The Dystopian Society of Brave New World
The Director’s Explanation of Human Growth
The Director explains to students the process by which humans grow within
bottles and then are “conditioned” (i.e.,
brainwashed) to create moral “truths.” This conditioning, which is also known as “hypnopaedia,” teaches people to believe in the value of the company over the individual. Everyone exists to serve the community. Their role is to be consumers and
workers, which remains stable and strong in the economy by buying a lot of clothes, using long transport, doing the work, etc.
The Caste System
For the system to function, it more easily divides humans into several castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alphas are smart, tall, and muscular; the Epsilons are short, unintelligent, and unattractive. These people believe that the best way to subjugate non-Alphas is by giving them dangerous substances while still in the test tube. In this case, they use alcohol and deprive them of oxygen. Also, the low castes are raised in batches, so that 100 Epsilons are exact copies.
Introducing Lenina and Henry
Then we meet two other characters, Lenina Crowne and Henry Foster, who work in the nursery. Lenina is beautiful, and Henry sleeps with her. And he is not alone. But this situation is normal. In the World State, making love is nothing special; it is done every day and is explicit. “We all belong to each other,” which means that if a man wants to sleep with a woman, he says it publicly and lies. Also, the orgies are required biweekly events.
The Role of Soma
The other main activity of this world is taking a narcotic called soma, a drug that takes the user to the “moon eternity,” i.e., a psychedelic escape from reality. We get most of this information during the visit of the Director, and the rest is told by Mustapha Mond, a leading man who is one of the ten World Controllers. Mustapha explained that the world was getting worse, and the population said, “We can no more! Please quit freedom and individuality in the name of universal stability.” And the rulers said, “Okay.” Now there is no war, no sadness, no individuality, no history, no literature, no families, and no emotional ties to others. Loneliness, scientific freedom, and religion are not allowed. (God was replaced by “Ford” as in Henry Ford.) But there is no sex, and plenty.
Bernard Marx’s Isolation
Bernard Marx, an Alpha psychologist, has the appearance of the most Alpha, but he is short. Bernard feels isolated because he is “different,” and all the time spent alone allows him to see big issues such as, “I wish that everyone were not so promiscuous and could take love seriously,” and, “Lenina, I like you but would prefer to have a long talk with you instead of sex.”
Meeting Helmholtz Watson
Then we meet Helmholtz Watson, another man who shares Bernard’s Alpha discontent with their controlled and structured lives, but he is handsome like the rest of the Alphas. Helmholtz is very handsome. In fact, when we first meet him, three women propose to have an orgy with him. However, he refuses and talks to Bernard about how dissatisfied they are with life. As he writes hypnopaedia baseless phrases all day, he hopes to create something more intense and passionate but does not know what it could be.
Bernard and Lenina’s Trip
Then there is the appointment of Bernard and Lenina. They are planning a trip to a Reservation in New Mexico: a part of the world that is not “updated” in the sense of technology, mind control, dystopia, etc. Before leaving, Bernard has to get signed permission from the Director, his boss we met at the beginning of the novel.
The Director’s Revelation
The Director accidentally reveals that he also visited the reservation when he was younger, and a woman. He lost the woman there. She got lost in the reservation, could not be found, and he returned alone. The Director is ashamed of this personal revelation.
Arrival at the Reservation
Bernard goes on vacation with Lenina. Unfortunately, upon arrival, he receives a call from Helmholtz, who says that the Director thinks of deporting Bernard to an island. (It seems that the islands are places for misfits.) Instead of being proud of his individuality, Bernard gets hysterical and finally escapes his problems with soma. There is a guided tour of the Reservation. Lenina is horrified to see what’s there. Everyone is dirty, wearing smelly clothes, and all. Instead, Bernard examines the “wild” with scientific fervor. John, a white man who grew up on the reservation, approaches them. Soon we hear the story: John’s mother came to the Reservation from “Another Place,” abandoned there, and then gave birth to John. Bernard realizes that John is the son of the Director. He has a lightbulb moment, thinking, “Blackmail!”
John and Lenina’s Relationship
Meanwhile, John and Lenina are falling in love. John takes Lenina and Bernard home, and there they meet his mother, Linda. John and Bernard have much in common because John is different physically, and John is the only white person in the area, and because his mother is promiscuous. Very promiscuous. In fact, the only thing that brought him during his childhood was a book his mother found for her, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
Bernard’s Manipulation
Bernard, still thinking of blackmail, lies and calls Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, agreeing that it would be scientifically interesting to take John and Linda to the civilized world to see.
Confrontation with the Director
Bernard does. He goes to the factory where the Director makes a scene to fire him and declare his deportation to an island. John responds to Bernard, saying he is excited to meet his father, and Linda reveals that the Director is a ruined father. He runs out of the room and resigns.
A Tragic Social Experiment
Thus, a very large and tragically misinformed social experiment begins. Linda becomes a complete soma drug addict and basically says goodbye to reality. Everyone realizes that this will kill her shortly, but nobody cares except John, and nobody pays any attention. Bernard begins to march with John as his personal discovery, as Bernard becomes famous, which helps compensate for his stature. Now that he is very famous, Bernard forgets his previous desire to be an individual. Helmholtz instead befriends John, and both read the book of Shakespeare that John brought. Helmholtz finally realizes that he can write things intense and passionate.
John’s Struggle with Society
Meanwhile, the civilized world is impressed with John. He likes all the technology and comfort, but they are horrified by the process of growing human beings and the fact that the lower castes exist in batches of dozens of identical clones.
John’s Values Clash with Lenina’s
He still likes Lenina, but where John grew up, chastity is very important to marriage. Lenina asks him to make love with her, and John gets mad, calls her a “bitch,” and quotes a few lines from Shakespeare discussing how one should not break their virginity before the marital bond. Then John receives a call telling him that his mother (Linda) is dying and leaves in a hurry.
Linda’s Death
Linda, still intoxicated from the soma, dies shortly after John’s arrival. He is devastated, but in this new world, no one believes that death is important because of their conditioning from the cradle. John gets angry about this and also about the circumstances of his mother’s death and the fact that Lenina is just trying to steal his virginity. Then he goes mad. He finds a Delta group waiting for their daily ration of soma and throws dozens of boxes of drugs out the window. He tries to explain to them that they can only be free without it. This causes unrest. Bernard and Helmholtz Watson arrive just before the police, who pacify the Delta with soma and arrest the three men (John is with them too).
Mustapha Mond’s Revelation
It turns out that they are taken to see Mustapha Mond, where Bernard betrays his friends. He says it is all their fault. They take him somewhere else.
Helmholtz’s Acceptance
Mustapha reveals that physical science is resigned to serve universal happiness. He tells Helmholtz that being exiled on an island is the best thing in the world because he can meet all the people who did not want to undergo brainwashing. Helmholtz agrees and will go, gladly anticipating his new life on an island.
John’s Final Decision
John and Mustapha are left in the office. They have long discussions about literature, teaching, passion, emotion, suffering, and God. John concludes that he does not want a life where people are always happy. He wants the freedom to be unhappy and to suffer.
John’s Escape
Despite this great conversation, Mustapha does not let John live on an island with Helmholtz. He wants to continue with his social experiment. Furious, John flees to an abandoned lighthouse and begins to whip himself and forgo food. Everything goes well until word spreads, and journalists besiege the lighthouse. They record his self-deprivation, and a popular film is made of it. Everyone is so desensitized to human suffering that they think it’s exciting to see a whipping man.
The Climax
Eventually, Lenina reaches the lighthouse. John hates her because he wants her sexually, then whips her, and then whips Lenina. Of course, he is watched by a great crowd because they want to see the live movie. People are so excited and involved in the scene that they also whip. Afterward, everything becomes an orgy, which would make sense as violence and sex are closely related for most of the novel.
John’s Tragic End
The next day, after everyone has left, John wakes up and “remembers everything” during the frenzied orgy he had with Lenina. Overwhelmed with guilt, John hangs from the rafters of the lighthouse, and the novel ends with the image of John’s body turning slowly in the air.