Aldous Huxley/ Brave New World

“Progress is Lovely, Isn’t It?”

Huxley’s Life in Brief

Born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1894

Prominent family deeply rooted in England’s literary and scientific tradition.

Father was key to scientific acceptance of Darwin’s theory of evolution

Huxley’s Life in Brief

Related to the “father of eugenics”: Francis Galton

Eugenics: The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.

The Nazis tried this around the time the novel was written.

Huxley’s Life in Brief

Despite serious vision problems, graduated from Oxford with honors

Well-established as an author and scholar

Huxley’s ancestry “brought down on him a weight of intellectual authority and a momentum of moral obligations.”

Huxley Quotes

He liked the confidence, vitality, and "generous extravagance" he found in American life.

“In places of public amusement, in dancing and motoring... Nowhere, perhaps, is there so little conversation... It is all movement and noise, like the water gurgling out of a bath--down the waste. Yes, down the waste."

Huxley Quotes

“An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.”

“Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.”

“Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.”

“Experience teaches only the teachable.”

Huxley Quotes

“Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.”

“Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.”

“The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.”

Brave New World: The Novel

Huxley wrote Brave New World in four months in 1931.

A satirical piece of

fiction, not scientific

prophecy

Basic Premise

A huge war has taken place

Society has reorganized itself to prevent another such disaster and gives over total control to government & industry

Members of society are “oppressed” but taught to “love their oppression”

Basic Premise

There are distinct/created social classes

– Alpha (highest)

– Beta

– Gamma

– Delta

– Epsilon (lowest)

Society is controlled by

– Artificial birth

– Hypnotic sleep-teaching

– Drugs

“Happiness” is the goal for the masses – it is the tool of oppression.

Major Themes

Brave New World is a Post-apocalyptic novel

– Post-apocalyptic fiction: set in a world after the end of “civilization” as we know it: either through nuclear war, plague, or some other disaster.

Major Themes

Brave New World is a “negative utopia” or dystopia– “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease,

and overcrowding.” – dictionary.com

– The society in BNW is oppressed even though it is touted as being a perfect world free from unhappiness

Universal happiness cannot be achieved

Seeking only happiness destroys culture and basic morality

Motifs

Motif: reoccurring subject, phrase, or concept in a work

Henry Ford is viewed as a god.

– Replaces religion as we know it

– Represents industrialization and dehumanizing elements of modernization

Motifs

The use of Drugs to keep the masses happy.

– SOMA is freely available

– Consumers are docile and happy – no negative thoughts are possible

– Used to show how easily we are distracted from the ills of the world – and willingly so

Motifs

Pneumatic – refers to something that operates on compressed air

– In the text, this means bouncy, joyful, full of air

– Used to describe furniture and women, particularly the female antagonist

Motifs

Sex

Used to control the population

– Children are taught “sexual games” and encouraged to explore each other carnally

– Not having sex daily and with multiple partners is considered anti-social

– Sex is never for procreation – that concept is considered vulgar

Sex is a commodity like soap and cars

Motifs

Shakespeare

Poetic language about truth and life used to contrast with the bland corporate speak spoken by most of the characters

Used frequently by the protagonist, John the Savage, as he tries to understand the society he has been thrust into.

In 1984 people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”