Literary analysis of “Brave New World.”
In the Sci-fi futuristic novel “Brave New World”, published in 1932, Aldous Huxley introduces the idea of the utopian society, achieved through technological advancement in biology and chemistry, such as cloning and the use of controlled substances. In his novel, the government succeeds in attaining stability using extreme forms of control, such as sleep teaching, known as conditioning, antidepressant drugs – soma and a strict social caste system. This paper will analyze the relevance of control of society versus individual freedom and happiness to our society through examining how Huxley uses character development and conflict. In the “Brave New World”, Control of society is used to enforce …show more content…

There is no modern day comparison to this absolute hiding of truth. One might want to refer to places like Iran, where religious practices dictate life, or segregated communities like the Amish, who remain outside of the main stream and are in that way don’t have to face the reality of the modern world. However, Mustapha Mond’s character is just one person, who represents the government. He is able to force happiness, by removing all choice even before birth. Using the hypnopaedia, the process of sleep-teaching, even during life, the citizens of the world state have no ability to make choices.
Mustapha’s control removes all choice and in so doing forces a “happiness” on the people. We get no hint of real unhappiness in the world state. In the same way, the time of Huxley, socialism forced upon the people of its time a “happiness”. In contrast, our present society sees happiness as a thing obtained through choice, individual freedom. Even where we have a kind of conditioning, through the media, for example popular culture like television, commercials and magazines, there remains an alternative to each of those sources. The World State has no opposite.
The contrasts to Mustapha Mond, the character who is the heart of all control, are the character of Lenina Crowne is a nineteen-year-old female character of the beta caste, and Bernard Marx, who works