Grand narratives are assumptions and attitudes about life that permeate and build the foundation of our society. It is what composers, writers, filmmakers, and playwrights have drawn on for many years. They can be in terms of the importance of God in our lives, political democracy, natural science, and so on.

However, dystopias challenge these grand narratives.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a dystopian depiction of life, taking human experiences and reshaping them in a perverse way, exploring values and ideas which seem normal, and ultimately make us question the things we value and cherish.

Brave New World is not a story told to reassure; it is told to disturb and provoke.

Summary

Brave New World depicts a cautionary tale based on a futuristic society centred on science and efficiency, where human beings are genetically modified and psychologically conditioned since birth. It disturbs and provokes, anticipating a world whose fundamental values and attitudes have been inverted and corrupted by innovation. The novel heightens the awareness of the possible negative consequences relating to science, including dehumanisation, consumerism, and social developments that prevailed and led to the rise of totalitarianism.

Context

The novel anticipates a bleak future for mankind as it comments on the developments occurring during Huxley’s era. It presents Huxley’s concerns about the dehumanisation of society in the way these innovations threaten free thought, individuality, and one’s way of life.

Technological/Scientific Context

·       Comments on the early stages of genetic engineering

·       Deals with the creation of artificial life

·       Presents psychological developments including human preconditioning, predetermination of an infant in the womb

Political Context

·       As a text published in between the world wars, it warns about the rise of totalitarianism, where omnipotent governments strive for order and control over every aspect of society

·       Huxley saw the rise of totalitarianism as a threat to mankind

·       Huxley writes about the way there are political regimes and structures (e.g. fascism, communism) that present themselves as the answer to our problems, when in fact their intention is to acquire and maintain power over society. He is suggesting that it is the job of a novelist to point falsities and dangers of these regimes.

Industrial and Economic Development Context

·       Reflects the rise of assembly line production and consumerism during Huxley’s time – Huxley warns his audience about the dangers of an obsession with efficiency

·       In BNW, Henry Ford, the founder of the assembly line technique of mass production, is elevated to a position of a God-like figure

·       Ford represents more than just industrial efficiency, he symbolises consumerism which is being viewed as a “surrogate” religion in Huxley’s society, as it placates the masses

·       Huxley emphasises the dehumanising nature of being tethered as workers to a machine

Social Context

·       Reflects a rise in promiscuity after the First World War (the Roaring ‘20s), as BNW is a society that promotes promiscuity and inverts the value of monogamy in relationships

·       Highlights the movement of society away from religion

Thematic analysis

The Rise of Science and Technology

Brave New World presents a provocative vision of the future, stemming from Huxley’s concerns about science gaining dominion over nature through genetic engineering.

The creation of artificial life is from an “excised ovary alive and actively developing”, which utilises dispassionate language to describe procreation. The impassive tone emphasises the abhorrent notion that an ovary would be surgically removed from a woman in place of natural insemination.

Genetic engineering predetermines society, replacing nature or God. Social classes are predetermined, and Henry Foster, an Alpha male, believes that genetic engineering is “out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature into the much more interesting world of human invention”. This is a vilification of nature, freeing society from the imposition of imitating animals and nature. The continual demonization of nature is emphasised by the creation and conditioning of life, predetermining values and intellect. Through aversion therapy, children are preconditioned to hate aspects of society, associating objects such as books with pain and discomfort, as “what man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder”. Satire is utilised as a subversion of conventional wedding vows, as instead of God, man is now controlling all aspects of life. Irony is utilised as children are preconditioned to find knowledge abhorrent, “they’ll be safe from books and botany all their lives”. The inversion of childbirth, procreation, and other aspects of life that are held for granted create a clinical and efficient society, ultimately lacking in humanity.

Consumerism

The rise of consumerism as a surrogate religion in Brave New World presents a provocative and disturbing prediction of the future.

Henry Ford, who was the first to develop assembly-line productions is elevated to this position of God in this society. Factories genetically engineer human embryos via production lines, as “conveyor belts crept forward with their load of future men and women,” a metaphor for the fact that human beings are seen as products for consumption. Life being created by assembly-line production methods ultimately lead to the dehumanisation of a society and the eventual replacement of God with consumerism, shown through repetition of the phrase “Oh Ford”.

The god-less society is stripped of individuality and autonomy, reflecting Huxley’s concerns that obsession with consumerism will lead to the dehumanisation of society. Hypnopaedia, used as a method to end free thought in civilians, preconditions humans’ attitude towards sex and nature. The voices chant “ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending…”, using repetition to emphasise that society’s encouragement to purchase new items instead of mending damaged possessions promotes consumerism.

As an alternative perspective on this society, Bernard Marx is an Alpha male, however, questions the morals and values of his society. Bernard experiences a ritual, “orgy-porgy, Ford and fun”, symbolic for the mindless adherence to a perverse belief that orgies are conventional. Sexual consumption is promoted as another form of empty self-fulfilment, in which people are preoccupied through the engagement in activities lacking in intellect or spirituality.

Promiscuity and Social Developments

In Brave New World, artificially devised gratification through promiscuity replace morality and community, revealing Huxley’s concerns that social developments will lead to the degeneration of humans.

Female characters Fanny and Lenina represent the conventional views of Brave New World’s society. When Lenina expresses her concerns about her lack of promiscuity, Fanny reminds her that “every one belongs to every one else”. Repetition of “every one” emphasises the society’s perverse notion of community, as society is centred around the collective and the artificial stimulus of promiscuity.

John the Savage is an outsider born into a civilised utopian society whose values are diametrically opposed to those of Lenina. When Lenina is unable to change her promiscuous ways to be with him, John the Savage brands her an “impudent strumpet”. Calling Lenina a “strumpet” is Shakespearean intertextuality exploring the nature of humanity and his sense of morality, disparaging her for being promiscuous, further provoking the audience to feel a sense of distress.

His name “John the Savage” is ironic as he is far from savage, instead is the one who Huxley intends for the audience to ideologically relate to. In the end, John the Savage realises that he cannot live in a society that he is diametrically opposed to, ultimately hanging himself, “like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right.” The compass points are symbolic of the inability to escape a totalitarian society, as aspects such as procreation, predetermined class, and consumption are all artificially contrived and imposed on society.

Huxley is suggesting that humans have lost their moral compass, and if these desires are not overcome, all sense of humanity will be lost.

A final comment on Brave New World…

Purpose

–          It reinforces and reminds us about the importance of nature and family – rights that we cherish and can soon disappear if we are not vigilant.

–          It challenges the assumption that all so called progress is good for us. That all technological, scientific, medical progress are beneficial. BNW challenges these contextual developments.

…How does he do this?

–          By using this dystopian genre, he creates a whole new society that is futuristic and dystopic yet is satirical and exaggerated. Underpinning this is a dire warning about these developments that he is challenging.

…Why does Huxley choose to write about this?

–          He believes that progress is a grand narrative that needs to be challenged.

–          You cannot blindly accept that all scientific developments are innately good.

And finally…who can we relate to?

–          All characters are flawed in some way because these developments that Huxley is so fearful of has made them flawed.

–          All characters are shaped by their environment and societies

–          John cannot live in a world that is an antithesis of what he believes in

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