Reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was one
of the most interesting experiences in my life. The novel questions many ideas
and is a strong critique of many political ideologies, which were all present during
the time of the author writing the novel. The novel introduces many ways in
which he predicts that science will expand and shows the various negatives that
can be the outcome of these changes. The author includes many news ideas such as
the perfect drug called soma or the savage reservation to prove the
imperfections of society and even be able to connect them to how our society functions
through the connections in the savage reservation in New Mexico. The book does
include many unclear and mysterious moments only to point out the specific
contrasts between the two societies. All of these combine into a common theme
in the novel, which is the imperfection of any society and that a perfect
society cannot exist without some imperfections surrounding it, such as the
soma.
The
message of the novel is presented many times throughout the book at uses
symbols and locations such as the soma or the reservation to show the
significance and the imperfection of both societies. The soma is to show that
with any feelings it is impossible to create a perfect society in which
everyone is happy. The lower groups in society, such as the Gammas, Deltas and
Epsilons need to be maintained happy through the dosage of soma, “Two minutes later the Voice and the soma vapor had
produced their effect. In tears, the Deltas were kissing and hugging one
another-half a dozen twins at a time in a comprehensive embrace” (184). Such
events signify the importance of soma and how it limits the perfection of
society. The soma is closely related to the message of the novel, because it
shows how the new society of the future, which is focused on stability, is
based on a drug that has been mastered to perfection and is very helpful in
maintaining a stable society in the future. The soma is not just a symbol of
imperfection (well that would not be a symbol at all), it is a symbol of hope
for the future and how humans are able to blindly follow anyone. Every time
soma is taken it behaves as any other drug that helps people go through pain
and guide that person into a better state of mind. In a society where the mind
is manipulated and the humans do not have any feelings as they are said to be a
threat to stability, the soma helps them blindly follow their leader.
By including the savages in the novel and the story of the world, Huxley is able to include a critique or show the imperfections of the current society. The savages serve their own purpose of showing how it is purely impossible to create a perfect and stable society that can function on itself, where everyone is happy. I think that Huxley’s true message and purpose and a theme of the novel was to show through the various cases and the two cases of society that a true perfection of a society cannot be reached without some sort of imperfection or unhappiness that will always exist in any type of society, rather it is ran by science or if it is based on a leader, such as the savages were shown as, “up at the pueblo the savages would probably be celebrating their summer festival. It would be the best place to spend the night” (99). The message comes over very clearly when the two civilizations collide directly and when John a savage that is brought to the civilized world collides with soma and all of the lower classes and how neither have a tolerance for the other and how they are not able to reach a common way of communication, but rather they exist in their own ways, “Do the whipping stunt” was how the Delta reacted to the different ways of the savage and John reacted with soma, “Stupefied by soma, and exhausted by a longdawn frenzy of sensuality, the Savage lay sleeping in the heather” (256, 258). The resulting death of John at the end of the novel proves how the two cultures were not able to survive together and how neither was perfect as a small shift or a small change such as interaction caused a huge disturbance in both societies, which do not seem to be signs of how a perfect culture could look like.
During the reading I was very concentrating on trying to find the political aspect of this novel as according to Foster everything is political. I knew the first political aspect when the societies were presented as focused around the great creation of Ford, which led me to believe that it must all be political and focused around the political situation at the time of the first publishing of the novel. I also tried to apply Foster’s technique of finding a symbol in the text, which the most obvious one was the soma, which came up many times and seemed to come up in a similar type of situation, but I was not able to figure out any deeper meaning of it. The political aspect seemed to be easier as it was a clear critique of the various ideologies and ideas for a perfect society that could exist and this was some sort of proof of giving a general idea that such perfect society will never be able to exist and that a small imperfection can always be found.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how science will expand to influence our lives in the future. It gives a very interesting prediction of the future seen from the previous century. The novel itself does not include any boring explanations of how the world looks like, but rather tries to incorporate the audience a step at a time leaving many blanks and uncertainties in order to help the audience visualize the scene or the future in the way they want it. The only details are the ones that signify the situation in the future society. This is a great book to know and share as it is a great conversation starter due to the many possible tangents and the many possible ways of further interpretations of the novel and the work of predicting the future.
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