In what ways is “Brave New World” issuing a warning to its reader’s?
Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” wrote in 1932 gives the readers his opinion on the dangers and major concerns of the future. In this book he explicitly describes a reality in which humans are mass produced in test-tubes due to advances in science. This insight into the future is both detailed and shocking; the warnings it sends out to its readers are incredibly clear and soon become apparent. In this essay, I aim to explain, in detail, the warnings, risks and why its subject is still relevant for the twenty first century reader.
The first episode we see in this book, on the first page, depicts an image of an empty society, whereby humans are produced not created. The image Huxley displays is of a distressed society, a dark society with little enjoyment and even fewer emotions. In Huxley’s world all recreational activities such as schooling or playing have been deleted from the human upbringing. This means no natural bonding or education, the form of education that is utilised is a form of hypnopaedia, this means reciting information to children then requesting their repetition. However this form of education is very ineffective. Besides tight lines in education the borders in society itself are very strict, the groups of humans such as Alphas and Betas are bonding and reproducing in their groups not with other human forms, contact with the outside world is strictly regulated and when Lenina has a relationship with John (someone who was born naturally) the directors are shocked and appalled by such behaviour. Clearly the directors want to create a separate world from that of natural living and to enforce this, as little contact with the outside world as possible is made. In this respect Brave New World issues a warning in the future whereby the laws affecting society are as strict as this, and image which certainly isn’t appealing but is very real, border control between countries at this day is relatively strict so Brave New World depicts a possible image of the future.
