A Brave New Worl by Alexander Huxley

                The book A Brave New World by Alexander Huxley, is a dystopian novel set in futuristic London. In this future, people are free to live their lives frivolously. From small children, they are sleep conditioned to have certain ideas and fragments of knowledge that teach them to turn away from things that discourage fun and happiness. These include things like books, mending clothes, anything that isn’t seen as ‘enjoyable’. People are instead taught to rely on the government. From very young ages children are trained to have different social class rankings which will follow them throughout life. “And Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta.” In this futuristic world, people are encouraged to live freely, and be happy all the time. In fact one of the biggest ways they are carried out is through taking Soma tablets, which let you escape to another world for a period of time. These tablets are encouraged to be taken whenever you feel an emotion other than happiness. And lastly, and perhaps one of the biggest problems is the fact that “everyone belongs to everyone else.”

            “Everyone belongs to everyone else,” the motto of our brave, new world, means that people are not tied down to any, one person. People are not supposed to have committed relationships to each other. In our current world, it is frowned upon to be having romantic relations with more than one person, however theirs is the exact opposite. In fact, they are frowned upon if they do not have more than one suitor at a time. One of the main characters, Lenina Crowne, a perfect example of a young woman under the influence of her dystopian society, decides to confide in her best friend Fanny Crowne (of no relation) that she has been ‘having’ Mr. Henry Foster for over four months without anybody else. Due to their conditioning, Lenina is scolded by Fanny, who encourages her to take up somebody else. “But seriously,” Fanny said, “I really do think you ought to be careful. It’s such horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man.” “And after all,” Fanny’s tone was coaxing, “it’s not as though there were anything painful or disagreeable about having one or two men besides Henry. And seeing that you ought to be a little more promiscuous…”

            I think that it’s nice that people can live more freely, and without worry in this world. However, I believe that their ideas, and especially their motto, “everyone belongs to everyone else,” have a negative effect. Men and women end up being treated like meat. The idea of ‘having people’, just the word having sounds wrong, and goes against every idea that we believe in nowadays. Lenina Crowne?” said Henry Foster, echoing the Assistant Predestination’s question as he zipped up his trousers. “Oh, she’s a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic. I’m surprised you haven’t had her.” “I can’t think how it is I haven’t’,” said the Assistant Predestinator. “I certainly will. At the first opportunity.” From his place on the opposite side of the changing room aisle, Bernard Marx overheard what they were saying and turned pale.” The men, Henry Foster and the Assistant Predestinater talk about women, specifically Lenina, in a degrading way, all because society has trained them to do so. They refer to sleeping with one another as ‘having’ each other, the way you would a piece of meat, or cheese. When you say things like ‘try her’ like they’re sampling something not sleeping with a person, it sets back evolution, and promotes sexism.

            Overall, I think the themes in this book are interesting, and I am interested to see how they affect the rest of the book. I think that because there are ‘no strings attached’ it deprives you of a closeness you get in a real relationship. In modern times, people strive to find a person to whom they can feel a close bond to, and I believe that because people living in this new word don’t even know that this idea of ‘love’ exists, they can never have a chance to feel it. I know that these people don’t miss it, they’ve never felt it, but I think that’s what makes humans, human. Their ability to have emotions and wants. When you take soma, or you are trained against feeling that closeness with someone else, it takes away part of being human.