Dystopian Futuristic Society in the Novel Brave New World

Aldous Huxley’s Brave new world sets the scene within a dystopian futuristic society in which humans are genetically produced and engineered into the quintessential form of being. Set in the year 2540, this complexly themed novel encaptures one vital subject question of personal happiness v. eternal freedom. The Novel begins with a brief overview of the composition of their society, and how it is constructed. We are introduced to the Director in London, at the Hatch and Research center, where we are shown how all life forms are created. Here eggs are fertilized to create the perfect human. Then we are shown the ‘conditioning rooms’ where infants and children are mentally prepared for their future social status. The first group of babies we are introduced to are called deltas. Deltas are the lowest form of social member.

We see that they are placed into a room with books and flowers. When the babies try and reach for either of these objects, they are electrically shocked, conditioning these babies to hate and reject books and nature, so they will stay inside factories in their adult life, and not try to leave to study education or nature. We are then shown an outdoor garden where we see naked children engaged in sexual activity, encouraging them to be sexually and socially outgoing. Throughout the course of this novel, many themes are presented strongly such as; Technological advancement v. human nature, love v. societal nature, action v. apathy, quest for knowledge, religion v. society, family v. social acceptance as well as many more, but these scattered thematic aspects could be comprised under one substantial theme; happiness v. freedom. Huxley poses this question many times throughout the novel, as well as making it a strong focal point, reintroduced through almost every stage of the story. In the beginning we are introduced to the main character Bernard Marx, and right away we are shown his personality and values of freedom over happiness through a series of events.

The first example we see of this is when Bernard is conversing with his roomate Helmholtz Watson, over their divergent views that they disagree with the lack of monogamous relationships, and the substantial use of the drug soma. Soma is taken because in this society where people are genetically engineered to not have freedom of feelings, this drug is used to replace their lack of feelings to make them ‘happy’. Bernard believes that people should have freedom to think their own thoughts and make their own choices, and create their own happiness, instead of this temporary artificial state of feeling.

 Bernard Marx is a seemingly complex character who in our opinion, has not quite earned the title of protagonist nor antagonist. Judging by his major role in the story, I can not believe him to be simply a bystander eiter. The reasoning behind our unpopular opinion is due to the way Huxley decided to introduce Bernard throughout the course of the story; constantly changing your viewpoint and the way you (as the reader) feel about him. Bernard starts out in the story as a very unconfident unorthodox character who feels he is unlike the other men in his society, as he is more petite and quiet compared to the others. On the contrary, he is very ingenious and intellectual which leads him to hold divergent views on the morals of his dystopian society. Due to this, most would perceive him as the protagonist just because he doesn’t agree with the sexual and substantially amount of drug use among his peers, but we chose to disagree with this simply because Bernard only cretics his peers instead of trying to act upon it and change the moral corruption of his society.

Multiple times we see Bernard trying to accommodate to the rest of society instead of standing up for what he believes in.  Unlike Bernard, John The Savage has been perceived very positively throughout the novel, earning, in our opinion, the title of the protagonist. In a world where ‘babies’ and ‘families’ are severely frowned upon, John was born as a result of a brief love affair between a highly respected and feared director, and a women named Linda. After she had found out about her pregnancy, in the fear of being disgraced by her family, young pregnant Linda retires to a ‘savage’ reservation, where natural births are accepted, and encouraged. Throughout his life John embodies the teachings of the reservation, and develops a very conservative view of the world. When discovered by the English traveller Bernard, he takes him back to his hometown in London to expose his foul Director for natural childbirth,which is something he is so publicly against. Due to Johns controversial ideologies and coarse state, he quickly undertakes the name; John The Savage.

Unlike Bernard, John constantly fights for his views on human rights, trying to educate the people on a more natural approach on life.  Brave new world is a timeless work of art. When we first read this book, we were not aware of when it was originally written, in fact, we had personally thought the book could have been written within this decade. To our surprise it was written in in 1931. Like said above, at the time this novel was written, it was deemed uncanny due to the extensive amount of heresy and unorthodox ideas such as the extensive amount of drug use and sexual references, as well as the dystopian views. The reason why this novel thrived back when it as first published as well aswell as today is because of its timeless theme and relevance. The theme happiness v. freedom is something many people can relate to on a personal level, despite the era. During the 1930s, WWII was still in play, and because of this, we can predict that many people actually struggled with this question of happiness v. freedom, for example; Hitler was clearly a ruthless, evil leader in the worlds eyes, but to Germany, he was like their pure savior.

This is because He promised his people happiness through taking away their freedom of interaction with the rest of the world, and as a result, the German people were gives secluded, artificial temporary happiness. We see the same questions posed today, for example; School dress code. Many students want the freedom to express themselves, but schools want to enforce a stricter dress code, limiting freedom for parental happiness. Huxley’s book accurately compares the reality to the fantasy of “what if”. We can both agree that Brave New World Is probably one of the best books weve ever read. The novel was very easy to read itself, and displayed exciting action throughout every scene of the book. The aspects if the story was clear, and very relatable. The only thing we disagreed with the book was the extensive talk about sexual encounters, but we understand it was placed into the book only to shape its dystopian plot line. In saying this, we would strongly recommend this novel to only a mature audience, and would give it a 8/10 rating, respectively. 

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