Brave New World Summary

Brave New World Summary

Chapter 1: Overview

Hi, welcomem ‘Brave New World’. Let me introduce you to a society where people stay young and beautiful without taking anti-aging health supplements or undergoing cosmetic surgery. Everyone has a job. No matter whether they are an elite leader or a factory worker, everyone is content with their work. People don’t have any family pressure. They don’t have to worry about their children's education costs, or work hard to financially support their elderly parents. Whenever they feel a little unhappy, they only need to take a few tablets of soma, a psychological anesthetic, to get rid of the negative emotions. You must be curious: what exactly is this place? This is the New World, an imaginary futuristic world depicted in Brave New World by British author Aldous Huxley. Brave New World depicts a scientifically manufactured utopia. The story takes place in the year 632 AF, which stands for After Ford, or 2503 AD in our own calendar. In this New World, the development of society and

advancement of technologies used for biological control have reduced humans to the playthings of monopoly gene companies and politicians. Humans are conditioned from fertilization with a predetermined identity, gender, and social role. Children are indoctrinated after birth through something called sleep teaching to feel comfortable staying in their social classes, love their collectives, and welcome promiscuity. At the same time, they are made to hate flowers and books, solitude and family, and religion and art. Everyone lives and works peacefully, and seems happy with their lives. But are these humans in this new world really happy? A savage named John comes into this civilized world like a small pebble breaking the serene surface of a lake, revealing the flaws of society. This world may have appeared perfect but it lacks freedom. All happiness here is "produced" by applying the results of scientific research performed by rulers and scientists. Human beings have lost their creativity and the ability to love each other and think independently The author Aldous

Huxley is a distinguished British novelist, poet, essayist, critic, dramatist, and a famous humanitarian. He created more than 50 pieces of work in his lifetime. "Brave New World" written in 1932, is one of the most famous dystopian literary classics of the 20th century. In this Bookey, we will consider three questions: 1. In Brave New World, how is life restricted and controlled? 2. Is independent thinking allowed in the Brave New World? 3. What leads John to destruction? Next, we will go through the key insights one by one.

Chapter 2: In Brave New World,

how is life restricted and

controlled?

In this futuristic new world, there is no aging, no disease, and no worries. Everyone lives happily, but they are "made happy" because their lives are controlled and restricted from birth to death.

From the state of fertilized eggs, humans are classified into five castes, from high to low, namely: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alpha

and Beta are the higher castes, developed from independently fertilized eggs and conditioned to be beautiful and intelligent. Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon are not only conditioned to be short and dumb, but are also mass-produced. You must be curious. Can humans really be mass-produced? Yes! In the society we meet in Brave New World, human beings are not born, and the word "viviparous" is filthy and shameful. The ability to breed people in test tubes provides the basis for the mass

production of humans. Let's follow the director of

the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center in the novel to find out how the fertilized eggs are bred into babies. The Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center is a 34-story grey building. The story begins with the director leading a group of students around each department of the center, since they are set to start working here after graduation. The tour is to show the students how the embryos are developed and conditioned. The director tells the students that Alphas and Betas are produced directly from fertilized eggs in bottles and then develop into embryos. In contrast, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons enter something called the Bokanovsky's Process. This process was designed to proliferate the fertilized eggs to divide into 8 to 96 buds; each one of them grows into an embryo. Therefore, the Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are all produced on assembly lines. We can imagine a factory where 96 identical twins do the same job, with their IQs all set at same level. Thus, there is no need for comparison and no jealousy. The standardization of

men and women is emphasized as an essential measure to maintain social stability. Besides classifying races, the gender of embryos is also controlled. As humans in the New World are bred in test tubes, women's reproductive organs have become useless. As a result, only up to 30% of female embryos are able to develop normally; the rest are injected with male sex-hormones at regular intervals on the production line. They eventually develop into freemartins and become sterile. Humans in the New World are proud of this. They believe that these actions help bring them out of the slavish imitation of nature and into the world of human invention. The destinies of individuals are also predetermined. Embryos are grown in different conditions, depending on the type of work they will perform in future. For instance, embryos determined to become miners, silk spinners, and steelworkers in the tropics develop under specific temperatures. The people developed from these embryos are born with extreme aversion to cold temperatures. After 267 days of conditioning, the

fetuses of the lower castes become mature. After birth, all these infants undergo conditioned reflex training and sleep-teaching. They are trained to instinctively hate flowers and books, stay in their castes comfortably, and love their collectives.

Here is what the book described. The director leads the students through the decanting room to the conditioning room, where nurses are training eight-month-old Delta infants. They set out flowers and books before the infants, and naturally the infants crawl towards the beautiful blooms and gaily colored illustrations in the books. They make little squeals of excitement and gurgles of pleasure. While the infants indulge in the flowers and books, a violent noise rings out. It is a mixture of explosions, sirens and alarm bells, which gets shriller and shriller. The infants panic. Then they are given a mild electric shock when the floor they are crawling on is electrified. Their little faces distort with terror, and they make maddening screams and howls. This experiment is conducted repeatedly. After undergoing the same or a

similar experience about two hundred times, the infants associate flowers and books with electric shocks and noise. As soon as they see flowers and books, their conditioned reflexes are awakened, and they learn to hate flowers and books for their lifetimes. One student asks: it is understandable that reading books could bring risks to society, but what risks could flowers bring? Why bother to make Deltas hate flowers? The director explains that about 100 years ago, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons were all conditioned to appreciate flowers, so that they would go to the countryside to enjoy them at every available opportunity. However, the rulers later realized that the gratuitous love of nature went against economic principles. People couldn’t contribute to society by simply enjoying flowers, as in doing so they wouldn’t consume goods or services other than transportation. Consequently, their love for nature was eradicated. The lower castes were left without the right to appreciate natural beauty. Meanwhile, they were conditioned to love country sports. This leads to

them wanting to purchase many elaborate apparatuses for their hobbies, as well as spending on transportation. There is a saying that education must start in infancy. Children in the New World are also educated from a very young age. However, they are educated through "sleep-teaching": using irrational language to repeatedly instill certain ideas in the children’s minds. For example, a recording constantly plays under a beta baby's pillow, saying: Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm thrilled to be a Beta, because I don't have to work so hard. And also we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas... This recording is repeated 120 times per week. The purpose of this repetition is to make children of every caste think that they are the happiest; thus, they wouldn’t have other thoughts. Promiscuity is considered a virtue in the New World. When children reach the age of six or seven, they are given sex education. This education imbues them with the idea of promiscuity. It is normal for a

woman to have sex with different men; if she stays with the same man for more than four months, she is considered problematic. People in the New World promote promiscuity to eliminate the pain caused by love. With pain comes conflict, and with conflict, society becomes unstable. Promiscuity is used as another measure to maintain social stability. Aging has also been eliminated in Brave New World. In the New World, everyone stays youthful forever, and their personalities do not change during their lifetimes, thus mental peculiarities among the elderly are avoided. Elderly people are permitted to work and have sex until the age of 60, the end of life. At birth, humans are programmed to die when they reach this age. We’ve reached the end of part one of today's content. Here’s a quick summary: In the brave new world, life is conditioned and controlled. From the fertilized egg, caste, gender, and social destiny are all predestined. During infancy, all people undergo conditioned reflex training, sleep-teaching, and abnormal sex education. Every individual stays comfortably

within their caste. What is even more peculiar is promiscuity is considered a virtue. In addition, humans are free of disease and senility, and the age of death is predetermined.

Is independent thinking allowed in the Brave New World? | Chapter 3

The director leads the students as they continue their visit, and they meet Mr. Mustapha Mond, the Resident Controller for Western Europe. Mond explains that there is no poetry and art in the New World, because poetry and art makes people think, and this in turn threatens social stability. We learn it is his responsibility to maintain stability, and that all acts that undermine stability are subject to punishment. He also mentions how the current social system was formed. Previously, society praised monogamy, children were born via natural birth, people believed in Christianity, and diverse cultures and thoughts were freely expressed. The Nine Years' War ultimately vanquished freedom and democracy, destroyed all art, and ended with Ford became their sole god. The Nine Years' War started as people had ideological differences. With the development of biological technologies, people had actualized Ectogenesis and became able to produce babies in test tubes. Some had proposed the widespread use of Ectogenesis, the implementation of the caste system, and conduction of sleep teaching, however these were opposed by those believing in liberalism and democracy, and this caused the war. The Nine Years' War began in A.F. 141, when anthrax bombs eliminated the supporters of liberalism and democracy: 800 Simple Lifers were mowed down by machine guns at Golders Green, while 2000 culture fans were gassed in the British Museum. Although force temporarily suppressed the supporters of liberalism and democracy, it could not eliminate dissidents, so the Controllers turned to ideology to subjugate society. Conditioned reflexes and sleep teaching were invented one after another. Although progress was slower, the effect was infinitely more effective. These measures alone were not enough. The Controllers then launched a campaign against the past, confiscating all books published before A.F. 150, closing museums, and blowing up historical monuments. Religion was also abolished, and all crosses had their tops cut and became T's. People adopted the creed that every one belonged to every one else. This rule of thought was dreadful: Human beings were imbued with the idea of belonging to each other from a young age. Everyone was satisfied with this way of life. In the New World, a psychological anesthetic with all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, named soma, has been invented. One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments. The Controllers successfully rules mankind with this ideology, and everyone lives and works happily. Poetry and art are meant to express conflict and transcend agony, but they in the new world have become restraints. In a world full of dizzying happiness, they are not needed at all. Thus, biologically controlled technologies become tools for politicians, and mass-produced humans are turned into emotionless dolls.