Transcript Brave New World By: Aldous Huxley A satirical piece of fiction; a warning to future generations ALDOUS HUXLEY  Born in England, July 1894  Had poor.

Brave New World
By: Aldous Huxley
A satirical piece of
fiction; a warning to
future generations
ALDOUS HUXLEY
 Born in England, July 1894
 Had poor vision for most of his life from
an eye disease
 Family consisted of scientists, writers,
and teachers
 Received an excellent education with
access to numerous fields of study
 Huxley was especially interested in
science and the English language;
therefore, he combined the two in his
writings
 His writings put him ahead of his time
SATIRE
 A piece of literature designed to ridicule the
subject of the work
 While satire is usually meant to be
humorous (it isn’t always), it aims to shed
light on the problems in society and shame it
into improvement
 Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and sarcasm
are just a few techniques that are almost
always present in satire
 Aims to shed light on a number of different
issues: political, religious, or social
 Can you think of some examples of
satirizing material in today’s culture?
What is the Brave New
World ?
 Published 1932, just before the break out of WWII
 Deals with the conflict between the interests of an individual
and what’s best for society – can one be true to oneself and
still be socially responsible?
 Brave New World is a dystopian society where things go
badly awry in which a totalitarian government controls
society through the use of science and technology
 Supposed to be a perfect world but it is not – flaws should
be expected because humans are imperfect
 Unsettling, loveless, and even sinister place
 Everyone has a specific place/job in society - castes
 Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller of Western Europe,
governs a society where all aspects of an individual's life are
determined by the state, beginning with conception and
conveyor-belt reproduction – genetic engineering
 A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides all roles
in the hierarchy.
 Children are raised and conditioned by the state
bureaucracy, not brought up by natural families.
 There are only 10,000
surnames
 Citizens must not fall in love,
marry, or have their own
children
 Centered around control and
manipulation
 Individualism is the root of all
evil
 Propaganda is spread to hate others
 settings (place): England, Savage Reservation
in New Mexico
 settings (time): 2540 AD; referred to in the
novel as 632 years AF (“After Ford”), meaning
632 years after production of the first Model T
car
 point of view: Narrated in the third person
from the point of view of Bernard or John, but
also from the point of view of Lenina,
Helmholtz Watson, and Mustapha Mond
 This novel is more applicable today than it was in 1932.
This is a time of:
 propaganda, censorship, conformity, genetic
engineering, social conditioning, and mindless
entertainment
 This was what Huxley saw in our future. His book is a
warning.
 Do you think he was right?
So what is “soma”?
 A hallucinogenic drug given to the
citizens of the World State in order to
subdue them
 The government describes it as “the
perfect drug” with all of the benefits
including a ten-hour high and none of
the guilt or hangover
 Citizens are conditioned to love the
drug and they use it to escape any
bouts of dissatisfaction
 One character in the novel starts to see
that the citizens are enslaved by the
drug and it turns them into mindless
drones
 Discussion: Is our society still
dependent on drugs?
Major Characters
 John – only major character to grow up outside of the World State
and hard to fit into the World State society; his entire worldview is
based on what he knows from Shakespeare’s plays
 Bernard Marx – Alpha male who fails to fit in because of his inferior
physical stature leading to his discontentment with the World State;
has unorthodox beliefs about sexual relationships, sports, and
community events; can be petty and cruel when threatened
 Helmholtz Watson – prime example of the Alpha male, but feels his
work at the College of Emotional Engineering is empty and
meaningless; he is friends with Bernard because they both are
discontent with the World State; Helmholtz’s complaints are more
philosophical and intellectual than Bernard’s petty complaints
 Lenina Crowne – vaccination worker at the Central London
Hatchery and Conditioning Centre; she is an object of desire
for many characters including John and Bernard; her values
are those of a conventional World State citizens and relates
to others primarily through sex
 Mustapha Mond – one of only ten World Controllers; given
the choice to live in exile or become a World Controller when
some illicit research of his was discovered; gave up science
and now censors scientific discoveries and exiles people for
unorthodox beliefs; keeps a collection of forbidden literature
including Shakespeare; Mond is the most powerful character
in the novel
 Discussion: do any of these characters truly sound happy?
Brave New World
Activity
 Individually write down all of the qualities you think a
“perfect” society should have – 5 minutes
 Then, as a class, we will compile a list of all, if not
most, of the qualities that you came up with
 We will then decide the top 5 most important qualities a
society should have as a class
 As you read, think about if the class’s perception of the
“perfect” society coincides with the society of the World
State