Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

This book, first published in 1932, is about a supposedly utopian world projected 600 years into the future from the time it was written. The planet at that time is about the same geographically as it is now, but humans have eradicated almost all types of diseases and pests, became so technologically advanced that helicopters were the most common means of transport, and most important of all, they have completely altered the process of bringing new human beings into this world. Instead of the natural way of mothers giving birth, babies are grown in liquid suspensions in jars. The society was divided into castes, with Alpha Double-Pluses at the very top and Epsilon Minuses at the bottom. From the time they were embryos, humans were segregated into different classes and were gi en varying treatments. In the “utopia”, humans lived to the motto “everyone belongs to everyone else” and engaged in various activities considered to be extremely immoral today, including the consumption of a hallucinating drug called soma. On the other hand, things such as religion, literature and giving birth naturally were considered very offensive, and even pornographic. (Words such as “mother” were considered dirty.) After given the introduction of this futuristic dystopian world, the reader is introduced to three main characters, and Alpha Plus man whom everyone is prejudiced against, Bernard Marx, the latter’s friend Helmholtz and John, the son of a woman who became pregnant (condemned act in that world) and was banished to a place called “The Reservation”, where small groups of normal human beings still exist. The three men are close friends, united by a sense of revulsion at their world and their attempts to change it. The novel may seem quite disturbing at first, when one is thrust into a world so different from ours, and where everyone’s behavior is quite abominable and revolting. However, when the reader finishes the whole work, he or she would be able to grasp the main idea and get a gist of the message the author, Aldous Huxley, wanted to convey, and ask the ultimate question, “Is our present world actually the best of all possible worlds?”

Hanlu Chen (Janice)

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