Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a particularly challenging text to read. There are many ideas throughout the book that test the reader to look beyond what is normal or typically accepted, forcing an unexpected thought or feeling in the process. For instance the opening chapter of the book explains how children are raised in test tubes, coached from fertilization for their predetermined station in life, and then taught subliminally until they reach adulthood. Promiscuity is encouraged while being alone and thinking abstract, original thoughts is punishable. The society of A.F. 632 seems very organized and neat but it jars the reader into wondering what civilization actually is.
The constructs of civility are what the text primarily challenges the reader to think about. This new society is made up of people who are neat, clean, and systematically planned for their lives from the time they are conceived in their test tubes. It is as if nothing can go wrong for them because nothing is left to chance. Everybody knows the rules and nobody dares break them. Lenina Crowne is a good example of this, as she goes out of her way for most of the book to meet all of society’s expectations of her. Brave New World shows us the constructs of this civil society and what it takes to belong there through Lenina. We feel the joy of belonging but also the struggle to maintain that belonging. The text challenges us further by introducing Bernard Marx who does not fit in, despite the meticulous planning of his birth and place in life. He is antisocial which seems to horrify and offend those around him: “’And then he spends most of his time by himself – alone!’ There was horror in Fanny’s voice.” We see here that even the most civil of societies can have its flaws. Bernard does not fit in, nor does he want to, and he is resentful of those who do. He disagrees with the calm, listless lifestyle his peers lead, citing “I want to know what passion isI want to feel something strongly.” (94) We see here that though there is comfort in the planned world of A.F. 632 not everybody is pleased with how things are. Still things seem civilized until we meet John the Savage.
When Marx and Crowne meet John, a man born on a New Mexico Savage Reservation to a woman who used to belong to civilized society we meet our greatest challenge as readers; when John returns to the World State it creates a juxtaposition that forces us to question who the real savages are. He immediately rejects everything about the way of life there and we see that everything that seemed so “civilized” about this futuristic wonderland was actually a manipulative trick. The text uses John’s rejection of everything the World State has to offer to let us see that the utopia of tomorrow is actually disguised as a strangulating dystopia that must be avoided.
After a calamity involving John, wherein the savage “the right to grow old and ugly and impotent” (240), Marx’s antisocial behavior becomes too much to bear and he is informed that he will be punished. He is being shipped to an island with other offenders like himself. This is a punishment that has caused him a lot of pain and torment throughout the novel and the news is devastating to him. However as he has time to contemplate his new fate he realizes that the island is inhabited by people guilty of the same offense as him, which means that they are like him. Slowly he sees that he will finally be in a place that he can truly be himself. As readers we see that Marx is not being punished for acting out against the confines of the World State but actually being rewarded for them. It is in this way that the text suggests we be ourselves even if we are threatened for doing so. The outcome may be better than what we expected.
Brave New World is a complicated book. There are many ideas and themes to draw ideas and emotions from but one that remains the strongest is, ironically, to be brave. The world around us may not be exactly as we see it. We must be brave, question what is around us, and look beyond it. It is only when we look outside our constructed comfort zone that we may truly understand where we belong.
References
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1932. Print.
