PLOT: The novel opens in London in 632 AF. Genetic engineering and mutations take man away from nature. The society is divided into five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. People are controlled by technology and drugs; a psychedelic drug called soma gives people the illusion to be happy and free. The protagonist of the novel is Bernard Marx. With his alienation from society, he is pushed to look for something that doesn’t exist in his world. He visits a reservation in Mexico with his girlfriend Lenina where people still live as in the ‘old world’ where he meets John “The Savage”. John and his mother have been banned from The New World because she had become pregnant naturally and John is not a laboratory clone. Bernard decided to bring John back with him, but he is unable to find a place in the world and escape his alienation and this leads him to suicide.
BRIEF COMMENTARY:
In Huxley's world, there is no place for differences: everybody has to be equal to others (within the boundaries of caste); everything that characterizes a person from another is eliminated: love, friendship, pregnancy and intellect. In the novel, there are many parallels between ‘the new world’ and his present society. Huxley felt the desire to express the social phenomenon of alienation, due to the advent of dictatorships and the evolution of technology.
VIDEO SUMMARY
ALDOUS HUXLEY
1894 - 1963
INTEREST IN SCIENCE
THE RISKS OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
DRUG AND SEX AS FORMS OF
ENTERTAINMENT AND HAPPINESS
USE OF PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS (SOMA)
HUMAN CLONING
GENETIC MANIPULATION
EUGENETICS
BRAVE NEW WORLD - 1932
A MIXTURE OF SCIENCE FICTION
AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY -
A POWERFUL PROPHETIC BOOK
THREE SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
MUSTAPHA MOND
LINDA
LENINA
TWO MAIN CHARACTERS:
BERNARD MARX AND
JOHN THE SAVAGE
JOHN THE SAVAGE IS A MAN WHO COMES
FROM THE OLD WORLD, A SORT OF RESERVATION
IN NEW MEXICO
BERNARD IS AN ALPHA PLUS MAN
DISSATISFIED WITH THIS "PERFECT" WORLD
SOCIETY DIVIDED INTO CASTS, INDIVIDUALS
SELECTED SINCE BIRTH: ALPHAS, BETAS,
GAMMAS, DELTAS AND EPSILONS
AND CONDITIONED TO STICK TO THEIR ROLE
NO FREE WILL
NO INDIVIDUALITY
HAPPINESS IS GUARANTEED BY
INSTANT GRATIFICATION AND
MINDLESS ENTERTAINMENT
PEOPLE ARE SEDATED AND CONTROLLED
BY USING SOMA, A KIND OF DRUG, SEX
(OCCASIONAL AND PROMISCUOUS)
AND TECHNOLOGY (TV, CINEMA, MUSIC)
THE IDEA OF MATERNITY, MARRIAGE
AND FAMILY HAVE DISAPPEARED
SET IN 7th CENTURY AF
(AFTER FORD) IN LONDON
FORDISM
(HENRY FORD)
STANDARDIZED,
LOW-COST GOODS
MASS PRODUCTION
MECHANIZED
ASSEMBLY LINE
TITLE FROM "THE TEMPEST"
BY SHAKESPEARE
1958: HE PUBLISHED
BRAVE NEW WORLD REVISITED
1954: HE PUBLISHED AN ESSAY
"THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION"
1938: HE MOVED TO CALIFORNIA
WHERE HE LIVED FOR 25 YEARS
HE GREW UP IN A FAMILY OF BIOLOGISTS AND NATURAL SCIENTISTS
