Brave New World Review

The Plot:

The world the novel describes is a dystopia, presented satirically: humanity lives in a carefree, healthy, and technologically advanced society; however, art, science, religion, and all other forms of human expression have been sacrificed to create this "Brave New World". Warfare and poverty have been eliminated and everyone is permanently happy due to government-provided conditioning and drugs. The irony is that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things that humans consider to be central to their identity - family, culture, art, literature, science, religion (other than idolization of "our Ford", who is seen as the father of their society), and philosophy. It is also a hedonistic society, deriving pleasure from promiscuous sex and drugs, in the form of soma, a powerful drug rationed by the government that is taken to escape pain and bad memories through hallucinatory fantasies, referred to as "Holidays". Additionally, social stability has been achieved and is maintained via deliberately engineered and rigidly enforced social stratification. Everyone lives in constant happiness and ignorance. However, there are a few exceptions. The book introduces Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson and John the Savage. All three are outcasts in their own way. The story revolves around their struggles within the utopian society.

My Take:

This book has often been comapred to George Orwell's 1984. The comparison stands, as both are dealing with utopian societies and the possible outcomes of progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. it is both challanging and insipring.  This is a multi-faceted reflection of many issues we still grapple with today. while this is a work of fiction, it has many truths which can be applied to our society.