Brave New World
Background and Important Information
Aldous Huxley
• Born in 1894 and died 1963
• Born into a family of scientists
• Had poor eyesight that kept him from science, so he turned to
literature
• Concerned about the threats of power and technilogical progress
• Wrote Brave New World BEFORE WWII and Hitler’s rise to power.
Brave New World
• Published in 1932
• Set in London about 600 years in the future (from the year it was
published)
• Takes Huxley’s interests in society and behaviorism to an
extreme level of dictatorship disguised as democracy
Huxley’s Predictions
• Totalitarianism: a political system in which the state holds total
authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of
public and private life wherever possible.
Huxley’s Predictions (contin.)
• Four important aspects to a successful totalitarianism (how
to produce a love of servitude:
• Improved technique of suggestion: infant conditioning & drugs
• Developed science of human differences: enabling government to
assign individuals their place in society
• Escape from reality: a perfected narcotic/alcohol with less harm
and more pleasure
• Fool-proof system of eugenics: facilitate and standardize the
human “product” (improve genetic quality of humans)
Huxley’s View
• Huxley believed that control will be in the form of people being distracted
by meaningless aspects of society and pleasure
• Government would control, not through force, but through values placed on
simple and easy entertainment and distractions (sports, games, sex, etc. )
• There would not be a specific ban on intellectual materials (books), but
people would not want them, nor understand them.
Themes
• Individual in society
• Corruption of Power
• Spirituality
• Insanity
• Complete acceptance of government
• Class distinctions
Themes (contin.)
• Tragic Hero
• Alienation/Isolation
• Internal/External Conflicts
• Science/Technology
• Dystopia
• Human Nature
Society in Brave New World
• World State: planetary unified society
• The world was in such chaos that people gave up their
individuality and freedom for stability
• No more war, sadness, individuality, literature, scientific
freedom, religion
• No more God, replaced by Henry Ford (inventor assembly line)
• Scientific exploration & innovation has created a “stable” society
Class Systems in Brave New World
• Alpha & Beta: Attractive, intelligent, rulers (but also
followers) of society.
• Gamma, Delta, Epsilon: Short, unintelligent, mindless
drones of society.
Characters
• Bernard Marx: An alpha-plus hypnopaedic expert who is
isolated beacause of his physical differences (he is short) and
dislikes the infantile behavior of his peers
• Helmholtz Watson: An alpha-plus hypnopaedic writer who is
attractive but is also dissatisfied with society, and his inability
to write anything meaningful
• John: A “Native American” who is brought into the World State
and suffers confusion and temptation
Characters (contin.)
• Mustapha Mond: One of the 10 world controllers
• Lenina Crowne: An attractive, but empty-headed
girl who is lusted after, but who is completely
invested in the conditions of society