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A \"perfect\" world
Like in Orwell\'s 1984, the system is very strict, but the big difference is that people don\'t
have to be punished and kept under surveillance all the time, they are conditioned to be
happy with what they are so that the danger of a revolution by the lower classes is not given
though there is such a tight system of class society.
*) There is no overpopulation and no unemployment because the quantity of the decanted babies is adapted to the number of free jobs.
*) There are no diseases (everybody is automatically vaccinated against different illnesses so that epidemics have no chance to break out) and no fear of dying: children are conditioned not to fear it (like John sees it after his mother\'s death).
*) There is no depression and tristesse: if somebody does not feel good, he or she simply takes a small dose of soma. People of the Brave New World are unable to face pain and grief.
*) There are many facilities for leisure such as obstacle golf, Escalator squash and feelies(movies one can feel) to keep people from thinking too much.
Malcontents in the Brave New World
Bernard Marx
Through a little mistake during his pre-natal phase (probably too much alcohol was put in his blood-surrogate), he is an outsider. Being an alpha, he is supposed to be outgoing, tall and handsome, but instead, he looks like a dwarf and is introverted and shy with women. Because of this, he is scorned by women and bullied by the other alphas.
John, the \"Savage\"
His thinking about life in the reservation is ambiguous: Born to civilized parents, but grown up between savages, he is part a primitive and part an intelligent (he taught himself with the help of Shakespeare) being. He who believes in God is shocked about the loose morality and about the strange rituals they do instead of praying. Such individual passions as love and belief have given way to promiscuity and communal spirit. He cannot get along with his love for Lenina and punishes himself with living as a hermit and whipping himself each time he has to think of her. As this attracts attention and a sensation-seeking crowd decsends on him, he finds no other way out than suicide.
Both of those outsiders are victims of accidents: neither the alcohol in Bernards blood-surrogate nor John\'s birth through a real mother was intentional. They do not fit into society anymore and fail: Bernard exiles to the Falkland Islands and John commits suicide.
It is impossible for individuals to find a satifactory life: neither in the sterile and loveless Europe nor the dirty and bestial life of the Indians in New Mexico.
QUOTES FROM THE BOOK
(a) \"And that\", put in the director sententiously, \"that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you\'ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.\' (p.31)
(b) \"Till at last the child\'s mind IS these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions IS the child\'s mind. And not the child\'s mind only. The adult\'s mind too - all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides - made up of those suggestions. But all these suggestions are OUR suggestions! Suggestions from the State.\"(p.43)
(c) "...And I was so ashamed. Just think of it: me, a Beta - having a baby: put yourself in my place.\" (p.126)
(d) \"Soma may make you lose a few years in time\" the doctor went on. \"But think of the enourmous, immeasurable durations it can give you out of time. Every soma holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity.\" (p.157)
(e) \"Not until...Listen, Lenina; in Malpais people get married.\" \"Get what?\" The irritation had begun to creep back into her voice. What was he talking about now?\"For always. They make a promise to live together for always.\" \"What a horrible idea!\" Lenina was genuinely shocked. (p.191)
(f) \"Oh, look, look!\" They spoke in low, scared voices. \"Whatever is the matter with her? Why is she so fat?\" They had never seen a face like hers before - had never seen a face that was not youthful and taut-skinned, a body that had ceased to be slim and upright.(p.201)
(g) \"Don\'t you want to be free and men? Don\'t you even understand what manhood and freedom are?\" (...) \"I\'ll make you free whether you want or not.\" And pushing a window that looked on to the inner court of the hospital, he began to throw the little pill-boxes of soma tablets in handfuls out into the area. (p.212)
(h) From a safe distance and still rubbing his buttocks, \"Benighted fool!\" shouted the man from THE FORDIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, why don\'t you take soma?\" The other retreated a few steps, then turned round again. \"Evil\'s an unreality if you take a couple of grammes.\" \"Get away!\" The Savage shook his fist. (p.247)
PERSONAL OPINION
I was very fascinated by Huxley\'s idea of the future though it is very shocking because it sounds so likely to come true in a much closer future. I think that the feelings of the various characters are shown in a brilliant way.
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