Brave New World
Brave New World, by English writer Aldous Huxley, was published in 1931. For the themes/satire contained in the book it’s hard to believe it came from the 30’s. Without wasting any time, the book starts off in the hatchery where they grow humans. The World State uses advanced technology to Control Society. Fetuses are condition before and after birth for the task that they are going to do in life. They are placed into one of the classes and are conditioned to accept it. ” Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for everyone else.” In a sense this is a parody of the British caste system. It shows how ridiculous the class system is. Even thought everyone works for everyone there are still people that have to do more work than others.
No matter what class, all citizens in the World State are conditioned to be consumers and to “consume manufactured goods”. Huxley is taking capitalism to the extreme because of the consumerism behavior in his time. He puts Henry Ford in the book maybe because Ford created a mass produced car for every American.
There is a lot of sex in this book for being published in the 30’s. For the people of the World State sex is a natural part of life. There is no bad feelings out it. From a early age children are conditioned to think that “Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release.”
In the World State happiness and truth cannot exist together. People are constantly taking the drug soma to replace reality with the illusion of happiness. The World denies its’ citizens the ability of love and true friendships. “Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness.”
Some people don’t fit into the World State. “All the people who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life.” Are shipped to Island where people are free and even allowed to practice “pure science”.