In his book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley subtly expresses his opinion on the thought of a Utopian world and the imperfection of humanity that would make such a paradise impossible to create. Through the characters of the novel Huxley explores this flawed utopia noting the cracks in the structure of the ‘World State’ when something if out of order, or not acting as it should be. This is a world who’s overall stability depends on it’s billion strong population to be blissful in their ignorance and emotional suppression. Therefore, if an individual chooses to seek the truth of the world, to seek love, to search for knowledge then the system begins to crumble.
In the world of Huxley mankind as it is today is completely gone. No longer are babies born, now they are created in laboratories. First their job along with their life is planned depending on what class they are to be. The Alpha and Beta classes are the genetic peak of this hierarchy followed by the Gamma’s all the way to the peasant class of Epsilon, the semi-moronic class that is designed for all the mediocre tasks. The way that the classes are separated from one another is the amount of alcohol that each group is dosed in as a fertilized egg. In this way the intelligence of each baby is altered. The abilities, and the potential of these individuals have now been utterly crushed leaving them with nothing other then to do what they are made too. No longer is there free will to enter into a learning field of their own choice, they must now perform whatever tasks it was that they were created for. This is a serious problem, fore should the need for a new type of occupation arise, there are now no people who are able to fill it, even the Alpha-Plus class is somewhat restrained in their knowledge and ability to learn.
During human production is the stage, Embryo Storage, where the embryo is altered and slightly conditioned to fit their station, or job in life. As previously mentioned this severely limits any advancement in any other field then the one chosen by the scientists. During the Embryo storage phase many eggs are sterilized so even if the inhabitants of this Brave New World weren’t conditioned to retch at the thought of childbirth they would be unable to should they choose to have a baby. The downside of this is the destruction of individuality, as no longer will a child inherit qualities from parents, they will all share the same qualities depending on what type off egg they were fertilized from.
Once ‘born’ the sleep therapy and physical conditioning begins. Each individual is conditioned for one job and one job only. This is how the Brave New World works and it will be this, which will eventually bring it to its knees.
Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Waston are two men who, for completely different reasons have rejected the system of this ‘utopian paradise’ and have instead chosen to exile themselves from their world’s way of life. Bernard is a hypnopaedia specialist. It is he and others like him who ‘sleep teach’ the children after they are born. Bernard resents the fact that he is different, that he does not gain the respect his Alpha-Plus class requires from the lower levels. It is this difference, this resentment that drives Bernard to find the truth of the world, to finally see the cracks and deficiencies in the World State.
Helmholtz on the other hand has completely different reasons, he is the model Alpha-Plus, strong good looking, and witty are just some of his personal qualities. He works as an emotional Engineer, regularly writing for the Hourly Radio. He feels there is something more to his life, that he hasn’t reached his full potential yet.
‘A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similarto those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defection.’
The World State has many thins wrong with it that cause problems within. The first of which is the suppression of emotion. Love, hate, envy, all has been replaced with an innocent lust for pleasure and indulgence. The free will to do and say whatever you want has been replaced with the semi-free will to say and do whatever is allowed or required with no thought of what else could be said or done.
‘Did you ever feel, as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren’t using – you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?’ (Helmholtz pg 62)
With a world that depends on ignorance Helmholtz and Bernard are threats to society and the overall stability of the world state.
With the introduction of John the Savage this threat develops even more as the young man begins to realize and rebel against the ideas of the utopia. First is the lack of emotion, His feelings for Lenina are made known through his use of Shakespearian poetry. The world State is ill equipped to deal with John as the sights and the soulnessness of the new world begin to grow clear to him. The differences between the New World and that of John are so utterly complete he begins to grow resentful and bitter. He sees the creation of babies as sacrilege and the use of soma holidays as horrendous.
The more he learns of the New World the more he despairs as there is no hope left in the world, no thoughts of love, only pleasure. He becomes violent and lashes out at the ignorance of others and their infantile natures, Finally with nothing left to live for after his last shred of hope has been snuffed out, he commits suicide, for a life without the ability to share joy and love, to create, to be loved, and to excel is not worth holding on to.
Helmholtz and Bernard also discover this but thanks to their conditioning do not take it to the extent that John does. They leave for an island that is full of others like them, others who have become discontent with the loss of individuality for the sake of stability.
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