Brave New World 2 Essay, Research Paper

Brave New World

The novel Brave New World is like no other in fantasy and satire.

It predicts a future overpowered by technology where the people have

no religion. Has Huxley written about a degrading way of life or has

he discovered the key to a perfect world that should be called Utopia?

This essay will show that upon close analysis the way of life in the

novel is justifiable and all the precautions that are taken are needed

to preserve their lifestyle. This essay will also show that however

different and easily looked upon, as horrible as their lives seem to

be, in actuality it is better than ours.

The first argument that would contradict the fact that Brave New

World is a Utopia is the government overpowering the world, causing

the loss of freedom and liberty in the people. Before judging their

lives the reader must ask himself one simple question: Is it really

that bad? Obviously no it’s not. In the novel, the people don’t have

to worry about having a job. One must remember that being born and

raised in Utopia, one does not know what freedom is and therefore does

not know what is missing. Freedom leads to happiness, and if one

already possesses happiness, then there is no need for freedom,

especially if your government is making sure that all your needs are

satisfied.

Religion plays an important role in people’s lives. It represents

our principles and values. Religion guides us, gives us something

to believe in and a set of rules to live by. However, who is to say

that one hundred years from now people will still believe and

practice religion? Mustapha Mond when referring to the Holy Bible says

that “they’re old; they’re about God hundreds of years ago. Not about

God Now” (Huxley, p.237). Mustapha Mond is saying that with the

evolution of time the need for religion has disappeared and has been

replaced by the worship of another God who is Ford. They basically

live a fulfilled life and then they die. Also thanks to their

conditioning they do not fear death but accept it as a way of life.

That alone is a task that our world still has not been able to

accomplish. In our world we must go through the ritual of the funeral.

After one has died, his family must go through an enormous task of

planning, organizing and dealing with the death of their now gone

loved one.

In utopian civilization, the people are isolated from one another,

divided into five different classes. The classes range from the

Alphas, the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas and finally, the Epsilons.

The members of each class are ranked according to their mental

capacity and physical appearance. During the D.H.C.’s lecture to his

students he tells them how by depriving certain embryos of oxygen will

affect their stature. “The lower the cast, the shorter the oxygen.”

(Huxley, p.13) It seems unfair that even before you are born, your

future is already written out for you. However upon further study, one

will realize that this sort of precaution is necessary. In our world,

one has to face racism and stereotypes because people feel threatened

by what is different. This conditioning is how the utopian society

eliminated the problem. First of all, each class is conditioned to

love their ranking and to realize that everyone is important and is

indispensable to the society. The important thing here is that the

lower classes are not jealous of the superior classes but even believe

that their work is too tiring for them. The mental inferiority is very

important for the survival of the utopian society. If the lower

classes got too smart they would want to move up in life and that

would ruin the stability of the society.

Another precaution taken to prevent chaos to the society is the

restraint of history, culture and art to the utopian civilization.

According to our views, these things are unquestionably important and

we would go as far as saying that we could not live without them. But

for these people, they are insignificant. Education to us leads to

knowledge and for us knowledge is power and power runs the world.

However for them there is no need for education because they do not

need power. Power will not get them any farther in life then what is

already written out for them. The only kind of books in Brave New

World accessible to the public are reference books. Books with

opinions and emotions are non-existing. This discretion is needed

because those types of books could challenge the hypnopaedic

propaganda served to the people. The hypnopaedia was given for a

reason, it is the tool used to stabilize the society. If stability is

threatened so will be the utopian world.

Of course some will say that they will miss their families and

relationships and most of all, love. But the people in Utopia once

again have never experienced any of these. They were brought up in

conditioning centers and feel that parents and family are primitive.

The mere sound of the word annoys them. “Mother, he repeated loudly

rubbing in the science ; and, leaning back in his chair, these, he

said gravely are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical

facts are unpleasant” (Huxley, p.23). In our world, parents pass on to

their children their own values and principles. What they may become

as a result of their upbringing could be doctors, lawyers,

accountants, robbers, rapists and murderers. In the utopian society

everyone is raised and conditioned the same way abolishing the bad

apples in our society. Monogamy is discouraged by the utopian society

and considered improper ” Four months of Henry Foster, without having

another man — why, he’d be furious if he knew…” (Huxley, p.40).

This restrains peoples from getting too emotionally involved and

putting their loved one’s needs before the society’s. In the utopian

society, everyone belongs to everyone else.

One might easily point out that these precautions are too extreme.

But one thing that can not be ignored is that in Brave New World there

is no war, no diseases and no old age. For people in our world that

would be “utopia”. In the utopian society, “you’re so conditioned that

you can’t help doing what you ought to do” (Huxley, p.244). Thanks to

their conditioning, nobody even considers fighting. And if ever anyone

gets angry or depressed, there is always soma. In our world soma would

be seen as a drug and should not be used. Nevertheless as one of their

hypnopaedic quotes says, “they used to drink enormous quantities of

alcohol”(Huxley, p.53). That statement proves that once again values

are what changes one’s views towards situations. Our alcohol is their

soma except for the fact that soma has no side-effects.

There are only three characters in the Brave New World that do no

like their lifestyle. Bernard Marx is an alpha-plus and therefore

should be living the “good life”. But even though his mental status is

that of an Alpha-plus, his physical appearance is similar to that of

an Epsilon. ” They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in

the bottle—thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his

blood-surrogate” ( Huxley, p.46 ) He quickly becomes an outcast and

does not get along with the opposite sex. Bernard criticizes the

utopian civilization until he discovers John the Savage in the savage

reservation and introduces him to society. Bernard then becomes

somewhat of a celebrity and quite popular among the ladies. At that

point, Bernard is always bragging about how many girls he has slept

with and stops his complaining about the utopian life. All this

proves that if someone hadn’t made that mistake, Bernard would not

have become an outcast, women would have liked him and he would have

liked this world. Bernard Marx is an exception of bad conditioning,

his life should have been different from the start.

Helmholtz Watson also does not like the utopian civilization. The

problem with him is they let they him get too smart. That led him to

want a better life, a dream he felt was unobtainable in Utopia. Once

again, if his conditioning had been done right and his intelligence

had been controlled, he would not have had a problem with his world.

Finally, the third character unhappy in Utopia is John or better

known as the savage. As a matter of fact, he should not even be

considered as an unhappy civilian because he was not raised in the

utopian civilization but in the savage reservation. He does not like

it because he was not conditioned to be happy with who he is. In the

savage reservation, he learned about God, religion and freedom, all

things which are not taught in Utopia. His values are different from a

utopian’s. For instance, he beats himself with a rope to get a good

harvest, which proves that a person can not judge others through his

or her own values but through theirs.

In conclusion one can clearly see that human beings can adapt to

anything. The question is: do we want to adapt to a society like

Utopia? This is a world that one can not help but be happy, a world

that replaced not destroyed religion, a world that even eliminated

racism and stereotypes. It is a world where you only possess knowledge

you need, where everyone has the same values and principals. Finally

here is a world with no war, no disease and no old age. This question

seems difficult to answer at first. Let’s rephrase this question.

Forget adapting, is this a world you would want to be born in? That

changes everything because you can no longer judge by your own values,

principles and standards. You now have to picture how much you would

like it if you were born there and followed the same treatment as the

others. It was best said by Mustapha Mond at one point. “The key to

happiness is enjoying who you are and what you do”. ( Huxley )

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