Aldous Huxley

Throughout Brave New World, Huxley describes a vision of the future where the
World Controllers manipulate society through the use of technology, science, and drugs.
In this the novel, individuality does not exist. Humans no longer reproduce to their own liking or want, technicians artificially engineer human eggs. Mass productions of humans are the “norm”. Huxley also creates this peaceful society for the youth by giving a drug called soma, which is an imaginary ideal pleasure drug. Happiness in this dystopian society is gained through physical gratification. By creating a fake sense of happiness,
Huxley presents a society and future where science and technology create conformity in society. Huxley shows multiple ways in which science and technology affects the society, for example artificially engineering human eggs to create a mass production goes back to one of the biggest ideals of the World Controllers, that “everyone belongs to everyone” (Huxley 40). In my opinion, using science and technology to engineer a mass production of humans is immoral. Humans have the right to have children, or not have children, and they are allowed to have as many as they want, can have, or like to have.
By mass producing you are taking the quality of life and taking advantage of it. Life is a sacred thing, and by mass producing humans you are taking the sacredness from it and turning it into an immoral act. Not only are World Controllers mass producing humans, they are giving some humans physical advantages and hindering others. They divided the Bokanovsky eggs into different classes by exposing some to certain temperatures and environments versus exposing all of them to it. “The surrogate goes around slower giving the embryo less oxygen and nothing like oxygen shortage for keeping an embryo below par” (Huxley 14). This practice is immoral not only since dividing babies into classes are wrong, but it is unsafe. Huxley also uses technology for sleep, or hypnopedia. For example, Reuben left the radio on while he slept. As the night continued he began to recite exactly George Bernard Shaw’s speech that was being broadcasted on the radio that night (Huxley 24). The Director of course, had an excuse.
Director stated that it was useless and there was no harm in it, but Reuben could recite the speech word for word even though he did not know what he was saying or the meanings of his words (Huxley 25). This is terrifying as a human. You are being fed propaganda without understanding the meaning of your words. Reuben could be spreading the message along even though he does not realize the message, and this could potentially lead to violence or more corruption. The overtaking of the World Controllers has an effect on society and the citizens, but not all of them. John resists many of the temptations that the World Controllers have offered to his society. His strength and defiance is admirable and inspiring, which truly shows how strong of a character he is. He does not care for societal norms, he sticks to who he is and he stays strong to his roots which we see with his strong love for his birth mother. He is the only person who has a birth mom, so not only is he an outcast for that, but he absolutely adores his mother. An example “But Linda!..Don’t you know me? He had tried so hard, done his very best.” (Huxley 204). A second example of how John resists temptation is his refusal to take the soma, even though it would've saved his mother’s life (Huxley 155). He allows himself to feel his real emotions, even the bad ones, “Listen I beg of you, don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison...poison to the soul as well as the body.” (Huxley 211). John’s society and peers have become so accustomed and addicted to the hallucinant drug they do not understand true happiness. John also resisted his own temptations and desire for Lenina because he believes sex has more meaning than the World State is acknowledging. “He looked down at her for a moment, pale, pained, desiring, and ashamed of his desiring.” (Huxley 169). John’s most inspiring example of his resistance against the World State would probably be his decision not to take soma. In a society that truly depends on soma for a fake happiness, he does not allow that temptation to taunt him. He does not allow himself to change the traditions of society to fit in. The people in the novel took the soma because they were afraid of their own true emotions and they needed a way to escape, which is something I find in our society today, especially with the youth. People are not able to confront their feelings so they use drugs to create an "escape" for them which could lead to dangerous consequences. Unfortunately, John could only stay so strong for so long. He divulged himself into the temptation and took the soma, which he was dissatisfied with so he ends his life. Sadly, he finally conformed to societies beliefs of what was right. John kept a good fight against the World State and all the temptations it gave to his peers and himself to conform, but he was not strong enough. I believe the novel has a great message and it shows how media today affects our society. The media has such a strong role in our society today and how our peers view themselves. The media is able to manipulate people into believing what is "hot" and what is "not", and their influence on us is growing day by day. Our relationship with the media is love/hate. Even though the media can be very harsh and greatly negatively impact us because they are able to criticize and influence us to believe what is cool and what isn't, the media also has a great role in how advanced our communication is today. The media is the source for all communications for our society. Whether is it for a newscast, or radio, or online, the media is the first to know and because of that, we are the first to know. We are able to know news in other countries within minutes of it happens because of how advanced technology and media is. I truly believe without media we would not be as connected as we are. Even though media does have its flaws, like the constant negative influences it portrays in regards to physical appearance and behavior to younger generations, it has been a revolutionary mark for us as a society in terms of connecting worldwide.