Predictions In Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'
In the novel “Brave New World”, by Aldous Huxley, he makes some predictions in 1931 that we today. In this novel we find that the predictions that are made are often related to modern day , 2013. There is many examples, but the four I will talk about today are how advertisements effect the way we view people and things, how birth control leads to promiscuity, how the use of medication is a substance for pain and how cloning is used. The predictions that Aldous Huxley makes in the novel “Brave New World”, is also seen in our society today. A prime example of one prediction that was made by Aldous in the novel “Brave New World” is that of sleep conditioning, which is related to modern day advertisements. In the novel, all the babies are
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conditioned through sleep. In chapter five of the novel he states that “Years of intensive hypnopaedia and, from twelve to seventeen, Malthusian drill three times a week had made the taking of these precautions almost as automatic and inevitable as blinking” (Huxley 80). In this novel the word hypnopaedia means sleep conditioning, or sleep-learning. There is an example in chapter five where Henry states, “Your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren 't a Beta or an Alpha" (Huxley 77). The example is, throughout Henry’s life he was conditioned to be thankful that he wasn’t born a Beta or an Alpha. In today’s society we have condition happing, just not in the same manner. We don’t listen to tapes, but we do see tons of advertisements on a daily basis. One great example is the advertisements on the way women should look. In today’s society a “ideal” women should look like a skinny model. This is displayed not only on posters, but also in many magazines, such as Cosmopolitan. In the April 2013 edition of Cosmopolitan there is an article titled “What Should I weigh?” In this article, done by Jessica Herman, states that, “You should fall into the Body Max Index Chart, in order for you to be at a normal weight” (Jessica 2013). Women are not the only thing that advertisements focus on. Another advertisement that is seen by many is those of drinking. Mike’s Hard Lemonade is a great example. In one specific commercial made by Mike’s Hard Lemonade, It starts off where a doctor is testing a patient with an ultra around machine, and you see inside his stomach where there is a snake figure moving around. The doctor tells the patient that he does not have long to live, so they both go out and buy a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. The slogan that they use is “A Hard Day calls for a Mike’s Hard Lemonade” (YouTube). This advertisement is aimed for the young adults, ages twenty-one to twenty- six, but it is viewed by all age groups, therefore it could make anyone think that by having a drink it would make their day better. Not only do advertisements play a huge role in the way we look at people and things, but we also have been introduced to birth control which has changed the way some people look at sex. Birth control is another prediction that Aldous alluded to in his Novel “Brave New World”. Birth control is used very loosely in today’s society. According to planned parenting.org you just have to make a visit with a health center and fill out a form to get birth control pills, or another method of birth control. The only requirement is that you must have started your cycle in order to get birth control. If you are 17 and under a parent will have to sign for you, because you’re not at a legal age, but if you are 18 or older you can sign for yourself and no one would have to know. The problem with getting birth control is that many girls think that if they are on this pill then it will knock out the chance of them becoming pregnant, therefore they think they can do the act without and consequences. Although it may lower the chances of anything happing, it does not block it out entirely. There is many “benefits” to being on the pill, or any other method, such as it will help clear up your skin, and it will help regulate your periods . Although not all girls, or women, who take birth control are taking it so they lower their chances of pregnant, that is what most women do. The way that this relates to the prediction that Aldous alludes to in the novel, is that everyone is having sex. In the New World Order, children are engaged in sexual games. “Outside, in the garden, it was playtime. Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns, or playing ball games, or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs. The roses were in bloom, two nightingales soliloquized in the boskage, a cuckoo was just going out of tune among the lime trees. The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters” (Huxley 37). This is an example of how children are allowed out in the New World Order. It is very different from what we are used to seeing in today’s society. It is very common for us to hear about teenagers sneaking out and having sex, but not for children to be doing that. In chapter three he also talks about two children who were doing this: “Two children, a little boy about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing, very gravely and with all focused attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sexual game”(Huxley 38). Although birth control is only a pill that women can take, they are many other pills and drugs that get passed around to males and females.
In the novel, the drug that is used is called soma.
This drug “makes all your pain and hurt go away”, they take it like it is no big deal. “Landing on the roof of Henry 's forty-story apartment house in Westminster, they went straight down to the dining-hall. There, in a loud and cheerful company, they ate an excellent meal. Soma was served with the coffee. Lenina took two half-gramme tablets and Henry three” (Huxley 78). When they took soma, it cleared their mind, where they were no longer worried about anything, "You don 't say so," said Lenina politely, not knowing in the least what the Warden had said, but taking her cue from his dramatic pause. When the Warden started booming, she had inconspicuously swallowed half a gramme of soma, with the result that she could now sit, serenely not listening, thinking of nothing at all, but with her large blue eyes fixed on the Warden 's face in an expression of rapt attention” (Huxley98). In today’s society alcohol and drugs are a very common way for people to “escape” from reality, much like the characters in “Brave New World” do with soma. The major difference is drugs today are not as easy to get as they are in the novel. According to a study done by Elsevier Inc, “74 percent of alcoholics will say that they drink to escape their problems, and emotions”, they also state that “ Escape drinkers displayed a significantly stronger attentional bias for alcohol-related inactive cues at longer presentation times (i.e., 2000 ms) …show more content…
compared to non-escape drinkers” (Elsevier). According to Diane Whisnant, a Mcleod worker, there are 754 current patients, although there is more out there that are not looking for help, that are addicted to drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and diazepam, and their job is to help them get off of these drugs by using methadone . Another prediction that I seen in the novel, “Brave New World” was that of cloning.
Cloning is seen throughout this novel as a way to “birth” many children.
In the novel, they clone the babies in Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. In chapter one, he expresses how they will make multiple eggs from one egg. “One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before” (Huxley 17). In the novel, “Brave New World” Aldous made the prediction that in the New World Order there would be cloning. In today’s society we have been a witness to many types of cloning. The most common is cloning foods. In a journal recorded by the Journal of Agricultural Science, “In this study, a total 1737 bp ascorbate oxidase (AO) gene encoding a 578 amino acid protein was cloned from strawberries” (Yuanxiu). Although we are not yet cloning people, I think we are headed in that direction in the near
future.
This novel expresses many predictions that the New World Order will bring. Above are just a few of those examples brought to us by Aldous Huxley in the novel “Brave New World” in the 1930’s. Today we have seen many of these predictions come true, such as the use of advertisements and how they have conditioned us into thinking a certain way, how careless birth control is used, how alcohol and drugs are used, and how cloning is used.
Works Cited:
Forestell, Catherine A., Cheryl L. Dicter, and Chelsie M. Young. “Take Me Away: The Relationship Between Escape Drinking And Attentional Bias For Alcohol-Related Cues.” Alcohol 46.6 (2012): 543-549. Academic Serch Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
Graham, Janis. “Other Reasons to Take the Pill.” WebMD- Better Information. Better health. Web. 20. Arp. 2013
Herman, Jessica. "What should I Weigh."Cosmopolitan 10 Apr. 2013: 35. Print.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World: and Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
Mikes Hard Lemonade. Advertisement. Youtube.com. 20 Apr. 2013. Web.
Sexual & Reproductive Health Services in Charlotte - Charlotte Health Center - Planned Parenthood. Sexual & Reproductive Health - Sex Education - Planned Parenthood. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
Whisnant, Diane. Personal interview. 20 Apr. 2013.
Zhang Xoaonan, et al. “Cloning And Expression Analysis Of An Ascorbate Ozidase (AO) Gene From Strawberry (FragriazAnanassa Cv. Toyonaka).” Journal of Agricultural Science (1916-9752)5.3 (2013): 14-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
conditioned through sleep. In chapter five of the novel he states that “Years of intensive hypnopaedia and, from twelve to seventeen, Malthusian drill three times a week had made the taking of these precautions almost as automatic and inevitable as blinking” (Huxley 80). In this novel the word hypnopaedia means sleep conditioning, or sleep-learning. There is an example in chapter five where Henry states, “Your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren 't a Beta or an Alpha" (Huxley 77). The example is, throughout Henry’s life he was conditioned to be thankful that he wasn’t born a Beta or an Alpha. In today’s society we have condition happing, just not in the same manner. We don’t listen to tapes, but we do see tons of advertisements on a daily basis. One great example is the advertisements on the way women should look. In today’s society a “ideal” women should look like a skinny model. This is displayed not only on posters, but also in many magazines, such as Cosmopolitan. In the April 2013 edition of Cosmopolitan there is an article titled “What Should I weigh?” In this article, done by Jessica Herman, states that, “You should fall into the Body Max Index Chart, in order for you to be at a normal weight” (Jessica 2013). Women are not the only thing that advertisements focus on. Another advertisement that is seen by many is those of drinking. Mike’s Hard Lemonade is a great example. In one specific commercial made by Mike’s Hard Lemonade, It starts off where a doctor is testing a patient with an ultra around machine, and you see inside his stomach where there is a snake figure moving around. The doctor tells the patient that he does not have long to live, so they both go out and buy a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. The slogan that they use is “A Hard Day calls for a Mike’s Hard Lemonade” (YouTube). This advertisement is aimed for the young adults, ages twenty-one to twenty- six, but it is viewed by all age groups, therefore it could make anyone think that by having a drink it would make their day better. Not only do advertisements play a huge role in the way we look at people and things, but we also have been introduced to birth control which has changed the way some people look at sex. Birth control is another prediction that Aldous alluded to in his Novel “Brave New World”. Birth control is used very loosely in today’s society. According to planned parenting.org you just have to make a visit with a health center and fill out a form to get birth control pills, or another method of birth control. The only requirement is that you must have started your cycle in order to get birth control. If you are 17 and under a parent will have to sign for you, because you’re not at a legal age, but if you are 18 or older you can sign for yourself and no one would have to know. The problem with getting birth control is that many girls think that if they are on this pill then it will knock out the chance of them becoming pregnant, therefore they think they can do the act without and consequences. Although it may lower the chances of anything happing, it does not block it out entirely. There is many “benefits” to being on the pill, or any other method, such as it will help clear up your skin, and it will help regulate your periods . Although not all girls, or women, who take birth control are taking it so they lower their chances of pregnant, that is what most women do. The way that this relates to the prediction that Aldous alludes to in the novel, is that everyone is having sex. In the New World Order, children are engaged in sexual games. “Outside, in the garden, it was playtime. Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns, or playing ball games, or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs. The roses were in bloom, two nightingales soliloquized in the boskage, a cuckoo was just going out of tune among the lime trees. The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters” (Huxley 37). This is an example of how children are allowed out in the New World Order. It is very different from what we are used to seeing in today’s society. It is very common for us to hear about teenagers sneaking out and having sex, but not for children to be doing that. In chapter three he also talks about two children who were doing this: “Two children, a little boy about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing, very gravely and with all focused attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sexual game”(Huxley 38). Although birth control is only a pill that women can take, they are many other pills and drugs that get passed around to males and females.
In the novel, the drug that is used is called soma.
This drug “makes all your pain and hurt go away”, they take it like it is no big deal. “Landing on the roof of Henry 's forty-story apartment house in Westminster, they went straight down to the dining-hall. There, in a loud and cheerful company, they ate an excellent meal. Soma was served with the coffee. Lenina took two half-gramme tablets and Henry three” (Huxley 78). When they took soma, it cleared their mind, where they were no longer worried about anything, "You don 't say so," said Lenina politely, not knowing in the least what the Warden had said, but taking her cue from his dramatic pause. When the Warden started booming, she had inconspicuously swallowed half a gramme of soma, with the result that she could now sit, serenely not listening, thinking of nothing at all, but with her large blue eyes fixed on the Warden 's face in an expression of rapt attention” (Huxley98). In today’s society alcohol and drugs are a very common way for people to “escape” from reality, much like the characters in “Brave New World” do with soma. The major difference is drugs today are not as easy to get as they are in the novel. According to a study done by Elsevier Inc, “74 percent of alcoholics will say that they drink to escape their problems, and emotions”, they also state that “ Escape drinkers displayed a significantly stronger attentional bias for alcohol-related inactive cues at longer presentation times (i.e., 2000 ms) …show more content…
compared to non-escape drinkers” (Elsevier). According to Diane Whisnant, a Mcleod worker, there are 754 current patients, although there is more out there that are not looking for help, that are addicted to drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and diazepam, and their job is to help them get off of these drugs by using methadone . Another prediction that I seen in the novel, “Brave New World” was that of cloning.
Cloning is seen throughout this novel as a way to “birth” many children.
In the novel, they clone the babies in Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. In chapter one, he expresses how they will make multiple eggs from one egg. “One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before” (Huxley 17). In the novel, “Brave New World” Aldous made the prediction that in the New World Order there would be cloning. In today’s society we have been a witness to many types of cloning. The most common is cloning foods. In a journal recorded by the Journal of Agricultural Science, “In this study, a total 1737 bp ascorbate oxidase (AO) gene encoding a 578 amino acid protein was cloned from strawberries” (Yuanxiu). Although we are not yet cloning people, I think we are headed in that direction in the near
future.
This novel expresses many predictions that the New World Order will bring. Above are just a few of those examples brought to us by Aldous Huxley in the novel “Brave New World” in the 1930’s. Today we have seen many of these predictions come true, such as the use of advertisements and how they have conditioned us into thinking a certain way, how careless birth control is used, how alcohol and drugs are used, and how cloning is used.
Works Cited:
Forestell, Catherine A., Cheryl L. Dicter, and Chelsie M. Young. “Take Me Away: The Relationship Between Escape Drinking And Attentional Bias For Alcohol-Related Cues.” Alcohol 46.6 (2012): 543-549. Academic Serch Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
Graham, Janis. “Other Reasons to Take the Pill.” WebMD- Better Information. Better health. Web. 20. Arp. 2013
Herman, Jessica. "What should I Weigh."Cosmopolitan 10 Apr. 2013: 35. Print.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World: and Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
Mikes Hard Lemonade. Advertisement. Youtube.com. 20 Apr. 2013. Web.
Sexual & Reproductive Health Services in Charlotte - Charlotte Health Center - Planned Parenthood. Sexual & Reproductive Health - Sex Education - Planned Parenthood. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
Whisnant, Diane. Personal interview. 20 Apr. 2013.
Zhang Xoaonan, et al. “Cloning And Expression Analysis Of An Ascorbate Ozidase (AO) Gene From Strawberry (FragriazAnanassa Cv. Toyonaka).” Journal of Agricultural Science (1916-9752)5.3 (2013): 14-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.