Brave New World (1932) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Lenina Crowne: Worker at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre;
• Henry Foster: Director of Hatching and Conditioning.
• Bernard Marx: The protagonist Alpha male who does not fit in with the homogenized class system. He is much shorter and much more different than all of the other Alpha males.
• John the Savage: Deemed a savage in the Brave New World, John's love of Shakespeare has little place in the futuristic utopia.
• Linda: John's mother;
• Helmholtz Watson: Bernard's companion in the sense that he is also mentally different (thinking of the individual); however, Helmholtz is not cynical. Looking for the greater good of his kind. While Bernard wants to feel a sense of belonging to his community, Hemholtz wants to separate..
• Mustapha Mond: One of the World Controllers.
• Pope: Linda's lover in the Reservation. Has an accent over the e, and speaks Spanish, a dead language. Is seen very little as the entire story goes on.
• Fanny Crowne: Friend to Lenina (no relation).
• Benito Hoover: Typical man in BNW.

Quotes edit see section history

• “The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.”

• “The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offense is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?”

• “Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else.”

• “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.”

• “The Controller shrugged his shoulders, "Because <Shakespeare's> old; that's the chief reason <it's prohibited>." We haven't any use for old things here...Particularly when they are beautiful. Beauty's attractive and we don't want people to be attractive to old things. We want them to like the new ones."”

• “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrown by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

  The Controller Mustapha Mond

• “It isn't only art that incompatible with happiness; it's also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.”

  The Controller

• “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry. I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

  John 'the Savage'

• “All conditioning aims at that: making people like their un-escapable social destiny.”

• “'....It's curious,' he went on after a little pause, 'to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to have imagined that it could be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific research was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods....'”

  Mustapha Mond

• “Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.”

• “‘Trust Henry Foster to be the perfect gentleman - always correct. And then there’s the Director to think of. You know what a stickler…’Nodding, ‘He patted me on the behind this afternoon.’ said Lenina.‘There, you see!’ Fanny was triumphant. ‘That shows what he stands for. The strictest conventionality.’”

• “Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself.”

  The Director

• “"What fun it would be," he thought, "if one didn't have to think about happiness!"”

  Bernard Marx

• “One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable to inflict upon our enemies.”

• “"Don't you want to be free and men? Don't you even understand what manhood and freedom are?"”

  John 'the Savage'

• “I'd rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly.”

  Bernard Marx

• “Whether tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them...But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy.”

  John

• “Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational.”

• “'What fun it would be,' he thought, 'if one didn't have to think about happiness!'”

  Bernard Marx

• “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry. I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

  John (The Savage)

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “And that,” put in the Director sententiously, “that is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their un-escapable social destiny.”

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• And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

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• One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.

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• “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

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• For particulars, as every one knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but fretsawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.

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• One egg, one embryo, one adult—normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.

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• And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?

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• “Community, Identity, Stability.” Grand words. “If we could bokanovskify indefinitely the whole problem would be solved.”

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• “Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we’re dead. Making plants grow.”

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• Our Ford—or Our Freud, as, for some inscrutable reason, he chose to call himself whenever he spoke of psychological matters—Our Freud had been the first to reveal the appalling dangers of family life. The world was full of fathers—was therefore full of misery; full of mothers—therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; full of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts—full of madness and suicide.

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Show all 31 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London
• Malpais
• Iceland

Organizations edit see section history

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• The World State: The unified world government in the book.

First Sentence edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Soma: The drug given to the population of the World State to control happiness. It is taken in half-gram tablets.
• Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, Epsilons: Social classes used to categorize people in the World State (examples: Alpha Plus, Delta Minus).
• Bokanovsky's Process: The process of human cloning, applied to fertilized human eggs in vitro, causing them to split into identical genetic copies of the original. The process can be repeated several times, though the maximum number of viable embryos possible is 96, with 72 being a "good average".
• Malthusian belt: a belt holding the regulation supply of contraceptives
• Podsnap's Technique: Technique for speeding up the maturation of unfertilized eggs from an ovary

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• The Use of Technology to Control Society: Brave New World warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. One illustration of this theme is the rigid control of reproduction through technological and medical intervention, including the surgical removal of ovaries, the Bokanovsky Process, and hypnopaedic conditioning. Another is the creation of complicated entertainment machines that generate both harmless leisure and the high levels of consumption and production that are the basis of the World State’s stability. Soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that Brave New World criticizes most sharply.It is important to recognize the distinction between science and technology. Whereas the State talks about progress and science, what it really means is the bettering of technology, not increased scientific exploration and experimentation. The state uses science as a means to build technology that can create a seamless, happy, superficial world through things such as the “feelies.” The state censors and limits science, however, since it sees the fundamental basis behind science, the search for truth, as threatening to the State’s control. The State’s focus on happiness and stability means that it uses the results of scientific research, inasmuch as they contribute to technologies of control, but does not support science itself.
• The Consumer Society: It is important to understand that Brave New World is not simply a warning about what could happen to society if things go wrong, it is also a satire of the society in which Huxley existed, and which still exists today. While the attitudes and behaviors of World State citizens at first appear bizarre, cruel, or scandalous, many clues point to the conclusion that the World State is simply an extreme—but logically developed—version of our society’s economic values, in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs, and success as a society is equated with economic growth and prosperity.
• The Incompatibility of Happiness and Truth: Brave New World is full of characters who do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about their own situations. The almost universal use of the drug soma is probably the most pervasive example of such willful self-delusion. Soma clouds the realities of the present and replaces them with happy hallucinations, and is thus a tool for promoting social stability. But even Shakespeare can be used to avoid facing the truth, as John demonstrates by his insistence on viewing Lenina through the lens of Shakespeare’s world, first as a Juliet and later as an “impudent strumpet.” According to Mustapha Mond, the World State prioritizes happiness at the expense of truth by design: he believes that people are better off with happiness than with truth. What are these two abstract entities that Mond juxtaposes? It seems clear enough from Mond’s argument that happiness refers to the immediate gratification of every citizen’s desire for food, sex, drugs, nice clothes, and other consumer items. It is less clear what Mond means by truth, or specifically what truths he sees the World State society as covering up. From Mond’s discussion with John, it is possible to identify two main types of truth that the World State seeks to eliminate. First, as Mond’s own past indicates, the World State controls and muffles all efforts by citizens to gain any sort of scientific, or empirical truth. Second, the government attempts to destroy all kinds of “human” truths, such as love, friendship, and personal connection. These two types of truth are quite different from each other: objective truth involves coming to a definitive conclusion of fact, while a “human” truth can only be explored, not defined. Yet both kinds of truth are united in the passion that an individual might feel for them. As a young man, Mustapha Mond became enraptured with the delight of making discoveries, just as John loves the language and intensity of Shakespeare. The search for truth then, also seems to involve a great deal of individual effort, of striving and fighting against odds. The very will to search for truth is an individual desire that the communal society of Brave New World, based as it is on anonymity and lack of thought, cannot allow to exist. Truth and individuality thus become entwined in the novel’s thematic structure.
• The Dangers of an All-Powerful State: Like George Orwell’s 1984, this novel depicts a dystopia in which an all-powerful state controls the behaviors and actions of its people in order to preserve its own stability and power. But a major difference between the two is that, whereas in 1984 control is maintained by constant government surveillance, secret police, and torture, power in Brave New World is maintained through technological interventions that start before birth and last until death, and that actually change what people want. The government of 1984 maintains power through force and intimidation. The government of Brave New World retains control by making its citizens so happy and superficially fulfilled that they don’t care about their personal freedom. In Brave New World the consequences of state control are a loss of dignity, morals, values, and emotions—in short, a loss of humanity.
• Pneumatic: The word pneumatic is used with remarkable frequency to describe two things: Lenina’s body and chairs. Pneumatic is an adjective that usually means that something has air pockets or works by means of compressed air. In the case of the chairs (in the feely theater and in Mond’s office), it probably means that the chairs’ cushions are inflated with air. In Lenina’s case, the word is used by both Henry Foster and Benito Hoover to describe what she’s like to have sex with. She herself remarks that her lovers usually find her “pneumatic,” patting her legs as she does so. In reference to Lenina it means well-rounded, balloon-like, or bouncy, in reference to her flesh, and in particular her bosom. Huxley is not the only writer to use the word pneumatic in this sense, although it is an unusual usage. The use of this odd word to describe the physical characteristics of both a woman and a piece of furniture underscores the novel’s theme that human sexuality has been degraded to the level of a commodity.
• Ford, “My Ford,” “Year of Our Ford,” etc.: Throughout Brave New World, the citizens of the World State substitute the name of Henry Ford, the early twentieth-century industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, wherever people in our own world would say Lord” (i.e., Christ). This demonstrates that even at the level of casual conversation and habit, religion has been replaced by reverence for technology—specifically the efficient, mechanized factory production of goods that Henry Ford pioneered.
• Alienation: The motif of alienation provides a counterpoint to the motif of total conformity that pervades the World State. Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John are alienated from the World State, each for his own reasons. Bernard is alienated because he is a misfit, too small and powerless for the position he has been conditioned to enjoy. Helmholtz is alienated for the opposite reason: he is too intelligent even to play the role of an Alpha Plus. John is alienated on multiple levels and at multiple sites: not only does the Indian community reject him, but he is both unwilling and unable to become part of the World State. The motif of alienation is one of the driving forces of the narrative: it provides the main characters with their primary motivations.
• Sex: Brave New World abounds with references to sex. At the heart of the World State’s control of its population is its rigid control over sexual mores and reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are controlled through an authoritarian system that sterilizes about two-thirds of women, requires the rest to use contraceptives, and surgically removes ovaries when it needs to produce new humans. The act of sex is controlled by a system of social rewards for promiscuity and lack of commitment. John, an outsider, is tortured by his desire for Lenina and her inability to return his love as such. The conflict between John’s desire for love and Lenina’s desire for sex illustrates the profound difference in values between the World State and the humanity represented by Shakespeare’s works.
• Shakespeare: Shakespeare provides the language through which John understands the world. Through John’s use of Shakespeare, the novel makes contact with the rich themes explored in plays like The Tempest. It also creates a stark contrast between the utilitarian simplicity and inane babble of the World State’s propaganda and the nuanced, elegant verse of a time “before Ford.” Shakespeare’s plays provide many examples of precisely the kind of human relations—passionate, intense, and often tragic—that the World State is committed to eliminating.
• Soma: The drug soma is a symbol of the use of instant gratification to control the World State’s populace. It is also a symbol of the powerful influence of science and technology on society. As a kind of “sacrament,” it also represents the use of religion to control society.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Marley & Me, and followed by A Child Called "It".

Preceded by Herland, and followed by 1984.

Preceded by Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, and followed by It's So Amazing!.

Preceded by Slaughterhouse-Five, and followed by Invisible Man.

Preceded by Journey to the End of the Night, and followed by Cold Comfort Farm.

Preceded by The Firm, and followed by Fahrenheit 451.

Preceded by A Tale of Two Cities, and followed by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Preceded by On the Road, and followed by The Wind in the Willows.

Preceded by A Passage to India, and followed by The Ambassadors.

Preceded by Vicky Angel, and followed by Cold Comfort Farm.

Preceded by A Town Like Alice, and followed by The Catcher in the Rye.

Preceded by Midnight's Children, and followed by Mrs. Dalloway.

Preceded by The Help, and followed by The Sea of Monsters.

Preceded by The Grapes of Wrath, and followed by How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Preceded by Tristes tropiques, and followed by 1984.

Preceded by Genoa: A Telling of Wonders, and followed by A Passage to India.

Preceded by Foundation, and followed by American Gods.

Preceded by Lolita, and followed by 1984.

Preceded by Gone With the Wind, and followed by A Child Called "It".

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Aldous Huxley (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Waterstones Books of the Century (1997, #15)
• BBC's Big Read (April 2003: Best-Loved Novel, #87)
• The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (2003)
• 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Featured)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6015.U9 1932
• Dewey: 823.912

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Sex, orgys, drug use and mature themes.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Huxley, Aldous
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Show all 7 subjects

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Wikipedia: Brave New World
• Brave New World Literature Guide by Secondary Solutions
• BLTC Research: A Defence of Paradise-Engineering

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Brave New World (1998) (TV) (IMDb): Staring Peter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy
• Brave New World (1980) (TV) (IMDb): Starring Julie Cobb, Bud Cort, and Keir Dullea.

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