Brave New World short summary & analysis

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Brave New World Analysis

When I first started reading Brave New World, I thought reading it would be very difficult because of the varied terms but on the contrary I finished it very quickly and I was very impressed with author’s imagination and perspective. This book is one of the classics in the science fiction category.

Brave New World Short Summary

Aldous Huxley’s dystopia takes place in A.F 632 (A.F: After Ford). Ford mentioned here is the famous Henry Ford who invented model T and mass production. Ford was deified and seen as a god. In this utopia there is no parent and parenthood and the words mother and father were considered embarrassing. Mating to give birth is seen as barbaric. That’s why babies are born in the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” with insemination. Their fate is being labelled into categories before they were even born. Categories like Epsilon, Gama, Delta, Alfa. They are being categorised by character and personality traits before they are born. For example, some babies are going to live in the tropical areas, some are going to be a chlorine and lead resistant chemical workers and some are going to be sensual movie producers. The aim in this is, “This is the purpose of all conditioning: to make people love their inevitable fate.” In this new world system where very strict caste system is valid, even clothing, thoughts and wishes have to be different according to the classes. For example, even if the epsilon is a subclass, they are advised to be happy in their sleep that they are an epsilon.

One of the most important points in the New World System is “Hypnopedia”. Babies are learning a lot of things in their sleep. They learn the characteristics of their classes, the importance of consumption - if something is old or worn out, patch it and buy a new one - so that consumption is encouraged. In addition, “Everyone is for everyone” and “Everyone is happy.” or such things are taught for hours in sleep and settled in the consciousness of babies.

There is no monogamy and it seems more normal to be with more than one person. Strong feelings are not wanted. That’s why in this world there is no such thing as love or marriage. To make people relax there are pills which are given as grams called “soma”. The difference from drugs is that you feel like you are on holiday for a short time or up to 1 week and you don't get sick or feel bad when the effect of the pill goes away. These pills are given everyone as a gift from the directors.

Unlike the old world, there are no human characteristics like being sick, old age, obesity etc. Because there are medication and treatment rooms to prevent that constantly.

The New World is based by the “Community, Identity and Stability” rules. They don’t want people to think. They even don’t want people -an individual-. Because it is seen as an example of being unstable.

But there are indigenous people living in Malpais, which is called the other side. There are no examples of civilization mentioned here. Everything is based on the old system. Monogamy, parenting, childbearing, illness, old age, god belief are all here. Bernard and Lenina, from Alpha plus class, come to this area one day and meet John and his mother Linda. Bernard takes these two savages to the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre for testing and presents them to auditor Mustafa Mond. They're starting to test whether John can fit into civilization. But the savage cannot accept these boundless civilizations at all and says that he needs real emotions, suffering, difficulties, and escapes from there and secludes himself. A conversation in the book describes the difference between these two worlds very well:

“What happened John, are you ill? – No I just ate civilization.”

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