Brave New World Review

Brave New World, a futuristic novel set in 2450, harbors the idea of a perfect society. Aldous Huxley writes to fix to the wrongs in the world, through “education” of the castes, “calming” drugs, and frequent, non-meaningful sex. In this London set novel, nothing is truly meaningful. Children are bred in test tubes and hatched and conditioned at a young age. This conditioning sets them up for their castes, a sort of social class system, where the all-powerful alphas run the society and the semi-retarded epsilons perform menial tasks. Everyone has a predestined role from birth, no changing, and absolutely no complaining. It’s a utopian ideal, everyone’s happy, everyone has what they want, and everything’s based on logical principles. But say you’re not happy? Simply take some SOMA, a calming effective drug that can even knock you out for a couple days if you really need some time off. The quote “A gram is better than a damn,” really makes the reader question whether this SOMA is a good or a bad thing. But still, what better way to spend your Saturday than at a “Feely,” watching movie porn and being high off your ass? Or if you really need a social setting, just attend a solidarity service; there’s food, drink, friends, and a nice orgy at the end. So say that you still can’t get over the fact that society is so screwed up that you decide to take a stand about it, well if you do, how does Iceland sound? How about an island off the coast of absolutely nowhere? Since you really have no choice, due to the strict rule of the World Controllers, you might as well give up. This is the reason behind the savage turn of events in the very last chapter of the novel, turning the story upside-down. The future may seem perfect, but really, nothing about it is.  

            Bernard Marx, psychologist, is extraordinarily unhappy with his very uneventful life, he strives for imperfection, and for something different. Lenina, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is very happy with her life and just wishes for Bernard to be too; she can’t handle new things and likes to live in the way that was set for her. John, the savage turned normal, or almost normal, wishes to live in a society that was never meant for him, which causes him hardships and an upsetting end to his life. Although these characters strive for their own personal perfection, finding it deems harder than originally planned.     

            Huxley’s idea of modern society was a bit more than far fetched, but even with the baby hatching, drug using, sex craving society, it’s worth a couple hours of your time to see what Huxley really thought the world could be. His fantasy future holds up to be one of his most enduring masterpieces, showing how even the perfect society, has imperfections.