- Would you rather take a magic
pill every day to never feel sad or angry, or feel real sadness when bad
things happen?
- Would you rather have a mother
and father who love you best of all, or live in a world where nobody has
parents and everyone belongs to everyone?
- Would you rather be made by
scientists to love a simple job from the day you are born, or have the
freedom to pick any job you want, even if you fail?
- Would you rather watch loud,
exciting movies and play group games all day long, or sit quietly alone in
a room to think big thoughts?
- Would you rather forget all old
history and old sad books so you can live an easy life today, or remember
history with all its wars and pain?
Happiness vs. Freedom
- Would you be willing to take a daily pill that eliminates all sadness, anxiety, or pain, knowing that in return you would lose the ability to feel deep emotions?
- If you could live in a perfect world with no war, poverty, or disease, would you accept a government that decides every single aspect of your life (job, relationships, thoughts)?
- Can true happiness even exist if we don't know what suffering is?
Science, Technology, & Control
- To what extent is it right to use genetic engineering and technology to create the "perfect" human being or the "ideal" citizen?
- If technology could instantly satisfy your every material desire, would you truly be free, or would you just be a controlled consumer?
- What value do art, literature, or history have in a society that lives exclusively in the present and in pure comfort?
Identity & Human Relationships
- In a world where concepts like "mother," "father," and "family" are considered vulgar and illegal insults, how would our understanding of love and human connection change?
- Is it better to belong to a community where everyone thinks exactly the same way to guarantee peace, or to risk chaos to defend individual identity?
- If your entire personality and career path were decided in a lab before you were even born, would you still try to rebel?
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
