Society In Brave New World

Is Huxley’s novel Brave New World, slowly becoming our reality? Are we becoming the individuals in the book, that live their lives oblivious to the fact they are brainwashed by the government? In the novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, our present society and their world state society share many similar habits, however it is the differences in our two societies that are more visible and clear. The three most obvious topics seen in the novel, was the similarities and differences in reproduction, drugs and family/relationships.

Brave New World acquires its name from Miranda’s speech is Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. Huxley wrote his most famous book in 1931, but it is set in the year of AF 632 in the dystopian World State City of London. In this world, humans have been engineered artificially. Therefore, words like “mother” and “father’ were non-existent. Each child is born into a predetermined gerrymandered caste based on society’s strict system of need. The upper castes of Alpha and Beta luxuriate in their privileged positions. The castes Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon carry out only the most degrading and menial tasks of society.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel.

Aldous Huxley’s 1932 Brave New World was ahead of its time because it was critical of how many were seeking to condition people and create a perfect, standardized society after the social and political reform during World War I. Likewise, many of the aforementioned trends are still relevant today. Both in the 1930s and now, humans have sought to create the best possible society by conditioning citizens to represent a standard form.

The majority of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley takes place in the World State, or what is considered to be the civilized world. In the World State, citizens emerge from test tubes where their lives have been predestined in the Fertilizing Room of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. In the novel, readers are also introduced to a reservation called Malpais. Malpais resembles a more traditional society where women undergo birth and the destiny of their offspring is typically left up to them. Throughout the novel Huxley highlights the differences between the two societies in terms of customs, values, and ideas. It is indeed the conditioning of each character that forces them to react to their surroundings in the manner in which

Paul Gilmore III Mrs. Addington/ Ms.Pekatos 10LA Honors 1 15 May 2013 Social Stratification in Brave New World In the novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley the civilized world lives in a world where people are grouped in social classes from birth. The idea of social stratification has been prevalent in many societies to date in the real world. Social stratification is the grouping of people in a community by race, job, or wealth and in many of these societies one cannot change the class they are born in to.

Aldous Huxley’s world accredited and celebrated masterpiece Brave New World’s futuristic world is just as horrifying as it is compelling. Nevertheless, it can be interpreted in many ways. Some of its audiences are infatuated by the technological and scientific advancements exhibited by the World State, some are mesmerised by the mere thought of a world free from sickness, torture and poverty, while others just see a fictional tale that is worth a good read. However I myself, think nothing of this. In a world plagued by unavoidable suffering – inequality, deprivation and mistreatment – my mind is filled with scepticism over how fictional this Brave New World really is. Of particular note, I am truly distressed and disturbed to know that Huxley’s interpretation of the “perfect world” is functioned through a totalitarian system of government which applauds and endorses a class system.

The world has progressed and changed so much through time. In my opinion I think the world has changed to become a bit worse, but there are other things that have progressed to be better. One reason why I believe it has gotten worse is because of all the sin in the world. Another reason is the acceptance of certain sins. Lastly so many people in this time have forgotten the true natural and loving way humans should live.

Imagine a world where complete control is in the hands of the government. Imagine a world where science, literature, religion, and even family, do not exist. Imagine a world where citizens are conditioned to accept this. This is exactly how the world is portrayed in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The focus of the World State is on society as a whole rather than on individuals. Some characters from the novel have a harder time accepting the conditioning. Through these characters, we learn the true cost of a government-dominated society. In Brave New World, Huxley conveys that a totalitarian government will provide happiness and peace by abolishing individuality and free thinking.

Throughout Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel entitled Brave New World the reader experiences life in a post-apocalyptic world which claims to be an ideal society. However, it quickly becomes evident to the reader that this society is not ideal. In fact, the society depicted in Brave New World is immoral because the freedoms of the individual are non-existent. This is a result of the government’s total control of society and through the over sexualisation of society. The government’s total control of society is illustrated through the predetermined social and economic roles for everybody, the disallowance of people to think for themselves, genetic engineering, social conditioning and their control of people’s emotions. Furthermore, The

Brave new world social understanding While reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, it becomes more and more evident that their society reflects ours in several different ways. In this novel, Huxley tries to create a complete utopia which becomes problematic throughout the plot. Ironically, Brave New World is far from the perfect utopian society and is eerily realistic to our total society. In the novel, hypnopedia is used on children to teach them while they sleep.

The caste system in the book largely exhibits this. For instance, humans are not born by conventional means, but instead inside labs with an inherent predisposition towards their assigned job in society. Deltas, for instance, are lower-caste members designed to work in factories. Through the cloning process, they are systematically given a hatred for books and flowers, both of which are unnecessary and potentially harmful for efficient factory work. In stark contrast, Alphas, members of the highest caste meant to be leaders or thinkers, are designed to be the most beautiful and intelligent. These members are not inhibited by a lack of oxygen or chemical insertions like the lower castes are and, as such, are certain to fill the role of superiors that the government wishes them to. Inside this system, stability is enforced through the manipulation of human nature as Alphas have no reason to overthrow the government that has provided them with luxurious roles and the lower castes are programmed to love their respective roles in society, thus having no reason either. Huxley’s point in Brave New World takes the opposite viewpoint as Orwell’s. Whereas Orwell took the approach that an oppressive government would control the masses through censorship and

The society within Brave New World that Huxley has presented to us is one that gains stability by sacrificing everything else. Religion, emotion, and thought are removed entirely from the minds of those who live within their “utopian” city. A heavy cost for the safety and stability of civilization. Some people might say that recent events in our world may also give the idea that we may be heading in a similar direction. Sacrificing the certain freedoms and liberties, for a stable and “happy” society.

Dystopian novels have become more common over the last century; each ranging from one extreme society to the next. A dystopia, “A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control,”[1] through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, criticizes about current trends, societal norms, or political systems. The society in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is divided in a caste system, in which humans are not individuals, do not have the opportunity to be individuals, and never experience true happiness. These characteristics of the reading point towards a well-structured

Brave New World’s “fictional” society [World State] is practically an extreme, yet logically developed version of our world’s economic values, where economic growth and prosperity is equated with the success of a society. It has several comparisons to the realistic one we live in everyday. Huxley describes this part of his vision as being a “consumer society,” which evidently was satire of the society he was living in and the one that still exists today. In which people buy all they can and keep buying useless consumer items: nice clothes, food, and drugs. People indulge in these items and become so happy that they lose and choose not to care about their personal freedoms, which is why it is so easy for the World State’s citizens to be controlled.