preview

Moral Development In Brave New World

Decent Essays

In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, John (referred to as “the savage”) is the voice of freedom in a society ruled by an inexorable pursuit of superficial happiness. In the dystopian setting, the world controllers maintain public satisfaction “but at a very high price—the sacrifice of freedom, individuality, truth, beauty, a sense of purpose, and the concept of God” (Neilson). John’s unorthodox beliefs about monogamy, God, drugs, and freedom clash with that of the overwhelming majority of people in the totalitarian London utopia. This barrier is rooted in John’s natural moral development as opposed to the artificial conditioning of the rest of society and it leads to John’s complete isolation from the people of London. When babies are created in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, they are conditioned to devalue monogamy and embrace the idea that “Every one belongs to every one else” (Huxley 26). The Conditioning Centre instills into the babies’ minds a disregard for the values of marriage and a motivation to yield to all human impulses and temptations. John’s moral code sets himself apart from the majority in London because he was not exposed to …show more content…

Soma allows the society to circumvent any true struggles. Huxley writes that Lenina “…swallowed six half-gramme tablets of soma, lay down on her bed, and within ten minutes had embarked for lunar eternity. It would be eighteen hours at the least before she was in time again”(Huxley 94). Reaching this “lunar eternity” is the default reaction by the people in society when they would have to face a true difficulty. The escape creates a situation in which “all activities are transitory, trivial, and mindless—promiscuity replaces passion, immediate sensory stimulation replaces art, hallucinatory escape (soma) replaces personal growth”

Get Access