The organised world is sorted into many categories so that everybody has an identity “Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon.” This ordered caste system ensures that every citizen is contented with their life and does not start thinking. Many other aspects of life in the brave new world are medical. When the women feel broody they take pills: “SYRUP OF CORPUS LUTEM, OVARIN- GUARANTEED FRESH…How I loathe intravernals…three months pregnancy substitute.” This is to make the women more contented as it is considered repulsive to have a baby yourself.
In complete contrast to this world is the savage reservation. Here everywhere seems dirty and full of rubbish. They have no policy for cleanliness, and there seems no order apart from in religion:
“A space of dust and rubbish separated it from the village. Two famine stricken dogs were nosing obscenely in the garbage at its door. Inside, the twilight stank and was loud with flies.”
The rubbish or even dust shown here would not have appeared anywhere in the brave new world. If they did exist they would be hidden in a disposal factory or such like. The famine stricken dogs would not make an appearance either. If there were animals in brave new world, they would be kept in a sterilised enclosure. There is so much perfumed powder and scents there as well that the air would never smell; and flies most probably only exist in museums because they are so dirty. This is just one description from a scene in the savage reservation, yet there is not one similarity. The two worlds are completely opposite to each other. Nothing in the savage reservation seems sterilised and disease is noticeable. “The passage of an old woman with ophthalmia and a disease of the skin” This would seem disgusting in the brave new world. Although all of this seems awful, it is natural compared to the brave new world, which is completely unnatural. To Lenina Crowne from the brave new world, the savage reservation seems repulsive and disgusting, because of the dirt, blood, and disease. She doesn’t think that humans can actually live in the conditions she sees. “Too awful. She shuddered. Oh I wish I had my soma…Ford! Ford! It was too revolting. In another moment she’d be sick.”
Another big contrast between the brave new world and the savage reservation is the subject of freedom of mind. There are many examples in the brave new world of how the citizens do not have freedom of mind. Some of these are: soma; hypnopaedic conditioning; pre-destination when developing foetus; and social pressures.
Soma is a drug that takes the person on a ‘trip’ or holiday where they can forget about worries and troubles or arguments. It is used to make sure that every citizen is contented; therefore the quality of life is higher. It is also there so that when somebody is thinking too much about their life and is not contented; they can go on a soma holiday and will forget about everything. People in the brave new world are not supposed to think too much, otherwise it is possible that they will become too clever and may discover the manufactured life that they are living. The controllers do not want this to happen because it may create uproar about the freedom of mind of the citizens of the brave new world.
Hypnopaedic conditioning determines every action that a citizen of this world takes in their life. It tells the person what to wear, what to eat, whom to talk to, and gives lessons on social life: “We had elementary sex for the first forty minutes, but now we’ve switched over to elementary class consciousness.”
When a foetus is being developed, it is pre-destined. Which caste it is going to become a member of is decided, and then which job it is to be suited to. Social pressures condition a person as well. For example Bernard Marx: he acts as his friends want him to so that he can be accepted, because he looks different to everybody else in his caste.
In the savage reservation, citizens generally have freedom of mind. They are not pre-destined or conditioned in the same way that citizens of the brave new world are, but they are allowed to read and think for themselves. The only way that they could be conditioned is by their religion. It is a mixture of Pagan, Voodoo, and Christianity (and probably many others) and it involves sacrifice: “The coyote struck again and again, and at every blow at first a gasp and then a deep groan went up from the crowd.” The sacrifice shows that the community are very involved with their religion, because they are prepared to kill one of their own to please the gods. There are also chants and dances that the citizens create and carry out as if they are in a trance. This is similar to the repeated hypnopaedic sentences that people in the brave new world repeat. Outside the religion though, the citizens of the savage reservation have a great deal more freedom of mind than those from the brave new world.
Instead of soma in the savage reservation, they drink alcohol. This has the same short-term effects, but has side effects afterwards. “But it makes you feel so bad afterwards…and you’re sick.” Social pressures condition a person in the savage reservation a lot more than that in the brave new world. When John grew up there, he was excluded from every activity that others his age did, and he has grown to try to impress and please them. “I stood against a rock in the middle of the day in summer with my arms out like Jesus on the cross.” This shows that John is trying to do something better than the others in the savage reservation. He is also doing it because he is lonely and unhappy because of others teasing him. The other savage reservation citizens are conditioning him.
The two different worlds are obviously very different from each other, even though one is contained within the other. Even though they are very different, one is not significantly better than the other, not offering the reader an easy choice as to which is the better world. You have to weigh up the good and bad points, including freedom of mind and cleanliness and disease. When John hears about the ‘Other world’ from his mother Linda, he sees it as a truly amazing place that seems like a fairy tale that could never come true. When he does get to the brave new world, however, he finds that it is not everything he expected and it is not much better than the world he came from. He is one of the few people in the brave new world who have freedom of mind and is the only on who sees it as a bad thing. In conclusion I think that the factors for and against each world are too strong to be able to make a choice between them.
