BRAVE NEW WORLD NOTES

o “Reading Brave New World elicits the same disturbing feelings in the reader
which the society it depicts has vanquished”
o Huxley exploits anxieties about Soviet Communism and American capitalism.
Huxley does this to warn society of where we could end up if we are not
careful.
o Lennin was the leader of Soviet Communism. Lenina is a parallel to this
character.
o Communism is evident in Brave New World through the concept of
“everybody belongs to everybody else”
o American capitalism is evident in Brave New World through consumerism.
People are conditioned to consume on a very large scale.
o The price of universal happiness will be the sacrifice of honored shibboleths
(Hebrew: a long held belief or custom which is now considered
unimportant/useless) of our culture: “motherhood,” “home,” “family,”
“freedom,” even “love”. According to the society in Brave New World,
freedom, family, and love are sacrificed in order to invoke universal happiness
in this society.
o Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller of Western Europe (there are 10 World
Controllers), governs a society where all aspects of life are determined by the
state, beginning with conception and conveyor-belt reproduct.
o A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides all roles in the hierarchy.
o Children are raised & conditioned by the state bureaucracy, not bought up by
natural families.
o There are only 10,000 surnames
o Brave New World is centered around both control and manipulation
o He instills the fear that a future world state may rob us of the right to be
happy.
o Setting: 2540AD; referred to in the novel as 632 years AF (“After Ford”),
meaning 632 years after production of the first Model T car
o Narration: Third-person omniscient (all knowing)
o Point-of-View: Narrated in the third person from the point of view of Bernard
or John, but also from the point of view of Lenina, Helmholtz Watson, and
Mustapha Mond

o The novel was originally published in 1932, but the themes in Brave New
World are quite relevant to the world we live in today.
o Some would call the novel prophetic, considering the present state of things:
brain-numbing advances in technology/internet, our tendency to waste time on
meaningless diversions like TV & video games, consumerism surpassing
religion (e.g. Christmas), promiscuity surpassing morality, issues of eugenics,
cloning, stem-cell research and genetic engineering, overly-prescribed and
overly-used medications like anti-depressants and sleeping pills (like “Soma”
of Huxley’s novel)
o Huxley believes that if you want to sustainably control a nation for a long
period of time, you cannot do this through fear as Stalin and Hitler did. He
believes this should be done through propaganda (advertising) and
brainwashing so everyone will be content with their lives. Huxley has created
 a society that is controlled through drugs (soma), propaganda (hypnaepedic
readings), and making people love their slavery through these.
o “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” – A. Huxley.
Your freedom is something you have to protect, you always have to
monitoring who is in power, do not settle. Huxley argues that if you don’t
actively protect your rights and your freedom, you will lose them.
o Huxley views the American democratic system as corrupt. Huxley believes to
be successful in this system you need to be excessively rich and appear to be
sincere and attractive. (Money & marketing). Are we really electing our
leaders on the basis of their moral character?
o Subliminal messaging (where words flash in front of your eyes at such a pace
that you are not consciously aware of it but your subconscious brain takes it
in, so it still affects how you act but you are not aware of it) in advertisements
& political campaigns is parallel to the hypnopaedic teachings in Brave New
World
o Huxley admits advertising is a necessary component to our societies
o The novel is more applicable today than it was in 1932. This is a time of:
 Propaganda
 Censorship
 Conformity
 Genetic engineering
 Social conditioning
 Mindless entertainment
o This was what Huxley saw in our future, his book is a warning.

Do we have a modern soma?

o Consider the number of ads for prescription drugs, which are permitted only in
the US and New Zealand
o Doctors and consumer advocates believe these ads drive up health-care costs
and reduce millions into asking their MDs for drugs they don’t need for
diseases they had never before heard of, like restless leg syndrome
Essential Questions to connect the literature of today’s culture:
o Is it better to be free than to be happy?
o Is freedom compatible with happiness?
o Is the collective more important than the individual?
o Can young people be taught so well that they never question their teachings
later?
o Is stability more important than freedom?
o Can alterations made by advanced science to mankind be made permanent at
the DNA-level?
o Can mankind be conditioned by science?
o Could the individual be limited/controlled for the greater good? If so, how
much?

o “Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty
can’t” – Mustapha Mond (Aldous Huxley). Mustapha Mond says this when
talking to John the Savage.
o “Manmade utopia is an oxymoron” – Mike Duran