BRAVE
NEW WORLD
The
novel opens in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, in the
years A.F., or After Ford.
Ford is the God-surrogate that many citizens of the World State believe is also Freud, the famous psychologist. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is leading a tour group of young students around a lab. He explains the scientific process by which human beings are fertilized and custom-made, and shows them the Social Predestination room, where workers create the social castes. They pass onto the conditioning rooms, where they reinforce the caste divisions by sleep-teaching.
Ford is the God-surrogate that many citizens of the World State believe is also Freud, the famous psychologist. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is leading a tour group of young students around a lab. He explains the scientific process by which human beings are fertilized and custom-made, and shows them the Social Predestination room, where workers create the social castes. They pass onto the conditioning rooms, where they reinforce the caste divisions by sleep-teaching.
The psychological conditioning process must ensure that people will like their condition, their social destiny.
Lenina Crowne is a Beta girl. She's been dating regularly with Henry Foster despite the government ban on long-term sexual relationships.
To avoid trouble, Lenina agrees to go on a trip with Bernard Marx. They'll visit The Savage Reservation, in New Mexico, where people can live according to the old lifestyle- in other words, they can have the signs of age, they can get married, they can experience feelings like love and they can have children without using any scientific process.
To avoid trouble, Lenina agrees to go on a trip with Bernard Marx. They'll visit The Savage Reservation, in New Mexico, where people can live according to the old lifestyle- in other words, they can have the signs of age, they can get married, they can experience feelings like love and they can have children without using any scientific process.
Before leaving, Lenina
and Bernard go on a date. He tries to show her the ocean, and to express some
of his subversive views to her, but she cries. She convinces him to take soma,
and they go back to his rooms and have sex. The next day, when Lenina asks him
if he had fun, Bernard is pained at the way she seems to degrade herself.
He
and Lenina go to The Savage Reservation. Lenina shudders at the unclean
conditions. They meet John, The Savage. He tells his story to Bernard, and it
turns out that he is the illegitimate son of the Director and Linda, a woman
who disappeared twenty-five years ago.
John has learned to read using a book called The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo and The Complete Works of Shakespeare, the latter given to Linda by one of her lovers, Popé. John tells Bernard his life story. He feels desperately unhappy and alone. Bernard identifies with John and invites him to return to London with them.
John has learned to read using a book called The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo and The Complete Works of Shakespeare, the latter given to Linda by one of her lovers, Popé. John tells Bernard his life story. He feels desperately unhappy and alone. Bernard identifies with John and invites him to return to London with them.
Bernard
triumphantly presents Linda and John, the Director's lost woman and
illegitimate son.
Lenina
is interested in The Savage, and so she takes him out, and much to her chagrin,
they do not have sex.
The shame of being a “father”—the very word makes the onlookers laugh nervously—causes the Director to resign, leaving Bernard free to remain in London.
John becomes very popular in London because of his strange life led on the Reservation. But while touring the factories and schools of the World State, John becomes increasingly disattisfied with the society that he see.
The shame of being a “father”—the very word makes the onlookers laugh nervously—causes the Director to resign, leaving Bernard free to remain in London.
John becomes very popular in London because of his strange life led on the Reservation. But while touring the factories and schools of the World State, John becomes increasingly disattisfied with the society that he see.
The
Savage refuses to appear at an assembly. This shatters Bernard's reputation.
Lenina is absent-minded, thinking about the Savage. He tells her he loves her
and she undresses. Disgusted by the sexual degradation of the society, he
violently rejects her.
The
Savage is in the Hospital for the Dying to visit his mother, Linda, who has been on permanent soma-holiday. He hears the
low-caste workers and several children talking badly about her and has a
violent reaction. Suddenly, Linda wakes, recognizes him, and dies. He attempts
to destroy a large supply of soma, causing a riot, and the police take him
away, along with Bernard and Helmholtz.
The
three meet with Mustapha Mond. Mustapha Mond and the Savage speak of religion.
Mond says that there is a choice between machinery, scientific medicine, and
universal happiness-- or God.
The
Savage flees, planning to become independent. He repents by whipping himself. One day a photographer makes a popular film about The Savage.
The Savage becomes a celebrity. There is a huge riot which turns into an orgy. The next morning, reporters find that the Savage has hung himself
