Brave+New+World


 * Title:Brave New World **
 * Author: Aldous Huxley **
 * Date of Publication:1931 **
 * Literary Period: Modern **
 * Genre: Science/Dystopian Fiction **

A future where all births are artificial and controlled without the use of a natural womb. People are conditioned to be what the state needs them to be. Racism and caste systems are normal and necessary.
 * Describe the setting and then explain the relevance of the setting. **

Huxley uses "Brave New World" to express his opinion that thinking for oneself is a natural human right and its dispossession is the dispossession of humanity.
 * Themes (These statements should be complete sentences and completely developed ideas) **

Social designation surpasses individual desire and the "we takes over the 'I"

Bernard Marx and Lenina visit the Savage reservation in New Mexico and meet the illegitimate son of the Director. They all go back to England and the shame of the Director being a father destroys his career. The Savage is a celebrity in the eyes of the people but cannot assimilate into the Brave new World. He meets the World Controller who allows Marx and the other Alpha Plus to retreat to an island of other dissenters. Savage is harassed by "soma users" and eventually kills himself.
 * Plot Summary (Please do not copy and paste. Simply list the high points of the novel) - Consider creating a visual flow chart or graph and posting it here. **

"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." Savage expresses the natural freedoms of humanity: to be able to rise and fall. "Everyone belongs to everyone." Once this happens then no one belongs to anyone. No new thought can be created and no belief can be valued or tested and seen as true.
 * Memorable Quotes and their SIGNIFICANCE. **

The book opens with a tour of the Hatchery they condition the embryos to become what is needed.This is not hidden. It is seen as the solution to all problems by making people happy with what they have and giving them no other choice.
 * Describe the significance of the opening scene. **

The Brave New World ultimately kills John Savage. John kills himself because he does not want to live in such a world that doesn't give him choices. he sees suicide as the only way to escape such institutionalized and made normal social systems. It is unclear what Huxley is really trying to say? Does he like the Brave New World or is he warning against it?
 * Describe the significance of the closing scene. **


 * List importance characters and their significance. **


 * **Bernard Marx:** Bernard is super moody, unhappy, and lonely. Which is crazy in a setting in which people are surrounded by people 24/7. But something's different about Bernard. At first, he appears to be the sane one in the novel - annoyed at the peoples' lustful ways, prude in the whole sex-game, hates the Orgy-Porgy. Once he gains popularity, however, he becomes one of them. It reveals him to be a flat character who isn't against the societal ways, just waiting for his chance to fit into them. He yearns for acceptance, whether it's morally sound or not.
 * **John the Savage:** John is so cheerful and chipper when he finds out he gets to go to London...it's so sad to see him let down by the world's new ways. He doesn't quite fit in on the Reservation, but when he comes to London, he doesn't fit in either...he is the definitive outcast, a zoo-animal...because, just like Bernard, the only way to escape being an outcast is to join them.
 * **Helmholtz Watson:** the free thinker of the novel. He reads, and he thinks, quite abundantly. He is dissatisfied with the world's government and how the world is run. He specific beliefs are not elaborated on quite, but he is almost relieved and excited to be exiled to an island far away where he will be granted the permission to think and explore freely.
 * **Lenina Crowne:** She's annoying, let's just start there. She is the damsel of the novel, the mistress, the temptress, whatever. She's cute, I guess, but shows little depth. She's just an automaton.
 * **Mustapha Mond:** He holds all the power. He allows himself to read, and only himself. He has the power to ship people into exile. He has ultimate power over many things. But he doesn't seem ignorant as a leader. He definitely believes in what he believes in, but he's not the hotheaded, dictator type (thinking back to his final conversation with Helmholtz).
 * **Linda:** You'd think she'd learn to be happy living on the Reservation, but she is just as shallow as Lenina and every other female figure in the novel. She hates her life on the Reservation. She hates being old and wrinkly. She hates being fat. She can't wait to go back. But she too finds herself an outcast upon returning to London...she just decides to go the soma route to fix things.