Brave New World: Embrace the Chaos | Teen Ink

Brave New World: Embrace the Chaos

April 12, 2023
By zhoukate BRONZE, Hudson, Ohio
zhoukate BRONZE, Hudson, Ohio
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Brave New World is a dystopian novel written by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1932. The story takes place in the future year AF (After Ford) 632 New London and is run by a government called The World State, where its citizens are created in test tubes, placed in castes, and brainwashed to stay obedient. This book explores themes such as technology, individuality, existentialism, and consumerism and how they affect future humanity.
In the Brave New World of New London, the citizens are genetically engineered in test tubes to fit in specific castes and conditioned to serve the government by doing specific jobs. The highest caste is the Alpha class. Alphas are the most intelligent and have some free will, as they are conditioned to be future leaders. The next level, Beta, consists of citizens who are somewhat intelligent, but who are conditioned to be the working class. Deltas, on the other hand, are people who complete factory jobs. The lowest class is called Epsilon and this caste is made up of those who accomplish menial jobs. Genetic manipulation and social conditioning compel each citizen to perform their assigned job with efficiency, contentment, and even joy. If unrest does crop up, the population is brainwashed to stay obedient with a calming and antidepressant-like drug called Soma. 
Bernard Marx, an Alpha member of the ruling class, asks Lenina, a Beta, to visit the Savage Reservation in New Mexico with him. Bernard asks for permission to visit the Reservation from the Director who tells him about how a woman visited the Reservation twenty years earlier but was lost in a storm and never returned. He approves the permit and Bernard and Lenina set off for the Reservation. Bernard then hears from Helmholtz Watson, a friend of his, that the Director is planning to exile him when he returns due to his odd behaviors. 
As they begin to explore beyond their society on the reservation, Bernard and Lenina find a group of individuals who reject a society that expects them to stay obedient and instead live with full freedom. On this New Mexican Savage Reservation, the citizens possess emotions that are banned in World State. There, Bernard and Lenina witness a religious ritual and then meet John, the son of Linda, who was banished from World State because she rejected their norms. John grows up knowing nothing about the values of the World State as his mother was rescued by the people from this village twenty years ago. At that instant, Bernard realizes that this is the woman that the Director was talking about. Bernard and Lenina bring John and Linda to World State and the Director decides not to exile him because of this. After exploring the brave new world, John watches his mother die in the hospital due to an overdose of Soma.
John then meets a group of Deltas who are receiving a Soma ration. John tries to persuade them to stop taking the mind-numbing drug and throws the Soma out the window, which ignites a riot. Ironically, authorities must drop soma spray on the crowd to calm them down. John, Bernard, and Helmholtz are arrested and sent to Mustapha Mond, the Resident World Controller of Western Europe. John and Mond debate about the policies of the World State. John asserts his strong opinions that the government dehumanizes the citizens, while Mond argues that stability and happiness are more important than learning and freedom. Later Helmholtz and Bernard are exiled to distant islands while John retreats to a lighthouse and in the end hangs himself[due to guilt and shame. On the way adventure in the new world, John seeks the truth but fails to find it because of the constant conditioning the citizens for happiness. John’s suicide may be Huxley’s way of suggesting that there might not be a truth for John to find. 
Through his dystopian novel, Brave New World, Huxley satirizes the negative effects of human engagement with technology, science, emotions, community, freedom, and the future. The author spends the first two chapters on explaining how the technology and caste system work in society, as they play an important role in the story. The government and the citizens believe that technology creates stability in the community including control of reproduction and control of emotions using Soma. The State focuses on happiness and stability and engineers every aspect of society to avoid pain, suffering, inefficiency, and instability. Huxley’s satirical argument suggests that the equitable and perfect world they have created, in reality, contradicts its purpose: the perfect world is not perfect at all. Huxley wants the reader to realize that the most valuable human trait is the ability to think freely and make intelligent choices based on values, logic, and personal emotion, but in World State, there is no room for this type of freedom and humanity, as it creates instability and chaos. Huxley raises the most fascinating question that even though most people today believe that technology, science, and progress are positive advancements for our future, they may lead us astray. They probably already have, as many of Huxley’s predictions have already come true. 


The author's comments:

My name is Kate Zhou, a sophomore at a private high school in the United States. This is a book review I wrote this month after reading Brave New World suggested by a book club.


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