Critical Essay – Brave New World Essay, Research Paper

“Brave New World,” written by Aldous Huxley, is a literary work that is able to portray a society built on happiness but did not have individuality. The reason behind this is that it is a novel with which the reader can identify. Every individual values his own being, so the lack of individuality in the novel makes the reader fear this society. This society is one built upon values that could not be accepted in this day and age. Imagine a society where the needs of an individual are not catered to, a society in which everyone belongs to everyone else, a society where the controllers distribute a drug to make the individual lose feeling. This would never be accepted by people now or 70 years ago, when the novel was written.

With an idea so original and unique, Huxley is able to attract the reader’s attention. The reader is able to look at the characters and see themselves as one of them and feel what they are feeling. Lack of strong individual emotions is a key aspect of this novel. This is a topic that is very important to daily life. A person’s individuality is based on their emotions and this lack of emotions conveys the lack of individuality that is present throughout the society. A reader will enjoy this because individuality is a key aspect of life. People strive to make themselves known for who they are and not for what nation they represent. Society is trying to detract itself from discrimination due to race, gender or any other characteristic. The lack of individuality present in “Brave New World” appeals to the reader’s need for individuality and causes them to take interest in the plot of the story.

This story is based on happiness of the people and the way that it is attained is by the absence of love, motherhood, family and freedom. One has to wonder whether happiness would be achievable without the things that are the core of happiness in life today. Can happiness be achieved by the intake of a drug and that alone. In “Brave New World,” if anyone is unhappy and does not like his situation, they take soma, a drug that puts them into a state of intoxication in which they cannot feel unhappiness. Is this enough? How can you have happiness if you are in a certain position in a society, which was determined by someone else, and you cannot change this position, even by hard work? True, ignorance is bliss and you wouldn’t know what you were missing out on, but that is still not happiness. No one can program what is happiness to you; you must determine it yourself. Bernard Marx was someone who could see that he was missing out on something and that there was something that might have been better. He thought about the miracle of childbirth and he thought about how good it would feel to have brought a living thing into this world instead of having it made. Childbirth is one of the most cherished feelings in the world today and this makes the reader see what the characters are missing in their society. Huxley uses this to catch the reader’s attention throughout the novel.

A novel full of ideas that contrast so much with what is expected out of a society these days, “Brave New World” is a novel that interests the reader a great deal because of its uniqueness and also because of its concentration on topics that are important to people. Happiness, looked at these days, is seen in people who are individuals and have unique qualities that are liked by other individuals. Individuality is looked at as a big issue to people and for that reason the book appeals to a large audience and is accepted as a great literary work.