Shocking Science Fiction - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Shocking Science Fiction - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
The brilliant social satirist Aldous Huxley shocked the world in 1932 with the publication of his science fiction masterpiece Brave New World. The novel takes place in the cities of London and New Mexico during the year of 632 A.F. (After Ford). It is a future world of absolute stability and total sterility with one concern- happiness for all (Wright 84). In his foreword to the New Harper edition of Brave New World, Huxley states its theme as œthe advancement of science as it affects human individuals. While these advances are universally thought to be tremendous progress in our growth as human beings, Huxley feelings towards this evolution are of danger, caution, and concern ( Monarch 6).
The novel starts out in the heart of the new society, the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, where babies are chemically and genetically engineered in test-tubes, decanted, and then conditioned by hypnopaedia (teaching societal ethics during sleep) to be unquestionably œhappy (Macdonald 1). To ensure social stability, a five-tiered caste system ruled by Alphas and Betas was created. The lower castes, the Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, identical in genetic makeup, are responsible for the essential manual labor necessary to maintain the safety of their betters. The drug soma, rationed out to members of all classes, ensures total sexual liberation and no pain or sorrow (Wright 85 ).
Bernard Marx, an Alpha believed to have accidentally received a dose of alcohol as a fetus, has a crush on Lenina Crowne and decides to take a trip with her to the Native American Reservations. There they meet Linda, a woman originally from the Utopian world who had been left on the Reservation twenty-five years earlier, and her son John. John father was the prestigious Director of the Hatchery who, in order to avoid the embarrassment and disgust of a conceived child born with a live birth, returned home without Linda. Bernard invites Linda and John to return with him to London ( ClassicNotes 4). Enchanted by the prospect of meeting others like Lenina, John exultantly quotes from Shakespeare The Tempest: œO brave new world that has such people in it ( Wright 85 ).
The impact of their arrival was colossal resulting in instant celebrity for Bernard as the keeper of the Savage (John). Reveling in his sudden popularity, Bernard starts to date numerous women...