Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Chapter 10-end
PART ONE (TWO TRANSCRIPTS)
Roles:
Choose one of the following major roles: Helmholtz Watson from the Falkland Islands; Bernard Marx from
Choose one of the following minor roles: a Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying; a policeman who helped subdue the crowd at the soma riot; Primo Mellon, representative of The Hourly Radio; Darwin Bonaparte, the Feely Corporation’s most expert big game photographer; Henry Foster; another perspective that you think would yield interesting perceptions of John.
Audience:
The board of World Controllers who will use testimony about John the Savage’s behavior to determine why his experience in the
Format:
Transcriptions of formal testimony in front of the board of World Controllers, one from a character who knows John well and another from a character who knows John less well. (Write the testimony as if the characters are speaking. You can blend them together or do one at a time.) Each “transcription” should be ten or more sentences, should include details from the text, should offer analysis (from the character’s point of view) of John’s behavior and actions, and should include at least three underlined vocabulary words.
Topic:
Perceptions of John from two perspectives that might help the controllers understand John’s life and end. What did John do and why did he do it? (You might even have the characters judge John’s behavior and actions, or speculate about whether or not another outcome was possible for John if he or others had made different choices.)
PART TWO: A LETTER TO ALDOUS HUXLEY
Role: Yourself
Audience: Aldous Huxley
Format: Letter. Include details, analysis, and evaluation.
Topic: What do you see in Huxley’s Brave New World? (Link its message to details and technique.) What does it have to say about modern life that is relevant in 2010? (Link Huxley’s vision of the future to aspects of modern life in 2010 and to the future you foresee. Does he get anything wrong? Does he miss anything important? Explain.) How effective is the way that Huxley presents his vision of future and satire of the present? (Think of the description of setting, presentation of characters, unfolding of events, use of allusion and puns, etc. Is Huxley’s use of literary elements effective? How so? How not?) The main purpose of the letter is to analyze and constructively evaluate what you see in Brave New World and to communicate your vision to Aldous Huxley.
67 comments:
Lenina Crowne:
I think I may have had something to do with John’s death. He was the most eccentric person I had ever met. This must have been partly because of his viviparous birth and his life on the reservation. It was hard for me to tell if John liked me or not. He fell to his knees once and began quoting Shakespeare to show that he wanted me. He claimed and acted like he wanted me, but when I took my clothes off in front of him in his apartment, he threw me out. He was never lecherous, which I found very strange. He would not have sex with me no matter how much he wanted to or how much I wanted to. John had a fantasy picture of the Utopia from his mother's tales and his knowledge of Shakespeare that he thought was a guide to reality. He thought the way I acted was immoral and strange for wanting to have sex. From Shakespeare he thought it was good for lovers to be pure, but all of us here know he is sadly mistaken. His unorthodox views must have caused him to separate himself from the rest of us. John found a place where he could be in complete solitude and could suffer. I do not know why anyone would want this. Many Utopians would go and watch him and I decided to join them because I still found his display of emotions interesting even after spending so much time with him. He whipped himself because of his suffering and then he killed himself. I remember him looking at me and then he ended his life. I think it may have been out of love for me. It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen.
A Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying:
I remember first seeing John when I was near the bed of an old, fat, and ugly woman who was dying. I later found out this was his mother which I think is disgusting. I remember him hitting one of the other deltas I was with because they said something about her looks. The nurse yelled at him for doing this and interfering with our death conditioning. He seemed very upset for some reason. I didn’t see this death as such a big deal, it seemed natural to me. I was very blithe about the whole situation. After, we were picking up some of our soma rations, John yelled at us to stop taking soma. He said it was poison that was meant to keep us in this Utopia and told us to choose freedom. His beliefs seemed quite heretical to ours. It must have been his views on death that caused him to end his life. If he had gone along with our views and ways he would not have been so unhappy. John could have lived a good life here. He was too emotional and viewed natural things as being strange and upsetting. I have never known of anyone that has caused their own death, but somehow he was able to.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
In your novel “Brave New World” it shows that a world that has complete order will not work. A perfect world is very hard to make happen. The value of a family is lost along with many morals. In a world like this all emotions would be lost. People would not make anything out of their lives and there would not be any individuality. Some things portrayed in your novel are true however not as extreme. Now in 2010 many things are manufactured and produced artificially. Some humans are made artificially in a way, but mothers and fathers are still involved. I think that even in the future things will not get to the point where humans are all the same and there are no longer mothers and fathers. There will always be compassion and love in the world. Feelings are one thing that will never be lost. The characters like Bernard that go against the society will always be present. I think there will always be some people who will always see the right and true way of life. The way you wrote the book really gives it its meaning. The characters all seem to have a different view on the World State. Lenina goes along with everything she is taught and never really questions it. Bernard sees problems and does not want to sleep with many different girls like the World Sate encourages. The setting being in a hatchery really emphasizes the manufacturing and producing of the world. People are just produced like objects with no meaning. The reservation has some qualities of a normal world where people have feelings and are born in a way we consider normal. Without passion or any kind of feelings everything would be lost. There would be no need to do anything with your life. Your novel really shows this where the people have no feelings and go from day to day doing the same things. The world needs individuality and different ideas from everyone.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Kelley
OFFICIAL WORLD STATE TRANSCRIPTION: WORLD CONTROLLERS MEETING
MUSTAPHA MOND
In regards to the Savage it became apparent to me when we first got a chance to really sit down and chat (Just before he ran off to the lighthouse upon the hill) that he was not going to be able to enjoy civilization, and that he was an issue that must be brought to the attention of you, the other nine World Controllers. There were several problems that he provoked, all of them being of a various serious nature. The first was that when I began to talk to him, he was able to challenge me in conversation. When talking to Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson they did present valid points, but I was able to talk circles around them. With the savage I was able to argue the benefits of civilization, but he challenged my views and me. The second issue was that he knew ancient works of literature. He had read Shakespeare and can quote it freely and with ease. These ideas could have poisoned the population causing discontent among the lower classes. In fact, I am glad in some ways that he took his own life, but also I am disappointed because it is a great loss of information that we could have used to further the happiness of our peoples. The Savage caused disruption in my region and was forced to be subdued, and I could not tolerate that. I was forced to be stern and harsh with him, I tried to explain the benefits of our way of life, and yet he could not tolerate this. He took his own life knowing fully what he was doing, proving furthermore the irrationality of the Savages on the Reservation. It was in his blood and in his nature to dislike civilization, and there was nothing that could have been done to change that.
OFFICIAL WORLD STATE TRANSCRIPTION: WORLD CONTROLLERS MEETING
DARWIN BONAPARTE
Your Fordships,
I know little of the Savage and why he did what he did, so I can only provide the observations I saw when I was stalking him for a few short days.
He was a peculiar being, not unlike the large game I have photographed in the wild. He did what was needed for basic survival and not much more. He planted a small garden and tended to it with great care, and with the skills of an experienced hand, he once raided the poultry factory in Puttenham, killing several birds, but not nearly as many as he could have. I found these actions notable because they are so opposite of what an average person could have done in our great civilization. There was so little consumption! I could hardly believe it; even lions in the savanna left some meat on the bones of their kill!
The other strange thing that I noted was that he would often beat himself with a whip for no apparent reason, it seemed as if he was having an internal conflict of sorts.
Your Fordships, I am only a large game photographer, an expert on animal behavior, not man’s, but if I may make one speculation? He seemed untamed and yet intelligent. Part of me was intrigued by the ways he lived, and yet I was repelled at the same time. Maybe he hung himself because he did not fit in? I have seen animals survive on their own, kicked out from the herd for one reason or another, and I have seen some die within days, maybe he was dependent on a herd, and was simply not receiving it.
Dear Mr. Huxley,
I would first like to say that your book is a unique one that forces the reader to think a bout the world around them. This being said, the work A Brave New World could mean different things to different people, and every reader will see a slightly different thing in the text. For me I saw a pretty basic thing. That is that with every different view
[And everyone in the world has a unique one (except for the distopia in your book)] comes a different definition or meaning for everything. By this I mean that John will see civilization as something completely different than that of Mustapha Mond. We see this everywhere in the book, but especially in the conversation between Mond and “The Savage”. They argue back and forth about the aspect and needs of civilization, the necessity (or not) of unhappiness, and the presence of knowledge.
What A Brave New World says about modern life is an important one. That is that people have become too dependant on traditional norms and the orthodox actions expected of them. As you so extremely put it in your novel, if we continue down this path it may seem that we blend into distinct groups. The classes could become more distinct, people will blend together. As it is seen in today’s elections candidates appeal to large demographics, trying to get the “Latino” or the “Working Class” vote, not aiming to meet the needs of the individual or the localized groups.
Though this argument is strong it can also be disproved, even by your own novel. Your vision of the future incites fear into the reader, and promotes independent thinking. This is very similar to the way the world is turning. More things are aimed at provoking the mind; slogans become questions that need answering. Jobs today need a worker who can think on their own. Sure there are still ‘Epsilons’ and ‘Epsilon Jobs’, but more and more jobs require the talent of Betas and Alphas. And people in the modern world are not staying only in their class, people are ascending upward, and people fall from grace. The world is not a level, stable place.
Yours Truly,
Grant Weaver
Lenina
If I had to offer my ideas on why John so strangely ended his life I must first say I do not even fully understand his reasons for acting so strangely overall. His death was quite odd, but I wonder if his body will be able to be useful like our non savage bodies are, perhaps his is different because he is viviparous. Anyways I found his views on sex quite unorthodox, savages like him do not understand that everybody belongs to everybody, and they have eccentric mating patterns. I wanted to bad to be had by him, but for some reason he did not want to, the feeling of not being wanted was revolting and I hope I never feel it again. He also tried to attack me after I offered myself to him, but he said he liked me he said some quite puzzling things. I also find it odd and a little unnerving that John would not take Soma to relax, he simply refused and a gramme is better than a damn. Maybe this helped lead him to his self inflicted death. Overall he was far too unstable to stay here, and also had no identity or community as a social group. Even in the putrid savage reservation he was wrongly persecuted for his mother’s lecherous behavior. In the end John needed to die, because he was so estranged from both the savages and the World State so he had no use being alive.
John vs. The Board of World Controllers
Testimony of Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying and Lenina Crowne
Testimony of Lenina Crowne in the claim of John’s alternate system of values led to his death:
To board She answers that her name is Lenina Crowne, residence - WORLD STATE: ALPHA - by occupation a vaccination worker at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. To board She answers that John the Savage was a strong passion to her and his death is both bad and confusing to her - has no understanding of johns death, starts to be emotionally unstable.
testimony ended: (Crowne was given Soma)
testimony resumed:
To board She answers, that, she is here to testify in favor of WORLD STATE. To board She answers that she was involved in a sexual act with John prior to his death - has known John, son of the Director, since contact at the reservation. To board She answers that he lived estrange from his village on the New Mexico Savage Reservation, and came to World State in order to fit into a proper society. To board She answers, that she met him frequently - on many occasions she tried to seduce John but he would lock himself away. To board She answers that she had frequent conversations with John that showed his views on the world that conflicted hers - there was one time at the apartment where she wanted sex -he did not seem pleased to see her but then fell to his knees saying terrifying things about love, marriage, and growing old together. - to board she screams “Oh, my Ford” and explains that his desire for her caused him to slap her and call her a “Damed whore!” (p. 189 - p. 196 in the original papers)
To board She answers that his death was another strange act that was caused by John’s terrifying values that he himself created not created by her or WORLD STATE.
Testimony of Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying in the claim that John’s death was caused by his own anti-WORLD STATE ideals:
To board He answers that he belongs to a Bokanovsky group of 78 dark dolychocephalic Delta twins. residence - Park Lane Hospital for the Dying: WORLD STATE: DELTA.
To board He answers that John must have died from his eccentric views about freedom and his state of solitude- Delta believes he could testify his loyalty to the WORLD STATE. To board He answers that he himself heard the savage say “Don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison, it’s poison.” -referring to soma. - to board he explains that John told them “I come to bring you freedom”. (p. 211 in the original papers) To board, He answers, that he thinks that John showed threats to subvert him and the WORLD STATE and that it is not surprising that his unnatural behavior lead to his suicide. To board He answers that, he does not think that John established any loyalty to the WORLD STATE but just the opposite - he furiously says that John was a terrible man, and had no confidence in our understanding of freedom. -he explains to board that John began to throw pill-boxes of soma out the window -other Delta witnesses will also state the same fact, the Board of World Controllers express deep concern and amazement to this fact. To board He answers that it is true they charged at John- shows great passion when saying this and shows his fury with John’s actions against the WORLD STATE. - Board of World Controllers nod their heads at this fact in approval.
Answered, subscribed and sworn to the Board of World Controllers on this day of A.F 362.
John’s participation in the orgy and suicide was the result of his insanity created by a fundamental conflict between the reality of the world around him and his own moral values.
a Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying
I was in the hospital for the dying, learning my death conditioning when I saw a putrid looking figure. She was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I was wondering what was wrong with her when all the sudden the savage, John hit me down, I don’t even know why. He was a scary person who was very eccentric and unstable. He seemed very unhappy maybe if he took Soma he wouldn’t have killed himself but I don’t know. I don’t think it would have been possible for John to continue living in the World State, because he wouldn’t have fit in with the Delta’s and probably not with any other group. I can’t believe that woman was his mother, he should be ashamed, and I was scared of her. I’m so glad that I will never look like that. The relationship John had with his mother is gross, and weird. His death was unorthodox but needed.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
The more I look deeper into your novel “Brave New World” the more I understand that a society can never be perfect unless your idea of a perfect society is one that has many problems. I can see your concerns through this world you’ve created and the characters that are consumed by power and control. You show how the big government controls every human being from birth to death. The behaviors, ideals, and actions are all controlled in order for the government to stay in power and the society to stay stable. You have ultimately created a stage for a battle between control and freedom. According to your final page control defeats freedom and it is unfortunate that you left no other possible outcome for John. Despite this unhappy ending it was the entire book that explored many ideas about a society that could threaten our morals and the things that make us human. In your book we see almost a total loss of humanity when the citizens of the World State allow their controlled happiness to erase all of their dignity, values, emotions, and morals. You use a drug called soma to greatly represent a way to escape any problems that threatens social stability and gets rid of any search for the truth. The people in the World State do not see the real world around them they see the world that is false and a world with no problems. You also use the control of technology to show how it can create a world that is totally artificial from beginning to end. The way that you have been able to use satire allows people to see how absurd a society is that defines humanity without the thoughts of a human. Almost all of these concerns are relative to today (2010) and must stay in the minds of humans as long as humans exist. Today I see the control of the facts through the vast control of the mass media. Today I see the use of drugs to escape problems that only lead to a false happiness and more problems. Yes Aldous we need some stability and order in our society but I will vindicate your idea that if there is ever total control over the creation and death of humans we have lost humanity.
Sincerely,
Mac Hutchinson
Dear Aldous Huxeley,
Your book “A Brave New World” is one that is quite moving because it makes the reader think about their surrounding culture from an outsider view, and reevaluate it. I think in a way you did correctly portray our cultures reliance on technology, and even the less intense relationships. Clearly we are not like the World State in that we don’t have mothers and fathers and marriages…ect. However with the growing use of instant messaging through texts and AIM and Facebook people communicate less and less in person and use technology instead. Also marriages mean less and less, people marry for money and you can even get married in places like Vegas if you don’t even know the person you’re marrying creating a higher divorce rate. I like the way you gave John an alternative way of expressing himself through Shakespeare, but I feel that he did need to die in the end, and I don’t think you made a mistake by leaving him that fate. I also feel like the descriptions of the surroundings helped establish that the reader is an outsider and that you wanted the reader to observe the society. I also see your use of Soma successful in putting across a point; it seems today that even some people high up in society who have good paying jobs and a family are not passionately happy about their lives. They have done what others around them such as family and other role models wanted them to, and they have done what is wanted by society yet they are not satisfied and they just do what they need to not liking their life. The Soma makes the people not care about whether or not they have succeeded and not care if they are doing anything at all worthwhile. Overall I think “A Brave New World” highlights some of today’s problems in society, and in years to come they may get worse.
My gracious World Controllers,
I truly feel that I can provide insight as to why the life of John ended the way it did. John had a most peculiar dynamic as a youth. He was raised by a member of the world state who was forced to essentially defect due to her viviparous birth. The fact that John had, pardon my French, a mother, truly alienated him from the world state. Also, since his mother had spoke so highly of the society from which she came, he had huge expectations of a utopian society, but for John it was anything but. You see, the savage culture was centered on sacrifice. Whether it is pain, time, or even human sacrifice, this is what John had grown up seeing but never participated in. This made him want to sacrifice. He was also what those in Shakespeare’s time would call a “romantic”. He was set on becoming monogamous with one female and developed a one track mind over this. Unfortunately, the female who he desired did not know what romance is, only infatuation and pleasure. John, knowing the works of Shakespeare, did not want sexual pleasure. He wanted everlasting love and devotion. These things Lenina, John’s desire, could not offer. I was even told she showed up at the sight of the commotion with another man. After giving in to his desires that fateful day, he realized what Mustapha Mond had said was true; there can be no heroism in this world. Then he resorted back to his savage ways, where sacrifice is the only justification. He paid the ultimate price, by sacrificing himself.
Thank you for your time,
Helmholtz Watson
To my Lords,
Thanks to you for replacing my soma. I think you are really great. Thank you for getting rid of the scary man. That was nice. He threw our soma out the window. That was mean. I did not like him. Why would he not like soma? He looked like alpha. I don’t think he was. He talked like alpha, too. I like policeman that came in. They sprayed me with soma. I liked that lots. He was saying that he was going to free me. What does that have to do with soma? Plus, I get everything I want. I thought that was what makes me free. How is throwing away soma teaching? I think he’s dumb. I think he wanted our soma so he got mad. I didn’t like the feeling when he was throwing the soma. I didn’t know what was happening. There was pushing and shoving. His friends came along and helped him do it. Why would they get rid of what makes us happy? Doesn’t that light haired one know that when the individual feels, the community reels?
Sincerely
Bokanovsky group 7293
Delta 54
Park Lane Hospital for Dying.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
First off I would just like to congratulate you on this almost prophetic novel. It does seem that the world is, in some ways at least, headed right for this direction; with the spikes in things like sexual promiscuity, consumerism, and religious decline. Although these increases have not reached the level that they were in this book, the time setting is more than 500 years away and only about 80 have elapsed since publication. Some may identify the ending of this novel as a sort of symbolic “cop out”. I would be inclined to agree unless I am missing something. I can understand that it is the only way that John feels he can possibly reconcile his sins of promiscuity, but I feel a more optimistic end would be more appropriate and realistic. In almost any religion atonement can be reached, especially if the sinner was drugged outside his own power, which is the only way I could possibly see John taking the soma. It would make more sense to me that he would return to the reservation outside the system, like he did in making his outpost. Then sneak into the reservation and reach painstaking atonement there, or something along those lines. That way the message of maintaining your own beliefs could be upheld without having such a dreary message that this world couldn’t change. I did enjoy your use of satirical phrases and names, but I feel the satire was kind of just plopped in sometimes. For many cases the satirical names did not have much pertinence to the character themselves. I appreciate the allusions and the significance of the people alluded to with the names, but there could have been more thought put in. Though I realize then it is less funny and more significant. Also the reversal of morals and the satires of the movie “Three weeks in a helicopter” reversing the roles of Shakespeare’s Othello. Clearly other aspects of this novel do not work. The Bokanovsky process is scientifically inaccurate, and essentially all of your scientific terms are misused, but cloning could provide similar issues as those presented in the birthing process. I did appreciate how the focal character in the story changes progressively, but I wonder whether it is simply because there is no other way to tell the story that needs to be told; laying the foreground, then going from character to character showing different people’s take on the world state. I think you might have some subconscious or conscious racial issues, though I know you probably won’t change your mind based on whatever I argue. I just want to ask why you made the lowest caste have the color black, as opposed to any other color, and why you feel any other race is any different from Caucasians. Those ideas have been proven incorrect. Thank you so much again for this book.
Sincerely,
Chase Kelly
Testimony of Helmholtz Watson from the Falkland Islands
John or the savage was an interesting boy. Read Shakespeare never really understood the idea of Romeo or Juliet or all of the viviparous women that gave birth to disgusting kids in the story, but he liked it so what the hell. John was defiant and had a lot of guts when it came to behaving the in the World State. John was so set in his unorthodox beliefs of not being with different women and only marrying one. Though not one of us shall hate him for that because he is after all only a savage. I once read him my poetry he did not understand it. I shall add an insert in here for you because I might revise it while here on the islands.”Yesterday’s committee , Sticks, but a broken drum, Midnight in the city, flutes in a vacuum.”(Aldous Huxley. Brave New World. P.181.) I believe that John could never have been conditioned his beliefs being too strong and his age causing him to defy. How John thought this “New World” would be better than the savage reservation, but in the end he found himself wrong. He found that people here did not like him just wanted to see him and see the differences between us. As I lay supine my eyes focused upon the sky above me I realize I will never forget the day John tried to “free” the deltas from their soma because as you all say “A gram is better than a damn.” I do not believe that now for here on the islands I am able to feel at least some emotion. Anyways back to the day of the soma incident my friend Bernard and I were called to the Hospital of the Dying because of John’s little escapade. Upon arrival we saw him throwing soma out the window trying to “liberate” the deltas, but of course they did not understand his actions and just wanted their soma so they could go home. Well I saw him and I decided that this was a perfectly brilliant idea so I joined him punching at the deltas in an attempt for them to leave us alone. Then the police came and I found the event even more exhilarating. John was not in the wrong he is only a savage what can you want from him. I believe that this was caused due to the fact that he had lost his mother not even a hour before. The idea of losing someone close to us would not affect us in the same way because we are conditioned to view death as positive, in the savage reservation John did not have that and Linda’s death must have caused him great angst and cause him to act the way he did. His beliefs simple, his mind even simpler, and unable to comprehend the bigger picture of the “World State” and the idea that most people look alike. I believe that this had caused most of the problems in his head and lead to his untimely death. For I myself would love to have seen John grow and become more of a man. I imagine that the “Orgy-Porgy” at his house must have set him off ,and yes I did hear about and I am ashamed that you did not stop the media from seeing John, this mostly likely mad him crazy leading to his death.
Testimony of The Deltas from the Hospital for the Dying
Its soma time. The day is done and now we get our wonderful absolutely amazing soma. We were walking down the corridors to the exit area where the best person ever was giving us our soma. You know what everyone says, “A gram is better than a damn.” Anyways we were all standing in line minding our own business. Fine maybe we were pushing a little, but we all really wanted the soma. Well all of sudden we see the Savage and he steals our soma. Our SOMA! Well we were really angry. The Savage started to throw it out the window screaming at the top of his lungs, “Don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison. It’s poison.” (Aldous Huxley. Brave New World. Pg. 211.). This savage is crazy and abject with such a horrendous air around him, soma is the best it is obvious they do not offer it at the savage reservation. Wonder why? It would make things a lot easier for everyone else. Then two Alphas came in and one started to help the savage right away. Some people said that the savage was distressed that his m***** had just died. Like that even matters death just means you get to help everyone that much more. Besides he is a detestable creature who should not be allowed anywhere near soma. Fighting continued us against the savage and the Alpha punches and kicks were landed on everyone and everything. They persecuted us as they oppressed us by taking away our wonderful soma. That is until the police got there and then things started to calm and beautiful soma was everywhere how lovely it was. Well the Alphas and the savage were taken away and we thought it was just wonderful and we were given our soma and life was good. Then we heard that the savage killed himself and well we threw a little party. It serves him right trying to steal our soma like that. Besides we doubt that there was really anyone who cared about him, we mean who could really ever care for a savage, not us. The world is better off without him as far as we are concerned. Now we do not have to worry about our soma being stolen or that ugly, stupid savage taken anything else from us ever again. The savage died with ignominy and we still place dishonor on him. That’s what we believe, we believe that the savage deserved. (964)
Dear Mr. Huxely,
The message of your world is remarkably and startlingly clear and that is the world in the end will be lost. I see in your book a bleak future in which there is little to no hope of having a free will or believing in oneself. In this new world I see the death of humanity in a way. How can one consider these beings human? They are not conceived in the proper way or at least in a way acceptable to mankind in this time. It is an unrealistic goal of yours to conceive ninety six children from one egg for the most one can get from an egg is two children. I believe that in the end you were trying to disturb your readers more than predict the future.
I believe that you missed many things compared 2010, but I do believe that there were some things that you hit spot on. The idea that God is not the center of society is spot on for there is an increasing amount of people in this time that do not believe in god. The idea of being able to conceive so many children has yet to become a reality. However in today’s world a parent can pick basically everything about the looks of their child so in sense of the word we are able to condition them. We are not able to condition them to the extent of perfect balance and such which was what you were getting at. Though the idea still holds merit with the idea of cults in modern times and subliminal messages used in order to condition people to behave in a certain way. The idea of the “feelies” you talk about in “Brave New World” is very similar to the 3D movies we have today in which some with the proper seats you can feel movements within the movie. An idea of a pill to make you happy is also available today. I think something important that you miss about today’s world involving interaction between humans is homosexuality. In today’s world it is very common and I believe that it should have been in your book because there was no need at all to have to worry about a lack of population. Though today there is no worry either. Part of the book’s purpose was to make readers feel uncomfortable and at the time you wrote this I believe that many readers would have been uncomfortable though it would have been accepted today.
The presentation of the future is bleak, but done with a strong conviction and the satire of the present is at some points well done. The idea behind the names in one sense is genius, but have one fatal flaw. That if the reader did not have a good grasp on history then they would not pick up on the meanings behind the name and the satire they show. The satire was good with how you presented the world state as something completely opposite than the world you were living in at the time. The thing is that you could not resist putting a joke and that is when the story begins to get bothersome because when there is too many jokes the reader does not appreciate the work as much. Another thing about the characters that was really bothersome was that you write so much about one and make them see really important, for example Lenina, and then you would just basically drop them out of the story line. The puns were hilarious, but would have been more effective if they were used less. The future in this story is definitely opposite of everything back when you first wrote the story, but it provides the reader the ability to see the world in their mind and away from any bias of the outside world.
The idea of soma is absolutely perfect. What better way to freak out your reader than with a drug that makes you unable to control your own emotion. The lines about it are great to such as, “Christianity without tears- that’s what soma is.”(Aldous Huxley. Brave New World. Pg.238.) Then the idea about the sex hormone gum was also really great because it disturbs people by really getting under their skin and that’s what makes this vision of the future all the more realistic. This is because as time progresses and science progresses the invention of these drugs is not that far from reality. The idea of your characters also became slightly obnoxious over time. The idea of Lenina really only able to repeat learning’s from hypnopeadia became grating because it lost the idea of a joke after awhile. Helmholtz and Bernard’s friendship also became annoying due to the lack of feelings for each other through most of the book and random sparks of friendship during small parts of the book. While some of your literary elements are effective, such as puns against humanity, some of it is lacking, for example with the names.
Though the book may have been lacking in some areas the end of the book was chilling. The idea of John whipping Lenina in the end was brilliant. It was brilliant because no longer did Lenin just represent herself, but the whole of the World State. With John’s chilling act of cruelness the reader was able to fully understand his hate of the World State and the reader sympathized with John and not Lenina in the end. For John in a sense was us, the reader, in this new unfamiliar world and with the death of him it became the death of the reader. John’s death represented the end of our kind and the end of a world we were comfortable in. You wanted us to know that there was no way out of this new world that it came with the death of the last breath of John. John was and still is everything we hold dear to us now, but that in the end cannot fight off the arrival of this brave new world.
Sincerely,
Jacklyn Linsky
Dear Board of World controllers,
I knew from the moment I met the Savage (John), that there was no way he could ever evolve into a functioning person in the World State. I met with John after I had heard of his disparagement of our way of life. When I walked in the room I introduced myself and boldly asked him “so you don’t much like civilization?” I saw the confliction is his eyes, but I respected him when he answered me “No” in the same manner I had asked him, I was highly surprised that the savage was not very intimidated by me and did not put on a façade as I thought he would have done. I knew right away John could not live happily here, he was able to hold a conversation with me, actually make me think about the points he was making, unlike Helmholtz and Marx. I found this Savage very interesting; he had read Shakespeare and knew of the old works as I do. I do believe that if John had never come to the World State he would have lived out a relatively happy, “normal” life. Although I believe in our ways of life, a person cannot be happy here unless they are conditioned from the beginning of their lives. John’s overwhelming misunderstanding of our world let him to a psychotic break eventually resulting in his death. I tried very hard to make him understand what why do here and what we are all about, I could not patronize him he was able to question my reasoning and values, making it much more difficult to break through.
Delta: Park Lane Hospital for the Dying
John, he is quite hard to forget, he seemed abject to the rest of the people in the hospital. I remember the day he came in, you could tell he was different, in a sense he reeked of it. I was attending to a patient, an old fat crinkled up women, I had trouble looking at her, wondering how you could ever let yourself live like that, however this man (John) was s sitting by her side, I was confused, and he sat there holding her hand with a look in his eyes I didn’t bother to understand. As we continued with our duties one of the other nurses made a comment about the old women’s physical state, this angered John and he took eccentric measures, hitting the other delta. I couldn’t believe my eyes; I hadn’t seen what the delta had done to deserve being hit. The death of this old women was natural, not a big deal, this man continued to confuse me. After being scolded for hitting the delta John yelled at us for taking Soma, he was shouting about the negativity of it, how we were being oppressed. Once this altercation became physical the police intervened and took John away. I couldn’t help but wonder about his death, and how his views were so orthodox. I began to wonder what drove him to kill himself and I began to realize that his views of our life and the way we handle death were too much for him to ever be comfortable with, and for him I believe he saw it as the point of no return.
Dear Aldous Huxley.
Reading your book I felt as though your portrayal of the future world was an interesting vision. I noticed a lot of satire and subtle references with names and events from the past. I also found it interesting how you based this new world on a way of “manufacturing”. Although that is not exactly how life is in 2010 may be, it is a symbolic and less dramatic form of that. In your book people don’t have mothers and fathers and are simply manufactured. Although today we still have parents, people can be created in many ways now (Invitro-fertilization etc.). Also in Brave New World the people are lecherous, and are open about sexual relations, sex is no longer a personal thing to people. In our society people are not lecherous, but looser about their values as appose to in the early/mid 1900’s where it more of a sacred thing. In your future it is all about science, stability and structure. Also people were in a sense becoming dumb, they did not have minds of their own and I believe in our future our minds will have expanded and become more cultured. Although I do not agree with the way he portrayed people’s minds throughout the book I did think it was quite effective. It proved a good point, as well as a valid point, as to where the life of our technology is headed, however I did not like or agree with the negative connotation the book had about people and what they would become.
To the Board of World Controllers:
The Testimony of Helmholtz Watson from the Falkland Islands:
The man you see as a savage, John, from the Malpais Reservation lived a life of certain complexities as seen through World State eyes. John was a brave being if you look at his behavior portrayed in the World State. John was adamant in his unorthodox beliefs. He defied the structured and dictating lifestyle of the World State. He was content in marrying one women and having relations with said women alone. He didn’t know any better, he was from a savage environment and lifestyle. His thought process was confusing enough for anyone to understand, he couldn’t even understand my poetry. I read the lines: ”Yesterday’s committee , Sticks, but a broken drum, Midnight in the city, flutes in a vacuum.” I believe these lines show a great deal about life in the World State, a life John wasn’t meant to live in, despite what some may say, despite what even I believe. John was a powerhouse of a rebel, he could not be conditioned like the others. His dreams of finding a better place than the savage reservation were diminished. He was too different, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Such thoughts flow through my head as I lay here, supine, looking up above at the gray sky. It reminds me so much of John’s life, gray, dismal, only glimmers of hope shine at certain times, before they are covered up by fog or the clouds that flow by. John crossed a delicate line when he tried to liberate the Deltas from their soma intake. He wanted to change the system, as it had changed it’s inhabitants. As liberating and invigorating as this act was, there was a part of me that knew this was wrong and was based on anger and frustration at the society and what it had done to him, and how his mother had just died. We were lead to believe that death is positive, but John did not grow up with that belief, and so he acted upon fury. Such a simple soul, yet such a complex life. I feel “sad” for John, really. Such an untimely death, a death he did not deserve, he only did what he felt was right in his mind. You can’t blame him too much. Wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were him? How could you know what was right and what was wrong?
-Tom Martin
To The Board of World Controllers:
Testimony of The Deltas from the Hospital for the Dying:
Soma is a gift from above. It makes us happy, it keeps us sane, it makes sure we are aligned and in check with what the World State wants. You know what they say, “A gram is better than a damn.” Now it was time to intake our daily dose. But as we were walking down the hall to the exit to get out soma, we saw the savage, John, stealing our soma. He was throwing all of it out the window, yelling “It’s poison. It’s poison.” He was completely abject and out of line, what was this insane man doing? What gave him the right to do this? Nothing did. He was nothing but a crazed savage who understood nothing about our World State. We overheard he was upset over his “mother’s” death, but that didn’t give him the right to do what he did. And besides, death isn’t even that bad of a thing. It’s an ending, that’s all. It helps the circle of life and the balance of things. Once the Alphas got involved, it really got intense. It became a full-out brawl. They persecuted us by taking away our soma. Soon enough the police arrived and sanity came into sight as they were all taken away. Of course the Alphas would help the savage, they know just as little as he does. That was also when we finally got our dose of soma, it was great. When we heard John committed suicide, we all agreed it was for the best, serves him right for stealing our soma. At least now we don’t have to worry about an overthrow like that again. Balance in our system is secure for now, and John, well, he died a death filled of ignominy. He humiliated himself by acting in such a manner, it’s his own fault if you ask us.
-Tom Martin
Dear Aldous Huxley,
Your novel, Brave New World, is a work of literature that really makes us, the readers, think harder about the changing world society around us. I saw through your text that with different views come different perceptions. We all view the world in either two different realities. The way it is actually seen or the way we want to see it. John saw civilization in the World State as something very different than how the Deltas viewed it. This is seen especially in the scene where John was trying to liberate the Deltas of their soma and yet the Deltas are very angry by his brute actions. Brave New World teaches a very important lesson about modern life and how it has changed over time and how it will continue to change. It shows how we, as a society, are too dependent on the social norms, and how we conform to what we see as the view and lifestyle of the majority. If we continue this lifestyle, we will end up blending into one mass group of all the same beliefs with no distinction, no diversity. Even today, 2010 is becoming a culture based on the mass majority. We’re living in a liberal technological age, where owning the new hot piece of technology declares your social status more so than your moral beliefs even. We can get married and divorced in a single night in Las Vegas. We can gamble our life savings away. We can protest the government. We can say what we want to say without being persecuted. Yet most of these statements only apply to life in democratic America. There are still parts of the world that live in oppression. And who’s to say where the better life is? In the place where you can do whatever you want freely or in the place where you have certain limitations of what you can actually do? What makes us stronger? What makes us more human? Is it our rights? Or is it something more? And will the rest of the world ever catch up to a civilization like America? Or better yet, if this is the road we’re on now, how will the future be? Could there be a halt to the unlimited freedom? Your vision of the future in your novel strikes fear into the reader. It provokes many endless questions on where our society is headed and if that is exactly the best place it should go.
Sincerely,
Tom Martin
World State
Case of Death of JOHN
Case No. 11467
Your Honor:
My name is Lenina Crowne. I have had many experiences and close encounters with John. I first met John at the Savage Reservation in New Mexico. At first encounter John seemed to have very eccentric ways about him. His viviparous birth seemed very queer to both me and Bernard. Not only this but John was infatuated with the works of William Shakespeare. John came back to the World State. He wanted to leave his almost primitive life on the reservation. Me and John became very close. John did not give into my lechery for he felt it was almost immoral to have such a sexual life. In one instance John got very upset when i tried to have sex with him. He believed that life in a utopian way would be that of one of Shakespeare’s plays. I feel Johns death ended in a terrible way. His views of a perfect society were corrupted when he became familiar with the life at the World State. John sacrificed himself in front of many to display his pain. i have never seen such emotion in my life. I was strongly connected to John. He did not have to leave this way.
World State
Case of Death of JOHN
Delta at Park Lane Hospital for the Dying
Case No. 11467
Your Honor:
I met John once. He seemed very weird. He stuck out. He does not like Soma. How could you not like Soma! In fact ill take some now. John told us it was not safe to take it. I was just really confused by him. It seemed that everything was opposite where he came from. He seemed smart but yet he didn't have the sense to take Soma and be happy. He threw it all away. I think that Alpha looking guy should not be allowed near here ever again. Im glad he’s gone. He was just jealous of us. Were happy and he’s not. Thats all i have to say.
To the Board of World Controllers:
The World State is only meant for some to live in. And apparently, it is not meant for John who has come to be known as John the Savage. When I first met John, I first thought, that he was fifthly and disgusting! Every bit of him was wrong and foul and I had no intentions in meeting him. Being in the Malpais civilization in the first place was heretical. However, when he first came to live in the World State, my thoughts of him changed. I found myself helplessly falling for him, and I yearned to any sexual relationships I could get. I did think he wanted my affection in return. In a way I was correct, but he told me he wanted to be with me forever and grow old together. What a gross idea! Despite my affections for him, and his views on relationships, I still desired to sleep with him, letting my promiscuity excel. Yet, as time went by John became too caught up in the ideas and orthodox beliefs of the World State. He hanged himself which let to his death. His callow behavior only reveals him as being afraid of the World State. He never truly accepted the beliefs of it, and he didn’t wish to partake in its ways of life. John the Savage became scared of life as he knew it, and as a result he ended it. – Lenina Crowne
To the Board of Controllers:
As assistant to the Director of The Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, I have come to call the World State superb place to be living. I have become so involved with my work, that it has caused me to love the way of life in the World State even more. Nothing about the World State is pallid, for every moment is full of excitement. However, I do understand that the ways of the World State, has greatly influenced John the Savage’s life. Unfortunately, for the worst. Yes, I recently was informed that John committed suicide by hanging himself. His death was abject of course, but I do believe it was predestined. John was living in the New Mexican Reservation of Malpais. There he had no contact with the outside world and no knowledge of it. When he first came to the World State, I knew he wouldn’t have been able to handle it. Not because he wasn’t strong enough. No, John could have adapted to this new way of living in time. He eventually died because he disagreed with the beliefs of the World State. In the World State, he tried to have his own life and continue to obey his ideas and views. Yet, John became overwhelmed and ended his life out of fear. – Henry Foster
Testimony from Lenina Crowne:
I don’t think I will ever completely understand why John acted the way he did towards me. I have never met a man that denied me like John did. He was a very eccentric man in our society. He told me that he wanted me, so I did the normal thing and started to take off my clothes. John got very angry and rough and I was very scared of him. I think that John acted strangely because he wasn’t conditioned like everyone else, and he refused to take soma. John had many beliefs that he learned when he was growing up in the savage reservation. He believed in love, which he learned from Shakespeare. Every minute in the World State, John was in solitude because he just didn’t fit it. John believed that what the World State did to people was wrong. He wanted people to read Shakespeare and have families. He didn’t understand why people took soma or went to the feelies. I went to see John on his island after hearing what was going on in the news. I thought that he would be happy to see me, but instead, he lashed out on me and ended up killing himself. I think seeing me pushed him over the edge. I wish there was something more that we could have done for John.
Testimony from Delta at Park Lane Hospital for the Dying
I was in the Hospital for the Dying, looking at all the people that were dying. I wasn’t scared of them, and I am not scared of dying. Looking at their pallid faces, I know that people die for a reason. When I saw the fat, ugly lady lying in the bed, I was wondering what was the matter with her. Why she was so different from the youthful skinny people in the hospital. I went to get a closer look at her putrid face when a man grabbed me and smacked me on the face. I don’t understand why that man was even by her side. I don’t know why he cared for her so much. He seemed so upset by her death. It seemed that the man was not conditioned like everyone else to deal with death. He was an unorthodox man and I was confused by his feelings toward the horrible woman.
Mustapha Mond:
I find it very queer the demise of Mr. Savage, and i think it very appropriate for you to ask why this could have become. I think that for one to ask these questions about the death of our dear friend why must first try to understand what it was like to be a savage in our society. Mr. Savage could not easily slot into our society like we all would like to hope. His mind was clouded by thoughts of God and Shakespeare. Growing up as a square peg in a round hole didn’t help his cause either. Not to mention he grew up having a mother. For you see my faithful compatriots this man has been alone his whole life, he may have been among others but yet he has always been alone and how fitting our Mr. Savage even went out to live on his own to create a world that finally made sense to him. Whilst caught in between a world of madness and a world of orderliness. If i were to have one final word to Mr. Savage i would tell him “Don’t let your habitation get you”.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
Kudos for the book old chap i found quite the intriguing bit to ponder about the worlds future and where it’s heading. Throughout the book you seemed to have all these things down pact to make it seem as if this life was a perfect working order. With all the brainwashing (conditioning) and the class structures and even the soma to keep people happy and working. It truly seems that you have created a perfect society in your book. A society that is to be honest free of human beings. Let’s face it Aldous, and i hope you don’t mind me calling you Aldous rather than Mr. Huxley. These people in this world you created are empty,have no emotion,and they can’t think and feel for themselves they are given what to think and made to feel whatever, and yes that would make for a stable society if everyone belonged to everyone else. But i think you are truly underestimating the extent of human beings drive to be, well human. I think that was your whole idea with this book to make us think about our lives and the world around us and which would be more beneficial, being free or being happy. I find it quite ironic how the one human character there was, John seemed to never be happy. Do you yourself believe that human beings cannot be happy by themselves and will only continue down a path of sorrow? Or is it so that human beings like to feel sorrow? Perhaps in a way it reminds us truely that we are indeed human after all no matter if we don’t fit in anywhere no matter if we think differently. It is the conflict and sorrow and blood that draws us close and reminds us that we are all one group of people but yet all our own selves.
Lenina:
I feel I may be at fault for Johns death, while I am not entirely at fault I may have done wrong by bringing him to the World State. Johns viviparous birth and reservation life should have never been brought to the World State. He had not been conditioned to act the way we world staters do. By bringing him here I feel I caused him much confusion. He did not understand why I so badly wanted to have sex and I did not understand why he was not lecherous. I feel that because I brought him here I caused his death, he was very happy back in the reservation. John was not ready for what the World State had to offer it was very different from what he was used to. I think that perhaps John felt that he was not good enough for the World State, that may be the reason he killed himself. He knew that we lived different lives, a life that he was not willing to live. He knew what he wanted, he knew he did not want to have sex with everyone in the world state. John had his own vision of how life was supposed to be and it was not what the World State was, I think that is why he killed himself.
A Delta at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying:
John, oh he is quite the person, he left a great first impression. I remember he was standing near his mother, oh what a repulsive old woman. She was fat and ugly, oh she was gross, how is she not dead yet? I remember it clearly one of the nurses commented on his mothers looks, he got mad and hit her. Oh why would he do such a thing. I can not get that repulsive image out of my head. John was quite the eccentric person. He is very much an ignominy to the World State, I guess he understood he was not liked here and that is why he killed himself. I can not believed he felt so greatly for his mother, that is just weird. He did not belong here, while his death was sad it was for the best.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
You have a very strange view on how the world will turn out. I guess everyone has their idea of 'perfect world', although I do not quite think that this is how the world will turn out. While the present world is filled with hookers and prostitutes not everyone is like that. Perhaps this is just the transition into the world you predicted. It would make a lot of sense as times are changing drastically. I think the whole parents thing in your novel is starting to happen, most teenagers and young adults start to depend less on their parents, it is even seen in some young children. In Brave New World the citizens of the World State did not need their parents and that is becoming more well known today. It seems that your prediction of the world may be coming true. It is a slow change but I do see the change occurring. Your perfect world view does seem to be accurate and at the same time strange.
Sincerely, Samantha Hiltz
Lenina Crowne:
Yes, I do believe that I was part of the reason of John’s death. John was a very interesting person and I wanted to sleep with him. Once I took my clothes off in front of him though he kicked me out. I felt that he didn’t like my but then he would act like he liked me and wanted to marry me. Yet, he wouldn’t have sex with me. He thought I was strange for wanting to have sex with him. John was very interesting to me but also confusing. He wouldn’t take soma to relax and sometimes he would even quote Shakespeare to me. I feel that John was on the verge of dying because he was rejected by both the Indian culture and the World State. John killed himself because he gave into what he didn’t want to do. I also feel that it was out of love for me too.
Delta at Park Lane Hospital for the Dying
I met John once, he seemed sort of strange. I was in that hospital for the dying. I was looking at all the people dying and then I saw John near a fat, ugly lady who was dying. I found out later that it was his mother but he seemed so furious. He didn’t like taking soma. Who doesn’t like taking soma? He told us all that it was bad and no one should take it then he threw it all away. He looked like an Alpha and talked like one. I think he just wanted all the some so he took it for himself. The police came in and sprayed soma around for us. He died and now we don’t have to worry about our soma being taken again.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
You have very strange ideas on how the world is going to turn out. Although, I don’t believe that this is how the world is going to turn out. I suppose some of these ideas are being seen, like how children sort of depend less on their parents. Like in the World State, no one depends on their parents. Today, it is not so harsh but it is happening. John saw the New World very different than how the Deltas viewed it. He didn’t believe in taking soma and sleeping around with everyone. And this made the Deltas very mad and interested in John. This shows how a society can be very dependent on norms and when someone disagrees with that, they have something wrong with them. I do see the world changing but not as drastically as you think it’s going to change. A Brave New World does show some of today’s problems though. Like soma, and taking it because everyone else takes it. People will do stuff if they see a majority doing something and being pressured into doing it. 2010 is not all like how you think it would be. People are not all that lecherous. People actually do have a mind of their own and now becoming dumb. I believe you have a different view on where the world is going.
Mustapha Mond
Good evening World Controllers,
Ill start off by saying that as soon as John and I started that conversation I knew that something was wrong. I had never had a conversation like that with any one of my clients. My job is to exile people when they think differently from what we are supposed to believe. And let me tell you John was different he was against taking soma and if you ask me that’s an insult to our civilization. Reminding that John did not even believe in civilization! I guess that what you get from the savages. We had a long conversation about William Shakespeare I have never meet anyone that new more about him than John. Yes, ill admit that I have studied his work here and there however his intelligence confused me. I wasn’t used to it and he was a threat so he needed to leave this world.
Person who recorded John whipping himself
Hello important looking people,
My name is Delta B52 and I did see john that night were he made that decision to cut his life short. I feel that it was my fault. I should have never recorded and then gave it to the people. I didn’t think that they would like that movie so much. It must have driven him crazy I think I was that cause of all those people at his house the next day. I didn’t know john well in fact I didn’t even know his name I just heard some other Delta minuses talking about how they saw him whipping himself, and I felt that I should be part of it. I’m sorry but I told you people all I am supposed to know.
Bye bye
Dear Mr. Huxley,
I realize that your book is written for the future even from today’s 2010 point of view, and I would like you to know my opinion on your opinion. I do not believe that your dystopia is probable. In “Brave New World” it shows what will happen when people try to make the world “perfect”. One thing that really stuck out at me was that there is a lack in family love. True, things have changed for example products are nearly the way they used to. However one thing that has stayed the same is family values. Families are still together. Technology has changes family values dramatically but not to an extent were families don’t exist. I feel that it is completely improbable as far as the world state goes for that to ever come into effect. Another thing that was lost was the ability for people to make there own decisions. It is to late in life to change that. You will be unable to pound the rules of the world state it peoples head. Or it will end up like “1984” where there is that one person who can revolt. True that there is hypomania but I feel that the whole thing is just quite improbable…but it was a good story.
From,
Cameron Christopher
Linda
John was my……my……..SON. I was his MOTHER! I was lost and forced to live in that horrid reservation. They were horribly uncivilized there, you see. John was one of these savages. He was always reading that book and being antisocial in many other ways too. I was ashamed of him. He even was proud that he knew Shakespeare! I believe that that wretched book was what made him unstable. If he had taken his Soma like he should have, then he would not have been so unhappy.
Bernard
John was a very strange character. He really was very confused because he did not know where he fit in. I noticed this when I was at the reservation. He felt like he did not belong. Honestly, it was a mistake to allow to bring him into this “brave new world” of ours. I believe that the stark change is what caused his untimely demise.
Letter to Aldous Huxley:
Dear Sir,
Your book is in many ways hilarious. It is also very believable. No government could truly hope to rule unless they had the support of the people. The only way to gain the support of the people is to make them want to do what they need to do. I feel that it is very creepy in many ways and part of this creepiness is derived from the examination of the world around me and seeing that some aspects such as consumerism and the use of drugs to keep people happy and even the immorality, although not on as large a scale as in your book, are very widespread. I feel that your warning is very helpful. I honestly believe that even though the pints in your book were extreme, they are popping up more and more in our world today.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
I believe that your book brave new world is reflective of what may happen in the future. Hitler already tried making a superior race where everything ran smoothly and that didn’t work. Someone will most likely try it again and maybe in the form you wrote about. Maybe not hatching but cloning is an achievable way. In Brave New World you present your story in such a way that it is very believable. You have all the facts and have it figured out that if the technology was obtainable then it would be logical and able to happen. You were right in the way that the government today is starting to control peoples lives in different countries including Russia and China. I can see that we are not to far from the world you have creates. We isolate people who do not stay up to date with technology and our lives are becoming mechanical.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Nestor
Your Fordship,
I was happily working in the hospital for the dying. I was going about enjoying my job when a strange looking man started causing a ruckus. He told our beloved soma. He threw it out the window. Why would anyone get rid of soma? He was then joined by another man, An alpha I believe. They started fighting with us because they took our soma. Eventually the police came and granted us back our soma. I was very appreciative. I hope you punish the men that would take our soma for us. There is no reason for it. Im glad you are dealing with these horrible men.
Sincerely,
Delta 113
Dear World State Controllers,
John was a rare and exquisite human being. He was born and raised as a savage but was intellectual like an Alpha, which he got from his father. He was not held within the bounds of the world state. He had access to books and literature which gave him a sort of pride and freedom. He believed that everyone should have a right to that freedom. That is what caused him to act so rash and lash out at the hospital. Then when he became confused he decided to live out the rest of his days in isolation until he was disturbed again my people of the world state. This drove him to his grave.
Sincerely,
Hemholtz Watson
Dear Aldous Huxley,
I would first like to start off saying that your novel, Brave New World is utterly disgusting. Your ideas and views of the way you think the world is going to turn out are, as a matter of fact interesting and controversial, but overall they are just wrong and grotesque. The World State in the book exhibits that of structured order and complete control over the feelings, thoughts, and individuality of humans. In your piece of literature, you have completely disregarded that idea of these three things. The world today will never decline into such situations for feelings and a sense of right and wrong will always be present in all people. Though I don’t agree with many aspects of your novel, some points are interesting as I already said. Some ideas you created involving advancements in technology present similar ideas today involving the advancements in technology. Though I don’t agree with the idea of mass producing humans in such ways you portrayed, other technological advancements as profound as this idea have occurred and are still occurring. However, there are many ideas that you have created that do seem to be inaccurate. For example, in which you describe the Bokanovsky. That and much of the terminology used in describing it are wrong and it doesn’t make sense. Taken as a whole, what you believe to be the future of the world is again repulsive and sick. I would even have to declare that it’s almost selfish of you to think in such ways; displaying no hints of natural hope in a peaceful society. I believe that people are all born with a sense of right and wrong, and the world ending up in such a way like this will never happen. The feelings, thoughts, and hopes of humans would be lost and true meaning in the world would cease to exist. In order to progress peacefully the world cannot portray a lifestyle such as this.
Sincerely, Moriah O'Neil
Testimony of Lenina Crowne:
I was never able to understand John and his unorthodox ways. Because of this I cannot fully comprehend why he killed himself. The savages live with strange customs and form attachments to individual people. They do not believe, as we do, that everyone belongs to everyone else. I wanted to have sex with John, but slapped me and called me a whore. He thought that things should be the way the existed in the plays he was always reading and quoting. Despite his heretical ways, I felt a strange connection to John. Although I do not completely understand it, I think that because of his beliefs that he could not live with what he had done the night before. I wish that John had just taken soma when it was offered to him, maybe then he could have been happy and lecherous like the rest of the World State. His death was regrettable, but I am glad to know that his body will be reused for phosphorus.
Testimony of a policeman who helped subdue the crowd at the soma riot:
When I was called to the scene of the riot I was not surprised to find out that the savage was responsible for it. Members of the World State are happy and have no need for causing a commotion. This savage however has not been raised in the great ways of Ford. His life must have been sad and chaotic on the reservation for him to react in such a way to something so normal. I do not understand how anyone could disagree with our perfect lifestyle here. Everyone has whatever they could want and if they ever feel unhappy, there is always soma to put them back in balance again. This just goes to show that the World State is the best way to run a civilization. People where he is from are unstable and angry. I cannot understand why the savage took his own life instead of simply taking a soma.
Lenina Crowne:
Hello my name is Lenina Crowne and John was a close friend of mine in the short time that I knew him. When I first met John he lived in this horrid place called the Reservation (where women give birth through viviparous ways and people showed signs of aging). From the first time I laid eyes on his blue pale eyes and bronzed skin I grew infatuated with him. John was an interesting character in the fact that he recited passages from Shakespeare about love, marriage, and parents; ideas that are ridiculous, almost scatological in the World State culture. When Bernard asked John to come to the World State he was so excited, but once arriving there his excitement would turn to discuss. Upon seeing the pneumatic machines produce dozens of identical twins he was sickened by the world state. Everywhere he went he was known as the “savage”. He was estranged from the World State even though he was now a part of it and for some odd reason my lust for him grew stronger. Bernard was just using him for his own personal benefits, so when Bernard threw that prodigious party I was happy John stayed in his room. But at the same time I still wanted to see him to find out why he behaved so strangely after the feely. I guess in a way I became obsessed with John. A couple nights later I tried to seduce him and he dropped to his knees and declared his love for me. So I started to undress and he became infuriated and struck me. Apparently in his culture on the reservation they value the sanctity of relationships unlike in the World State where we are frequently promiscuous with each other. After the death of his “Mother” he was overwhelmed with our culture and seeing the evil behind soma he said “...it is a poison meant to enslave you, choose freedom.” John thought that the techniques used to determine class created monstrous and repulsive human beings so he fled the World State to find solitude. All John wanted was a community with God, poetry, real danger, freedom, goodness, and sin. Instead he got a community that bombarded him with reporters and questions which inevitably lead to his demise. You have to understand that where he came from life was simple and happy. But in this brave new world people are predestined for their jobs and life and given drugs just to be happy. I think if Bernard didn’t display John as the “savage” for his own greed his outcome would have been different. He would have visited the World State and would still be appalled by there ways of life and went back to the reservation.
Policeman Dave Epsomani:
Hello my name is Dave Epsomani and I was one of the first responding officers on scene to try and subdue the soma riot. When I first arrived to the hospital John was spouting out heretical nonsense and denying patients their rations of soma. He seemed indefatigable in getting his point across to the Delta workers and he even went so far as to throwing their rations out the window. I guess he just wanted to see the pain and happiness of relationships without the mask of soma and was trying to explain to the workers that they are not free under soma even though it makes them happy. This infuriated the workers and the mob became become prodigious. His unorthodox actions were set off by the death of his “mother”. When I heard mother I thought what in the World State is that. I guess it is something that gives birth to live offspring and has a deep emotional/physical relationship with its offspring. So when his “mother” died he felt emotions for her. So that must be the reason he tried to convince the delta workers to live free with emotions and feelings. All of that though makes me cringe. The thought of surviving without my soma makes me fear any actions I may or may not do.
My name is Darwin Bonnaparte and i monitered the savage for the duration of his solitude at an abandoned lighthouse in between Portsmouth and London. I took great pains to set up cameras and microphones and I achieved it in three days. I must say it was astounding what i witnessed through these instruments. He seemed seriously emotionally disturbed. He didn't try to cope with his pain in any way. Instead he just embraced every ounce of pain without a single gram of soma. He had no emotional outlets other than punishing himself, which of course led him to his death.
My name is Cook James. Me and my fellow Dealtas were hanging out in the dying hospital. While we were there we saw a grotesque yet interesting site. We saw a human that looked a giant fat raisin dead on a bed. This weird looking guy was there being a creeper and when we simply wanted to get a closer look this man just lost his mind and almost attacked us. So we just split. A few days later I heard that he lost his mind at some abandoned lighthouse and took his own life. I'm not surprised, he need a very, very long soma holiday.
My name is Darwin Bonnaparte and i monitered the savage for the duration of his solitude at an abandoned lighthouse in between Portsmouth and London. I took great pains to set up cameras and microphones and I achieved it in three days. I must say it was astounding what i witnessed through these instruments. He seemed seriously emotionally disturbed. He didn't try to cope with his pain in any way. Instead he just embraced every ounce of pain without a single gram of soma. He had no emotional outlets other than punishing himself, which of course led him to his death.
My name is Cook James. Me and my fellow Dealtas were hanging out in the dying hospital. While we were there we saw a grotesque yet interesting site. We saw a human that looked a giant fat raisin dead on a bed. This weird looking guy was there being a creeper and when we simply wanted to get a closer look this man just lost his mind and almost attacked us. So we just split. A few days later I heard that he lost his mind at some abandoned lighthouse and took his own life. I'm not surprised, he need a very, very long soma holiday.
Dear Mr. Huxely,
My name is Ethan and I am from the future. I recently read your book Brave New World and I must say it is an interesting vision but not a realistic one. It is true that in order for any society to function and remain stable you must maintain some kind of happiness or some kind of illusion of happiness. Different things make different people happy. You can't just feed the masses to keep them happy. I am sure that soma will satisfy plenty of people but certainly not everyone. A government cannot mass produce happiness. Also many people want to feel that they are free. Of course no one in a lawful world of order is ever truly free but we like to feel that we are free. As I saw it in Brave New World most people knew that were enslaved but it didn't really seem to bother them. You would need a lot more Icelands then you seemed to have anticipated for.
Sincerely,
Ethan Bergeron
Dear Aldous Huxley,
Your book is interesting because it makes one think about the way they live now, and how that might progress into the future. In the World State in Brave New World people are conditioned to feel and act in certain ways. I think that, although an interesting concept, this will not actually happen. If the government were to attempt this I think at some point while they were making the change over people would notice and object to this. It would be impossible to brainwash everyone over night. The government in Brave New World tries to create a perfect world without any flaws, but this is impossible. A utopian community cannot exist without imperfections. Even though most people in the World State are happy, there will always be people like Bernard who think rebelliously. I found your ideas about consumerism quite interesting, as consumerism is a very prevalent aspect of modern society. It seems to have been increasing since the time when you wrote the book. Drugs like soma seem to be one of the most likely things in your novel to come true. Overall your book was gave me a lot to think about and presented interesting ideas and warnings about the future.
Transcript 1
Mustapha Mond:
After I observed and talked to John very intensely I came to realize that he is against everything about our system of life. He believes in the idea of family and God, and these ideas make him very vulnerable to corruption. John the Savage was destined to end the way that he did because everything that he believed and thought about life was wrong and unrealistic. I talked with John for time enough that allowed me to see that he needed to stay at the reservation in order to survive. John’s main problem was that he argued too much and pursued areas that he shouldn’t have. He was able to argue with me validly, but it ended for him in vain because he ended up dead. If John had listened to my reasoning in the beginning he might not have pondered the questions that made him so drastically take his life. The intensity and passion with which john went about his life made it impossible for him to live in a place like the World State.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
Your novel Brave New World shows a fairly accurate depiction of the future of the world. I agree that the world aims for more efficient products and means of production, even more so now than when you wrote the book. It is very probable that governments will try to reduce crime, violence, revolt, wars and many other problems by creating people in a way that would make them happy with the way things are. What I’m not completely sure about is that every leader in the world will agree on making the world like you predicted. I feel that there is too much conflict in the world right now, and most likely for a long time, that might not be able to be overlooked, even if there is a big war. I thought that you definitely made your point about the way the world is headed with the satirical jokes throughout the book. I thought it was clever the way you had citizens in the World State worship Henry Ford, the founder of mass production to show how much they value efficiency. Your use of soma in the novel was also important because it made sure that the citizens stayed satisfied with the life that was created for them. The fact that they even had a backup for feeling happiness emphasized your point about the goals of the World State. I thought the way you used John in the book to show how the beliefs of the World State would be viewed from a person that was raised more like people of our age was, maybe a bit extreme, but definitely effective. As a whole, I thought Brave New World was good example of what the world might possibly come to in the next 500 years.
Emily Collins
Dear Aldous Huxley,
In your dystopian novel Brave New World you address the distant future of 632 A.F. In this future people are no longer born through viviparous techniques and are now mass produced from factories into a certain class and predestined from the start. As we progress through the book we come to find that this perfect world will not work. But in a way relates to present times because like the World State, America is becoming more dependent on machines and the mass production of certain goods in our economy. So far it hasn’t got to the point of mass producing humans yet but we are so dependent on factories/ machines and mass production. I liked the way you started the book off, in a Hatchery which really amplifies the message you’re trying to send; that humans are produced just like objects in a factory, with no meaning. Your puns involving Henry Ford are very clever because he was the father of mass producing cars so why not make him the father of the mass production of humans. But one thing that will always be prevalent no matter what circumstances is the free will and individuality among every living person. There will always be Bernard’s; people who question society and are always living a true life full of emotions and pains. There will always be Lenina’s; people who follow whatever they are told and never question their surroundings. In 2010 you look around from schools to offices to sporting events everything has structure and stability without sacrificing free will and individuality. As long as there is a democracy that believes in freedom of the individual we will never come to the point that is reached in your novel Brave New World.
Sincerely,
Gilbert Brown
When I first met John I was attracted to him because he represented the unknown for me. He represented the other world, the world that there were actual feelings. As we discussed I became more and more interested in how he grew up, his pardon my language “mom”, and his fixation of Shakespeare. When he read me Romeo and Juliet, I understood the context of the passage. But because of the two different worlds that we are from I was not able to understand love and parents the way he viewed them. I figured my writing would benefit from actually listening to real literature. He was offended and didn’t read to me again. Thinking back on how John affected my life, he made me realized what I really wanted. I was fed up with my job anyway because I was far too talented to be stuck writing hypnopaedic sayings. When I wrote that poem to the college students, I felt a jolt of energy, perhaps the anxiety of what life could be in a separate society. Listening to John argue with World Controller Mond just backed up my already strong desire. The way he was able to defend his way of life just inspired me, enabling my decision to leave for the Fauklands.
Professionally,
Helmholtz Watson
Transcript 2
A policeman who helped subdue the crowd at the soma riot:
I didn’t really know John the Savage at all, I merely knew of him. He was a man that didn’t use soma and he seemed to have things messed up in his mind. He also came here from the reservation; a place that I know is where people that don’t live like us are made to stay. Your Lordships, I realize that this man was very dangerous and I am very glad that he no longer is able to corrupt our perfect way of life here at the World State. I saw this man while I was trying to subdue the crowd, and anyone that throws away soma must be insane. This man named John seemed to be a hindrance to modern life. I could not believe that anyone would throw away soma the way that this man did. Again I do not know this savage named John, but I know that he was an unclean man because he corrupted the cleanliness of the World State. The act of disrespecting Your Lordships and throwing away soma is appalling to me.
Delta Yoda Manderson
I’m sorry you’re Fordships for getting into that fight with the Savage. It’s just that he took our soma and continuously insulted us. He talked about rebellion and tried to break the world stability. I don’t know what is wrong with that man but he clearly doesn’t get the perfect lifestyle we live. He threw away the soma when he perhaps should have had some himself. What I was surprised by was the Alpha that jumped in for him. Why would he protect such a subversive being trying to overthrow the government? Anarchists should not be allowed here ruining the rest of our happy, satisfied lives. My question is why bring him here in the first place, you should have left him at that Savage reservation in New Mexiko or Mexika or something. I also don’t know why he got so angry when we commented on that woman. I mean all we said was that she was gross no need to flip out.
Ford Bless you all,
Yoda Manderson
Lenina Crowne:
John loved me from the moment he met me. I know this because he recited Shakespeare to me, on his knees, the connection he had to his mother. But John was beautiful, he was new and eccentric. He wasn’t blithe as I was, he had callow soul. He never gave into my sexual urges, no matter how often I threw myself at him, I stood naked in front of him and he refused me, threw me out. He refused me because he learned and believed that when you love someone that love should remain pure. Everything John practiced was through what he learned on the reservation and in Shakespeare’s writing. He refused to live life any other way than an all natural life style. The new world pressured him to change and he didn’t want to do that. I feel I had a part in that pressure. I tried and tried to get John to turn away from his pure ways. I wanted him to have sex with me because that is what I know. The world John’s mother had spoke of before she died and the world of William Shakespeare was painted in John’s mind. The world John came to know, the brave new world that his mother spoke so highly of, was nothing like what she said. The pressure was too much and John could not handle it. So he committed suicide.
Police Officer:
John was completely against soma, he didn’t believe that one would need the drugs to calm one’s emotions. John tried to change the minds of the workers using soma. He believed that it was controlling them and he thought that life should be free. He started to destroy the soma in front of the users. In doing this John was insulting the indefatigable crowd with his heretical state of mind. I used soma to calm the crowd down as to not hurt John because of his estranged ways. I had always thought John was depressed because he didn’t understand the good soma could do for him so he refused to use it. I think that John’s suicide was his own fault. He was depressed and refused to take the high road and experience the calming sensation of soma. I had noticed this from the start, but John refused change his reservation ways and wouldn’t allow the practices of the new world “contaminate” his mind.
Dear Aldous Huxley,
This is Kevin Hurd from Mr. Cook’s E block English class. I have a couple questions about your book Brave New World. You write about the world in the future and how that industry and the growing lack of human morals is going to transform the world into the distopian in your book. I disagree with the way you represent the digressing of the human race. I understand that you are being satirical in the way you portray the future but I believe that we are not heading for that kind of chaos. You have the leaders of the world abandoning every science but biology basically. I believe the world won’t come to that simply because of human nature and trying to figure out problems. The other sciences would not be abandoned simple because of curiosity. Also, regarding the soma idea, I think that you went to the extreme there as well. I know the point of soma was to represent how drugs are slowly affecting more and more of the population and giving the sense of happiness. But where I think you are wrong is how the majority of the population uses soma. Not all humans use drugs for that high. In fact most people would believe that the high is a false kind of happiness; not a real happiness. All in all, I enjoyed the book and hope you write back soon because John Gardner would.
Sincerely,
Kevin Hurd
Dear Mr. Huxley
In your book, Brave New World, you introduce the future of mass production. In this future that you have created it is not the goods and services that are being mass produced, its humans. Life in 2010 is mass production of goods and services for people all over the world. Our soma is marijuana and other many other drugs, however none of these are legal (in most places). The advancement in technology for the mass production of humans has not been created yet. However, at the rate of new technology and the scientific discoveries made recently have shown that the future can hold many surprises and one of those just might be the cloning of thousands of people mass producing a utopian society. I personally hope I am not around to witness such an extremity to a unique world. The details of the book really help to put an image of this world into your head. The way the story is told captures your attention and makes the world and interesting place to hear about. The characters are ones that exist in society today as well, maybe not to such an extreme but they are there. Though it also makes you think, and wonder what is in store for the characters. This book really throws you into the story of the lives of these characters and the settings they experience. It was a very enjoyable, interesting read.
Avid Reader,
Molly Blewett
Hannah Cain
Bernard Marx
John and I were close, and had similar beliefs. We connected basically because we both knew that the world state was too robotic. Neither of us believed in taking soma, each of us believed in our own emotions, and we both were disgusted by the control of the world state and how it impacted its population; each person was assigned a way of life, a job, and a level of intelligence. Most of you do not and will not understand John, his way of life, his upbringing, or his beliefs. This is because most of you have never seen an Indian reservation. In the reservation there is complete freedom. Woman and men are free to have sex, children are allowed to physically fight and argue, and life falls into its own way, it is not planned out like here in the state. John had been brought up in this type of environment. He had a mother who slept around with whoever she pleased and where he is from everyone has a mother and father. His tribe had sacrifices that they whipped until they collapsed, and being your tribes sacrifice is considered an honor. When John whipped himself, it was a completely normal reaction in his eyes. So can you now understand? John grew up calling his mother mom, he grew up in an environment that encouraged you to show your feelings, and he grew up in a place where everyone is different, not one person is the same. The World State was just too much for John to handle. Being told to not show his emotions, having people bombard him after his whippings, and trying to understand the whole mysterious way of life in the state was just mentally exhausting. Once Helmholtz and I were exiled he had no moral support. No one else in the State understood him. His mother was dead, his support systems were abolished, and people frowned upon him as if he were an untamed animal, a “savage.” He was a true human who was in tune with his feelings. He could no longer be surrounded with a bunch of robots living a fake and unfulfilling life; he saw no choice but to kill himself. So he did.
A policeman who helped subdue the crowd at the soma riot
It became obvious to me that the boy was mentally unstable. Crying out loud, shoving other children, he has scared those kids for life. I mean, the boy claimed that soma was piousness and that it trapped them in an unreal world. He claimed that the soma controlled their lives, and yelled at them to choose freedom. Of course the Deltas were infuriated, especially once the savage threw the boys’ rations out the window. I do not blame the Deltas for charging at the savage. When I arrived, it was mayhem; I had never seen anything like it. Of course I may expect risky behavior from an outsider because they are just barbaric and do not know any better. However, I was especially surprised to Helmholtz in the mix up. I was also caught off guard as we caught Bernard trying to sneak out the back door. I imagine he was embarrassed because he is of course the boy’s guardian, but I thought it strange that he did not attempt to help the boy calm down any. I will never understand the savage’s behavior. He is wished to act as an animal he should have stayed at the reservation and never interfered with out level of life. I can not imagine why the boy killed himself. How could anyone ever feel such emotions? The boy’s priorities were mixed up. If only he would have taken some soma…
Dear Aldous Huxley,
I believe that your novel “Brave New World” teaches its readers that complete order in life, is self-destruction. Your novel is absolutely unrealistic in a sense that humans will never be produced as objects like they are in the hatchery in the World State. Your novel connects to today’s life in 2010 on only one aspect. Today we do create human-like machines in factories. These human-like objects are known as robots, but unlike your novel, today’s life is not controlled and predicted to the extent that is it in your book. Judging by your novel, I would say that your predictions for the future are completely off. I believe that life will never get to the point that you exemplify in your novel. In the World State there are no human feelings and there are no parents. Mothers and fathers will always exist and human feelings are something that can never be absent. Howver, I do believe that as life moves on and technology advances, there will be more manufactured objects in the world. The World State mechanically creates everything and in later years I do not believe everything will be manufactured but I do think that a great deal of things will be. To put it simply, your prediction of life is unrealistic in such ways that humans will no longer have feelings because human feelings will always exist. However, you are correct in the way that you think many things will be manufactured.
Sincerely,
Hannah Cain
Delta at the hospital for the dying:
A crazy man came into the hospital today as me and my compatriots were doing our rounds. I was just eating ice cream next to this disgusting old hag when the man pushed my face away. He then proceded to take it to the extreme when it was time for our soma dose, He grabbed the box and started throwing the soma out the window. He started to scream at us, asking why we didn't want to be free. At the time I was very troubled about this. But when the riot control came in I fell into a nice sweet soma holiday and now i haven't the faintest care about "freedom".
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