FREE ESSAY ON A BRAVE NEW WORLD BY ALDUS HUXLEY

A BRAVE NEW WORLD BY ALDUS HUXLEY

The novel Brave New World is like no other in fantasy and satire. It predicts a future
overpowered by technology where the people have no religion. Has Huxley written about a
degrading way of life or has he discovered the key to a perfect world that should be
called Utopia? This essay will show that upon close analysis the way of life in the novel
is justifiable and all the precautions that are taken are needed to preserve their
lifestyle. This essay will also show that however different and easily looked upon, as
horrible as their lives seem to be, in actuality it is better than ours.
The first argument that would contradict the fact that Brave New World is a Utopia is the
government overpowering the world, causing the loss of freedom and liberty in the people.
Before judging their lives the reader must ask himself one simple question: Is it really
that bad? Obviously no it's not. In the novel, the people don't have to worry about
having a job. One must remember that being born and raised in Utopia, one does not know
what freedom is and therefore does not know what is missing. Freedom leads to happiness,
and if one already possesses happiness, then there is no need for freedom, especially if
your government is making sure that all your needs are satisfied.
Religion plays an important role in people's lives. It represents our principles and
values. Religion guides us, gives us something to believe in and a set of rules to live
by. However, who is to say that one hundred years from now people will still believe and
practice religion? Mustapha Mond when referring to the Holy Bible says that they're old;
they're about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God Now (Huxley, p.237). Mustapha Mond
is saying that with the evolution of time the need for religion has disappeared and has
been replaced by the worship of another God who is Ford. They basically live a fulfilled
life and then they die. Also thanks to their conditioning they do not fear death but
accept it as a way of life. That alone is a task that our world still has not been able
to accomplish. In our world we must go through the ritual of the funeral. After one has
died, his family must go through an enormous task of planning, organizing and dealing
with the death of their now gone loved one.
In utopian civilization, the people are isolated from one another, divided into five
different classes. The classes range from the Alphas, the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas
and finally, the Epsilons. The members of each class are ranked according to their mental
capacity and physical appearance. During the D.H.C.'s lecture to his students he tells
them how by depriving certain embryos of oxygen will affect their stature. The lower the
cast, the shorter the oxygen. (Huxley, p.13) It seems unfair that even before you are
born, your future is already written out for you. However upon further study, one will
realize that this sort of precaution is necessary. In our world, one has to face racism
and stereotypes because people feel threatened by what is different. This conditioning is
how the utopian society eliminated the problem. First of all, each class is conditioned
to love their ranking and to realize that everyone is important and is indispensable to
the society. The i!
mportant thing here is that the lower classes are not jealous of the superior classes but
even believe that their work is too tiring for them. The mental inferiority is very
important for the survival of the utopian society. If the lower classes got too smart
they would want to move up in life and that would ruin the stability of the society.
Another precaution taken to prevent chaos to the society is the restraint of history,
culture and art to the utopian civilization. According to our views, these things are
unquestionably important and we would go as far as saying that we could not live without
them. But for these people, they are insignificant. Education to us leads to knowledge
and for us knowledge is power and power runs the world. However for them there is no need
for education because they do not need power. Power will not get them any farther in life
then what is already written out for them. The only kind of books in Brave New World
accessible to the public are reference books. Books with opinions and emotions are
non-existing. This discretion is needed because those types of books could challenge the
hypnopaedic propaganda served to the people. The hypnopaedia was given for a reason, it
is the tool used to stabilize the society. If stability is threatened so will be the
utopian world.
Of course some will say that they will miss their families and relationships and most of
all, love. But the people in Utopia once again have never experienced any of these. They
were brought up in conditioning centers and feel that parents and family are primitive.
The mere sound of the word annoys them. Mother, he repeated loudly rubbing in the science
; and, leaning back in his chair, these, he said gravely are unpleasant facts; I know it.
But then most historical facts are unpleasant (Huxley, p.23). In our world, parents pass
on to their children their own values and principles. What they may become as a result of
their upbringing could be doctors, lawyers, accountants, robbers, rapists and murderers.
In the utopian society everyone is raised and conditioned the same way abolishing the bad
apples in our society. Monogamy is discouraged by the utopian society and considered
improper  Four months of Henry Foster, without having another man --- why, he'd be
furious!
if he knew... (Huxley, p.40). This restrains peoples from getting too emotionally
involved and putting their loved one's needs before the society's. In the utopian
society, everyone belongs to everyone else.
One might easily point out that these precautions are too extreme. But one thing that can
not be ignored is that in Brave New World there is no war, no diseases and no old age.
For people in our world that would be utopia. In the utopian society, you're so
conditioned that you can't help doing what you ought to do (Huxley, p.244). Thanks to
their conditioning, nobody even considers fighting. And if ever anyone gets angry or
depressed, there is always soma. In our world soma would be seen as a drug and should not
be used. Nevertheless as one of their hypnopaedic quotes says, they used to drink
enormous quantities of alcohol(Huxley, p.53). That statement proves that once again
values are what changes one's views towards situations. Our alcohol is their soma except
for the fact that soma has no side-effects. 
There are only three characters in the Brave New World that do no like their lifestyle.
Bernard Marx is an alpha-plus and therefore should be living the good life. But even
though his mental status is that of an Alpha-plus, his physical appearance is similar to
that of an Epsilon.  They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the
bottle---thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood-surrogate ( Huxley, p.46 )
He quickly becomes an outcast and does not get along with the opposite sex. Bernard
criticizes the utopian civilization until he discovers John the Savage in the savage
reservation and introduces him to society. Bernard then becomes somewhat of a celebrity
and quite popular among the ladies. At that point, Bernard is always bragging about how
many girls he has slept with and stops his complaining about the utopian life. All this
proves that if someone hadn't made that mistake, Bernard would not have become an
outcast, women would have liked!
him and he would have liked this world. Bernard Marx is an exception of bad conditioning,
his life should have been different from the start. 
Helmholtz Watson also does not like the utopian civilization. The problem with him is
they let they him get too smart. That led him to want a better life, a dream he felt was
unobtainable in Utopia. Once again, if his conditioning had been done right and his
intelligence had been controlled, he would not have had a problem with his world. 
Finally, the third character unhappy in Utopia is John or better known as the savage. As
a matter of fact, he should not even be considered as an unhappy civilian because he was
not raised in the utopian civilization but in the savage reservation. He does not like it
because he was not conditioned to be happy with who he is. In the savage reservation, he
learned about God, religion and freedom, all things which are not taught in Utopia. His
values are different from a utopian's. For instance, he beats himself with a rope to get
a good harvest, which proves that a person can not judge others through his or her own
values but through theirs.
In conclusion one can clearly see that human beings can adapt to anything. The question
is: do we want to adapt to a society like Utopia? This is a world that one can not help
but be happy, a world that replaced not destroyed religion, a world that even eliminated
racism and stereotypes. It is a world where you only possess knowledge you need, where
everyone has the same values and principals. Finally here is a world with no war, no
disease and no old age. This question seems difficult to answer at first. Let's rephrase
this question. Forget adapting, is this a world you would want to be born in? That
changes everything because you can no longer judge by your own values, principles and
standards. You now have to picture how much you would like it if you were born there and
followed the same treatment as the others. It was best said by Mustapha Mond at one
point. The key to happiness is enjoying who you are and what you do. ( Huxley )