new world to display that natural human instincts will always outweigh the illusion of happiness and stability.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huxley is creating a world for us to compare our world to. Either world fitting in on the either side of the extremes. The world state is a place where erotic play between children is moral but individuality is not. The vice versa is true for our world.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics