Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: Summary and discussion.

[Bathsheba]

This is a detailed summary...


The novel begins in London in the "year of our Ford 632" (AD 2540 in the Gregorian Calendar). In this world, the vast majority of the population is unified as The World State. An eternally peaceful, stable, plentiful society where everyone believes everyone is happy. In this society, natural reproduction has been done away with and children are born and raised in Hatchery and Conditioning Centres. Society is rigidly divided into five castes, which are carefully engineered by these centres. The castes are: the Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons (with each caste further split into Plus and Minus members). Alphas and Betas are the top level of society: they make decisions, teach, and dictate policy. Each Alpha or Beta is the product of one egg being fertilized and developing into one fetus in artificial wombs located on an assembly line in Hatchery and Conditioning Centres. The other castes, however, are not unique biologically but multiple clones of one fertilization.

All members of society are conditioned with the values that the World State idealizes. Children are trained to identify by their caste, co-operate, copulate, to enjoy anything that is good for Society, and hate anything that is bad for Society. Constant consumption is the bedrock of stability for the World State and one thing everyone is encouraged to consume is the ubiquitous drug, soma. Soma is a mild hallucinogen that makes it possible for everyone to be blissfully oblivious. It has no short-term side effects and induces no hangover, however, long-term abuse leads to death by respiratory failure.

Heterosexual sex is also widely consumed. In The World State, sex is a social activity rather than a means of reproduction and is encouraged from early childhood. Regular reproduction can occur, but is viewed by society as unnatural and repugnant; the few women who could reproduce are conditioned to take birth control. As a result, sexual competition and emotional, romantic relationships are obsolete. Marriage is not only unnecessary, it is considered an antisocial dirty joke because, as the conditioning voice repeats at night, "everyone belongs to everyone else". In World State society, natural birth or pregnancy, is smut of the most vulgar kind. To call someone a mother or father is the lowest insult.

Spending time alone and reading are considered outrageous wastes of time. People are taught to associate in groups and consume entertainment. Also, the World State tries to stop its citizens from having thoughts that are different from the rest of Society.

In The World State, people typically die at age 61 having maintained good health and youthfulness their whole life. Death isn't feared; children are conditioned to view hospitals as happy playgrounds. Since no one has family, they have no ties to mourn.

All consumption is encouraged, no one waits long for anything they desire. Everyone gets everything they are conditioned to want and is, therefore, happy. The caste system eliminates the need for professional competitiveness, people are literally bred to do their jobs and want no other. There is no competition within castes; each caste members receives the same food, housing, and soma rationing as every other member of that caste. Everyone is happy now.

In order to grow closer with members of the same class, citizens must participate in a mock religious services called Solidarity Services. There twelve people consume large quantities of soma and sing hymns. As the ritual progresses, the participants lose their concept of individuality and become one unified body. This is symbolized as at the climax of the the group breaks out into an orgy, where the Arch-Community Songster sings orgie-porgie hymns.

In geographic areas that are non conducive to easy living and consumption, The World State allows well controlled, securely contained groups of "savages" to live. (One such "Savage Reservation" is located in the western desert of the United States.) On reservations, savages reproduce normally.

In its first chapters, the novel describes life in the World State and introduces Lenina and Bernard. Lenina, a Beta, is an average, beautiful, desired woman, while Bernard, a psychologist, is an outcast. Although an Alpha, Bernard is shorter than average -- a quality shared by the lower castes. He also defies social norms and secretly stews in a hatred of his equals. His work with sleep-teaching has led him to realize that people's deepest values are really just repeated phrases. Courting disaster, he is vocal about being different, once stating he dislikes soma because he'd "rather be himself, sad, than another person, happy". Bernard's differences fuel rumors that he was accidentally administered alcohol while incubated, a method used for creating lower intelligence in Epsilons.

Bernard is obsessed with Lenina, attributing noble qualities and poetic potentials to her despite evidence otherwise. A woman who seldom questions her own motivations, Lenina is reprimanded by her friends because she is not promiscuous enough. Both fascinated and disturbed by Bernard, she responds to Bernard's advances to dispel her reputation for being too selective.

Bernard's only friend is Helmholtz Watson, an Alpha-Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing). Helmholtz is also an outcast, but unlike Bernard, it is because he is too gifted and handsome. Helmholtz, successful, charming, attractive, is drawn to Bernard as a confidant: he can talk to Bernard about his desire to write poetry. Bernard likes Helmholtz because, unlike anyone else, Helmholtz likes Bernard. He is also, Bernard realizes jealously, everything Bernard will never be.


(Taken from Wiki)

In 1980, Brave New World was removed from classrooms in Miller, Missouri among other challenges. In 1993, an attempt was made to remove this novel from a California school's required reading list because it "centered around negative activity".

The American Library Association ranks Brave New World as #52 on their list of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990?2000.


Amazing that it has been a banned book in some American schools so recently.

[Trillian]

Bath, you are a woman after my own heart. This was my absolute favourite book to study at school.

Fascinating though that some american schools sought to ban it. I wonder if it hit too close to home over there? I do think that as a society we have come to be like that book to a certain extent. We rely on governments to tell us what is right and wrong and blindly 'follow the leader' and accept they are right (think Iraq ) and anyone who questions that is seen to be in opposition kwim?

[Bathsheba]

Sherie: I read this book in year 10. It had a deep impact on me, as did Orwell's 1984 (read the same year, I think we had to compare/discuss them as an English assignment). Not a month passes when something I hear in the news or read in the papers or read here in BB makes me think of BNW. If anything, MORE students need to read it. When I feel that my DD is old enough I'll give it to her.

A contemporary novel that would 'prime' a teen to read these kind of thought-provoking futuristic novels is Gemma Malley's The Declaration. ...my favourite novel of 2007.

[Chalalan]

I read BNW a couple of years ago. Reading your summary Bath was excellent, because I've forgotten so much about it. I remembered little things like the Bible and Shakespeare hidden away in a locked safe(?) and funerals / crematoriums being places where the resources in your body were reclaimed. And the eternally optimistic and joyus Soma.
But I'd forgotten who the main characters were and the story line....this is why I can read books lots of times , I forget them in between reads so all is well!

Can you refresh my memory, did our protagonist end up living with the savages permanently? I can't remember.

I remember thinking that the ending of 1984 was so much more powerful than BNW's ending. I just loved how Winston became the believer - it was so twisted and just so ...right? It just worked for me, this broken man, sitting in the tea house drinking gin and being seen as an, I dont know how to describe it, but a respected man of the party who had earned his faith?

Have you read other Huxley novels? I haven't, but I keep meaning to.

[Hollybolly]

Bath, I had to read BNW & 1984 for my HSC - to do a comparison on them both as well!

The 3rd one we had to do was 'Utopia'... that was similar, yet completely different as well... BNW was definately my fav of the 3 ... I remember thinking about the cloning etc at the time and how clever it would really be if they could really do that .... must have cursed myself because I'm gearing up for IVF stim cycle #5!!!

I can't even remember who wrote Utopia, (I'll have to google it as it will eat at me now ), but I remember thinking at the time that the situation in the novel was as far away as possible from what I would consider 'Utopia' to be

Saying that - I was 17 when I read them all - would definately be worth reading them all now at 31.

One of my piano students is doing BNW for her HSC this year.. I asked her about 1984 & Utopia, but shes only doing the one.