Brave New World - Summary by Lauren Villanueva and Adalia Pang (Team 1) The novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley is about an organized, perfect, Utopian society. It takes place in London, 632 A.F. (or years after Ford.) In our years, 632 A.F. would be up to the year 2495. Henry Ford's mass production of the Model-T led to the idea of mass-produced people.The book starts in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The motto of the World State is Community, Identity, Stability. In the hatchery, the Bokanovsky process takes place. This process divides a bokanovskied egg from eight to ninety-six humans. The World State is the Society that is organized, people are always content, and is the perfect, ideal society. There are organized classes, Alphas are the highest, then the Betas, Gammas, Deltas and the Epsilons, each born into a specific job. Epsilons do the dirty jobs, like a sewage worker, and from there the chain works its way up to the jobs of Alphas as overseers and directors. The reason being conditioning is to force people to enjoy their inescapable destiny. Conditioning includes luring babies to lowers and books and as soon as they reach out for it, an alarm or mild shock is sound. The hatchery uses the discovery of hypnopaedia, or sleep- teaching as a form of conditioning. It was discovered when a Polish boy's parents accidentally left the radio on and the next day, the boy was able to repeat what he had heard. The main character, Bernard Marx, an Alpha male who works as a psychologist in the Psychology Bureau. We can tell that Bernard is different from his other colleagues and the attitude he has towards the society shows off his individuality. One of the reasons for Bernard's individualism is that when he was "still in the bottle," alcohol was mistakenly added into his blood- surrogate. Lenina Crowne is the girl- to- want in London. However, she has done illegal acts in her lifetime because she has dated one guy, Henry Foster, regularly. Bernard Marx makes several passes at Lenina until he is finally able to convince her to consider going out with him. Fanny Crowne, Lenina's good friend, tries to persuade Lenina that dating Bernard would be a bad idea due to his experience with alcohol. As Lenina meets with Henry Foster for their date, Bernard waits for his good friend, Helmholtz Watson. Helmholtz, although a great writer for the Utopian propaganda, he believes that he is destined to write against the Utopian way of life. The famous clock, "Big Henry" (or as we know it today, Big Ben) reminds Bernard to go to his meeting for the Solidarity Service. In this meeting, there is the use of rituals and religious service to summon Ford himself. When the sound of footsteps are heard, all the members of the society excites in his presence. As part of the ritual, ice cream strawberry soma is passed around while a chant is being repeated. The members speak in unison to combine twelve different voices into one. Sick of being so unique compared to the rest of the members, Bernard pretends to hear the footsteps of Ford, although he hears nothing. Their Solidarity Service is like communion in church. Instead of wine and bread, they all take part of something with soma in it. They worshiped Ford, like how Christians worship God. The "twelve in one" concept in the Solidarity Service is like "three in one," Father, Spirit, Son, known in Christianity.
Lenina Crowne's solution to most of her problem's are soma. Bernard's diversity upsets Lenina so much, that she believes that he should start taking soma. Bernard, however, still wants to take Lenina into the Savage Reservation. As Bernard confronts the D.H.C. for permission to go to the Savage Reservation, he is stumbled upon threatening news. The D.H.C promises to exile Bernard into Iceland unless he is able to change how diverse he is. When both Lenina and Bernard both landed in the Savage Reservation, Lenina immediately notices how horrible the sanitation is. In the event of a flagellation, Lenina shutters at the sight of a young boy being whipped. Lenina is surprised, however, to find that another young boy, John, would prefer to be hit. For the sake of Pueblo, Pookong, and Jesus, John wanted to be whipped. He also wanted to make the rain come and corn to grow, as well as prove that he can bear the pain. John, the savage, then introduces his mother, Linda.
Linda was from the World Society, left out on the Savage Reservation by her former mate, Tomakin, who is also the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. However, she is now overweight, old, smelly and everything opposite of the Society's Ways. We learn about John's past, how he learned to read from Shakespeare and the biology book from the Society that Linda had. John is very independent and has heard much about the Society, which he calls "brave new world." This thought changed when Bernard took Lenina, Linda and John back to London. Bernard believed that by taking Linda and John to Director Thomas, he can convince him to turn against his promise to exile him to Iceland. Bernard's plan ended up working because due to embarrassment, Director Thomas, or ex- director, resigns his job as a director. By bringing a savage to the society, excitement stirred. Bernard began to enjoy his new found popularity among the society and the women. The people who were suffering, however, were Helmoltz, because his good friend's new bragging and spoiled attitude disturbed him. John, the savage, was suffering as well due to the amount of work he was forced to do. John was constrained to have publicity meetings with those who wanted to meet him and those who have never met a savage before. Lenina, who has never been with a savage before, believed that it was time she has. After taking doses of soma, she runs up to John's room, hoping that she can finally be with him. However, by trying to come to close to John scares him, as he yells her out of the room. When John receives a call concerning his mother, he flees the room, and Lenina is able to leave safely. At the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying, John rushes to his mother's side. In confusion and weakness, Linda mistakes her son for her former lover, Pope. John, in anger, shakes Linda by her shoulders, causing her to choke from lack of air. As John calls for the nurse, Linda dies being surrounded by kids being death- conditioned. Upset for being the cause of his mother's death, John makes his way out of the hospital. As an act of freedom, John tries to get rid of all of the doses of soma by dumping them out of the window. The savage believed that soma imprisons people and that by not taking the soma, they will be set free. In the need to suppress him, the hospital calls Bernard and Helmholtz. Once they reach the hospital, Helmholtz rushes to John's side and helps out by throwing out the soma. While Bernard decides whether to help them out, Helmoltz and John are suppressed, as well as Bernard, and they are brought to Mustapha Mond. Mustapha is one of the top ten controllers of the World and a huge part of the Society. As Mustapha discusses with John the reasons for the non- existance of Shakespeare and other old literature, Bernard hands all responsibility for problems over to John and Helmholtz. Finally, John is exiled to an old light house, and separated from both Bernard and Helmholtz. At the lighthouse, he asks for forgiveness of his sins, asks to be purified and to be "good again." He prays to Jesus and Pookong and his guardian animal, the eagle. Although wanting to be alone, reporters discover John's hiding place and continuously annoy John with reports for feelies. They are fascinated with John because he whips himself, forces himself to drink mustard and water and they have never seen someone bring pain upon themselves. The days continue when the crowd come and go, however the number of people showing up seem to get larger and larger. This frustrates and angers John, as he left the Society to be at peace with himself and remove the temptations that he had with Lenina. When Lenina steps out of the helicopter, with the whole crowd chanting "we want the whip!" he sucumbs to using it, which is exactly what they all wanted. When he awakes the next morning, he is so upset, he commmits sucide by hanging himself. This book shows the psychological affects of a society where happiness is better than the truth, where science and technology limit and devalue the rights of human nature, where you have no challenges because you were born into your class and job, and if you feel uncomfortable, just take soma to make everything better. In the utopia found in this society, it leads you to believe that you are always happy with yourself and with lack of troubles. With a utopia, comes strict rules, and with breaking strict rules there are harsh punishments. This book expresses the dangers of using utopia as a way of living. These dangers can lead to the fall of the society and the whole way of life the country has spent building up its power. Victims of these dangers include John the Savage, Helmholtz Watson, and Bernard Marx. As these characters believed in a different way of life other than that of a "perfect society," it caused them to stand out from the rest and therefore be exiled. When there is a majority, of course the minorities are going to be picked out. Brave New World was a great book, and makes us think about how we use our technology today. |