Brave New World 7 Essay, Research Paper
Brave New World
The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is an excellent book. The story accurately depicts the variation between a fictitious utopia and our present world. His vivid descriptions of the events and rituals of the utopians make the story a very quick read.
The story starts out with a group of students learning about the way each member of the population is produced. The DHC explains how each person is predestined for a certain class and job and throughout the fetal growth time, you are conditioned to the environment that job entails. At certain points of their assembly line each embryo is exposed to heat or light to condition the body for certain environments. After birth, the babies are conditioned to like or dislike certain things like books or light. By doing this, the Utopians believe that they will have happy workers and prevent revolutions. The children are constantly exposed to messages that are imprinted in their mind. These messages are designed to have an impact on their thinking and are more mechanical than mental.
Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx come into the picture after learning how things work. They both work at the hatchery and have been dating, but she starts dating Bernard Marx instead. Bernard is a deformed but highly intelligent man who takes Lenina to a savage restoration. At the reservation, they meet John and his mother Linda, whom was the girlfriend of the DHC and John is his son. Lenina and Bernard take, with permission, Linda and John out of the reservation. Bernard and a friend introduce John to the new world. Lenina tries to make advances toward John but his savage attitude doesn t allow it.
The downfall of John begins with the death of his mother in the new world. John goes crazy and tries to induce a revolution among the utopians that work at the hospital. He leaves to escape his nightmare, but cannot avoid the people. The Utopians drive him to suicide, which was his only option to escape the new society.
One of the most scientifically interesting parts of the book is the description of the Bokanovsky process. The process allows one egg to multiply into 96 other eggs. This is the basis for a society like this one. If you can create 96 twins you can create a whole slew of people alike and one can specialize them to perform any task necessary. This brought to mind eugenics first.
Brave New World was a great book because it hooks the reader in the first chapter. The extreme imagery generated in the first chapter drew me in. I pictured assembly lines of jars containing fetuses. He made the chapter to chapter distinction well. I enjoyed reading the book. It was quick and in depth. Overall I thought Brave New World was an excellent, well-written book.