An Analysis of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World Essay

Brave New World is a novel written in the early 1930’s about a Utopian society where everyone lives in peace and harmony with each other and with themselves. However we may not perceive it as such as the author of the novel, Aldous Huxley, has used this Utopia to describe a Dystopia he feels will soon be reflective of our own world. He expresses that this New World is nothing but flawed as this peace and harmony is only an illusion, being achieved by the blissful state of ignorance the entire society live in. These flaws are visible throughout the basis of society; social, intellectual, educational, political, religious and economical structures in The World State in Brave New World.
In a world that is meant to be perfect there are too many flaws that are merely waiting to come to head. In one such situation that these imperfections are evident is in the Social structure of the World State. The World Controllers of the World State want to build automatic people who are in a sense programmed into doing certain jobs. They don’t think, they just obey and do what the controllers want them to do. The citizens of the world state are no longer having viviparous births, they are being harvested for their reproductive cells which are then fertilized and grown in test tubes where these embryos are psychologically and physically conditioned to do specific jobs when they grow into adults. "it’s liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny." This quote portrays the condemnation of these humans into their ‘inescapable destinies.’ Masses of Humans are created to be used in society as puppets to keep the society running, pre-programming them to populate the world efficiently. They are being forced through psychological means to be content with whatever the world state has in store for each embryo. This is a major flaw in society as humans are no longer in control of themselves, they are instead being forced to do what the World controllers want them to do without having any idea of the intellectual freedom they are being robbed off therefore forcing them to live in a blissful state of ignorance.
The flaws in the social structure are inextricably linked to the intellectual and educational structures of The World State. The citizens of the world state are not born but are rather created in masses. These masses are conditioned into castes ranging from the Alpha caste which produces humans who are in a sense perfect, degrading to Beta, Gamma, Delta and finally the Epsilon Caste in which these humans are created for the sole purpose of working as hard labour, doing the least admirable jobs, being mostly unattractive and possessing a very low level of intellectuality. “An Alpha conditioned man would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-Moron Work. Alpha’s can be completely socialized but only on the condition that you make them do Alpha work. Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices.... His conditioning has laid down rails along which he has got to run. He can’t help himself; he is foredoomed.” This quote showcases the inequality of the humans in this society. The epsilons are labelled as ‘Semi Moron’ while the Alpha’s are given better treatment, being conditioned to lead more prosperous lives. The main reason castes are created is so that the Alpha humans, who think themselves to be superior to the other castes, do not have to endure doing the dirty jobs and can have an ego boost. The flaw in the intellectual structure of the World State revolves around the fact of inequality between all these humans that is achieved through conditioning. These people aren't merely "born" into their inescapable class; they are deliberately, violently imprisoned in it from conception onwards.
Intellectuality depends on the type of education a person receives. As mentioned before the flaws in the social structure are inextricably linked to intellectuality and education, therefore the education the citizens of the World state receive will have obvious flaws in them. The people in Brave New World do not go to school or have parents that teach them values and morals, instead they are taught everything through different processes of conditioning; hypnopaedia, human conditioning and behaviourism. “ Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they are so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad that i’m a beta, because i don’t work so hard. And then we are so much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and the Delta children wear khaki. Oh no i don’t want to play with the delta children. And epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, the wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad that I’m a Beta.” Children are being taught their values from a sleep teaching technique in masses and these values, as seen in the quote, are biased for every caste, forcing people to believe that they’re self worth is much more than anyone else in society, producing egotistical humans. This is a flaw in the Brave New World society as these values prevent people from other castes from associating with each other, ultimately degrading the social structure of the society as these people have no intellectual freedom to choose their own friends, jobs or destinies.
The political basis of the World State is ultimately where the flaws began; now stretching into the social, intellectual, educational, economical and religious structures of the state. “...Right up to the time of the Nine Years War. That made them change their tune alright. What’s the point of truth and beauty when they anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science was first controlled - after the Nine Years War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We’ve gone on controlling ever since then. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness.” This quote portrays the contorted aim the World Controllers have for the benefit of society. They believe that people will be much happier without truth or beauty, that controlling science to hide truth and beauty and to use it as means in controlling people is beneficial for the society. To some extent it is true, though it is only possible because these people are living in a blissful state of ignorance. They are being forced into thinking that their society is a utopia where everyone is happy, but this is obviously not the case as the very basis of the society is full of flaws, contorting the perception of happiness everyone seems to have in this society.
Since this society is run solely on scientific means, we can conclude that there are no religious sentiments in this society. Rather, the citizens of the world State revere to a man who is seen as the instigator of this society, Henry Ford. He is the man that created the standardized manufacturing instrument for creating products in masses, called the assembly line, which is where the idea of mass productions of humans was proposed. In this sense the economical and religious structures of this society is inter-related as there are no gods or religion in society but the citizens revere to Henry Ford as a leader who has helped in building the economy of this modern world. “phosphorus recovery... Fine to think we can go on being socially useful. Making plants grow... all men are physico-chemically equal.... do you know what that switchback was? It was some human finally and definitely disappearing. Going up in a squirt of hot gas”. This quote portrays how humans are recycled after death for chemicals that can be used in the world state. This sort of mentality is what flaws the economy and religious ideologies as people have lost all purpose to life and become insignificant, being recycled like products and thinking that if one person dies another can be created straight away, instead of valuing life and using religion as a tool for finding a purpose to life.
In conclusion, the citizens of the World State have been led to believe that they live in a utopia, where everyone is set for eternal happiness. But we perceive it as a dystopia because of the contorted aim of eternal happiness the society is pushing for, built upon the many flaws that lace this society. Brave New World is a perfect example of a dystopian society and the World State is a perfect example of a flawed society.