Fiche on: Brave new world by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley:
1894-1963
Who is he?
Family: literary and scientific tradition, his father, a scientist, was nicknamed “Darwin’s bulldog”.
What is his book about?
It is a dystopian world in which totalitarian government controlled society by the use of science and technology.
Through its explanation, he shows that, linking science, technology and politics may reduce human individuality
Context of the writing:
The book was written in the 30s, between the two wars, one year before Hitler…
Reminder: definition of an utopia: it is an imaginary society, organized to create ideal condition for human beings, eliminating pain, neglect etc.
Sometimes, utopia is used to make a satire of the current society and to describe the horrors of a planned or totalitarian society. In that case (in BNW for example), we call it a dystopia.
Plot overview:
The novel opens in “the year of our Ford 632”.
Description of the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Center where is produced nearly identical human embryos. (the humans are no more the fruit of procreation, which is now a taboo subject: you don’t talk about a mother or a father…)
These babies are conditioned to belong to one of the five castes: Alpha (the leaders), Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.
Each of the castes is conditioned to be slightly less physically and intellectually impressive.
After their birth, they are not educated like in our society, they learn everything (even what used to be personal like happiness, what they like…) while they are sleeping. A voice is talking during their sleep, repeating many times the same things for months.
Ex: “Everybody is happy here” or “I am happy to be an Bet, I wouldn’t like to be an Alpha, a Gamma etc…”
As for the relationship between men and women, it is the contrary than now. It is impolite to stay with the same person; they have to date many people!
Plus, they all take (and it is cheered by the State) some “Soma”,