The Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World, reveals how life and relationships between individuals would be like in the terms of Utopian society. This kind of society requires every individual living within it to look for perfection in life and environment, in which everyone shares the same opinions and beliefs, so there is no disruption within the built system. Just like a normal society, Utopian one consists of males and females, living among each other and developing connections, however, everything in their lives is controlled by the government, so the situation would be different, than in a normal society. In this society, the citizens are kept regulated with the use of a drug called “Soma.” In many ways, it is a world that people would dream about, since there are no negative aspects in life and everything is peaceful, however, relationship goals between males and females are different than in a normal society.
Lenina Crowne, a very beautiful woman, is usually described as pneumatic one in the book. The use of term “pneumatic” is to describe Lenina’s sexual nature. Lenina is very convinced in the beliefs of Utopian society and she is happy and satisfied by being conditioned and following the standards set for people, hence, she does not want to change anything in her life’s standards she has been conditioned to. Lenina is very consistent, but her relationship with two males, Bernard and John, caused some distraction in her life.
Lenina is quite intelligent, she is trying not to not cause any troubles and that is why she prefers to stick with the system’s conditions, even though she has some non-conformity issues within her, but she still tries to hide them inside herself. Since her character is a pure product of this new world, she rejects normal emotions and feelings that a normal human would have. As a result, she does not understand why John is interested in her (from a physical manner), so she ends up making attempts to attract him. However, John considers her attempts as violent, so he does not like what she is doing. Moreover, he has this unexpected reaction of slapping and hitting her, by trying to convince her that he is indeed not interested in her, although he does have feelings for her, but he is trying his best to ignore them. He has just found out his mother died, because of a Soma overdose and so his emotions are mixing together, consequently, by causing him to become violent and angry.
Then we have Bernard Marx, who shows thoughts and opinions that are different from those that society expects from him. Bernard goes through an extreme transformation in which he is not taking the Soma, which he is apparently supposed to take and does not follow the standards of society. However, after an interaction with John the Savage, he begins to take Soma, which makes him interested in women. As a result, he invites the latter to the parties, and takes a completely new vision of what life could be. However, this does not last for a while, as he realized that some people that were once his friends are not interested in him anymore. These feelings started when he discovers that the only reason people paid him attention was because of the drugs. ( will write about relation with lenina)
The book explains how the society based on science and technology would maintain the world in the concepts of an environment’s identity. For example, instead of natural childbirth, children are born out of test tubes through embryonic transfer. As they are grown up, they are divided into Alpha, Gamma, Betaetc. This division is based on their skills and intelligence level and a variety of other factors. One of the society’s main beliefs is helping to control citizens by making them happy using Soma, a drug that regulates mood and allows the individuals to forget negative emotions. There is even evidence of methodologies being utilized today. Braidotti (1996) stated that “This shift of perspective, redefines the terms of the relationships between technology and art. If in a typical humanistic framework both may appear as opposites, in postmodernity, they are more inter-connected.”
The relationship between males and females is different in each society due to many factors. The usage of science and technology can be an important aspect, which can control individuals’ feelings and emotions, by making them thinking and acting in a certain way. This is why it is difficult to determine whether the other society’s beliefs and standards are normal, and the majority of people will argue about that.
Works Cited
Braidotti, Rosi. Cyberfeminism with a Difference. N.p., 3 July 1996. Web. 15 July 2016.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1932.
288. Print.
