Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Society: Community, identity and stability (main aspects) are nearly perfect.

Everybody belongs to one group of people: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Alphas are people with high abilities and knowledge. They work for example as scientists. Epsilons are the last group in this hierarchy. They can´t read and do low work. Epsilons are the only black group. If somebody is an Alpha or an Epsilon is decided by doctors when their life starts. All babies are made in bottles were chemicals influence their development. After the unbotteling electro shocks and sleep-teaching is used to condition the babies till they are 12. So nearly nobody asks why he isn’t an Alpha, because this conditioning erases the real person. The identity is forced by Bokanovsky groups. This means that from one egg up to 94 twins are born.

Nothing that can be compared with marriage does exist. So family life has disappeared.

A drug called soma is used by everyone. It isn’t illegal. But nobody of the lower classes knows that it is drug. Every day after the work they get their ration. This helps people to be happy all the time. This leads to the stability the world controller wants.

Religion: The whole story is set in 632 A.F. (Anno Fordii). Henry Ford lived from 1863 to 1947. His book “My Life and Work” is like the “Holy Bible” in our days. The “Fordson community singery” building is like our church. And the “T” as a religious sign is like the crucifix. The “T” comes from Model T which was the name of the first mass-produced car.

Story: Bernard Marx is an Alpha plus. He and his friend Helmholz Watson think that there must be more than this life. Lenina is a Betha. She works in the Hatching and Conditioning Center were the babies and children live. She is very good looking. She tried all the Alpha plus men in the center. The last one is Bernard. He offers her to make a trip to the savage reservation. Before they fly to the reservation Bernard´s director tells him the story about a girl who got lost when he was in the reservation with her. When Lenina and Bernard arrive at the reservation they make a trip to the village. A blond boy lives in the village. After having talked to his mother Bernard knows that the woman is the lost girl. The boy is her and the director´s son. The boy wasn’t accepted in the village. Because of this he agrees when Bernard asks him if he wants to come to the “Other Place”. The boy is a real attraction for the citizens of the “Other Place”. In the beginning John, the savage, likes the new world but he doesn’t want to take soma. John falls in love with Lenina but she doesn’t understand that he doesn’t want to share her with other men. Once John tries to tell a group of Deltas that they will be free if they stop taking soma. After a fight he and his friends Helmholz and Bernard are brought to the world controller of Europe. Mustapha Mond talks with John about Shakespeare because this is the only book John has ever read. He explains that this is now a forbidden book. During this dialog Bernard loses controll. He is brought to hospital. The world controller decides to send the two Alpha plus on a island where other people live who are to individual. John doesn’t know what to do. After some time he finds an old lighthouse where he wants to live. But after a few days of peaceful life some people find him. Next day hundreds of helicopters come to the lighthouse for visiting the strange “animal”. John commits suicide.

The Author: Aldous Huxley

He was born in 1894. He came from a family of brilliant scientists. They want him to be a doctor. The book “Brave New World” appeared in 1932. In 1963 Huxley died.