Title: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
1Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
A satirical piece of fiction, not scientific
prophesy
2"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that
has such people in it.-The Tempest
- Having been exiled on an island with her
fatherMiranda makes this remark when she sees
other human beings for the first time. - Ironically these same people had plotted against
her and her father, and had attempted murder but
a short while before she sees them for the first
time. - But she is so overcome by the wonderment of what
she is seeing for the first time that she calls
"good" that which is potentially or actually
evil. - Huxley likens those who consider scientific
advancement an unsullied good to Miranda - both
are mistaken in their assumptions but blissfully
happy in their ignorance.
Miranda The Tempest By John William Waterhouse
3Satire
- A piece of literature designed to ridicule the
subject of the work. - While satire can be funny, its aim is not to
amuse, but to arouse contempt. - Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other
techniques are almost always present.
4Huxleys ancestry brought down on him a weight
of intellectual authority and a momentum of moral
obligations.
- Born in Surrey, England in 1894 to an illustrious
family deeply rooted in Englands literary and
scientific community - His grandfather was Henry Thomas Huxley who
helped developed the Theory of Evolution.
5His background conspired to form the perfect
storm of science vs. technology
- His mother was
- the sister of the novelist Mrs. Humphrey and
- the niece of the poet Mathew Arnold
- the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold, a famous
educator. He was a character in the novel Tom
Browns Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
6Not Only History, but Experience Informs the
Narrative
- Suffers from an eye illness that almost blinds
him - Attended Oxford University and graduated with
honors - Could not enlist in WWI due to eye problems
- Dreamed of being a doctor but poor eyesight
prevented him from realizing his dream - Poor eyesight also prevented him from entering
the army during WWI, so he becamewait for it, A
TEACHER ugh. - Eyesight made him extremely dependent on his
first wife
- The family the world in 1925 and 1926.
- His experiences in these places provided material
to be used in Brave New World (ie. Benito
Mussolini led an authoritarian government that
fought against birth control in order to produce
manpower for the war) - Mother dies when he is 14 notes in his
autobiography that her death gave him a sense of
the transience of happiness.
7 And It Can Make You a Little Touched
- Experimented with LSD he took the drug over a
dozen times in 10 years. - Legendary rock band The Doors took their name
from Huxley's "The Doors Of Perception.". - He allegedly declined a British knighthood in
1959. - He died on November 22, 1963, the same day
President John F. Kennedy was shot to death in
Dallas, Texas. - Appears on the cover of The Beatles' "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
8Background of the Novel
- Brave New World (1932), brought Huxley
international fame. - Written just before the rise of dictators Adolf
Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the novel did not
incorporate the kind of dark and grim vision of
totalitarianism later found in George Orwell's
1984, which was published in 1948. - Huxley later commented on this omission and
reconsidered the ideas and themes of Brave New
World in a collection of essays called Brave New
World Revisited. (1958). - He wrote other novels, short stories, and
collections of essays over the years, which were,
for the most part, popular and critically
acclaimed. Despite being nearly blind all his
life, he also wrote screenplays for Hollywood,
most notably an adaptations of Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Brontë's Jane
Eyre
9A World of Transient Happiness
- Huxleys world is a mix of his own scientific and
literary background, his physical challenges, his
heartbreaks, and his travels, All these views
conspire with his prevailing political
sensibilities and the history of the time to
produce the strange landscape that is Brave New
World.
- Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in
comparison with the overcompensations for misery.
And, of course, stability isn't nearly so
spectacular as instability. And being contented
has none of the glamor of a good fight against
misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a
struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by
passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.
10Brave New World is visually pleasing but is an
unsettling, loveless and even sinister place
11The World of Brave New World
- Society where all aspects of an individual's life
are determined by the state, beginning with
conception and conveyor-belt reproduction. - A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides
all roles in the hierarchy. - Children are raised and conditioned by the state
bureaucracy, not brought up by natural families. - There are only 10,000 surnames.
- Citizens must not fall in love, marry, or have
their own kids. - Controlled by the fear that a future world state
may rob us of the right to be unhappy.
12Literary Elements
- settings (time) 2540 AD referred to in the
novel as 632 years AF (After Ford), meaning 632
years after production of the first Model T car - narrator Third-person omniscient
- point of view narrated in the third person from
the point of view of Bernard or John, but also
from the point of view of Lenina, Helmholtz
Watson, and Mustapha Mond
13This novel is more applicable today than it was
in 1932. This is a time of
- Propaganda
- Censorship
- Conformity
- genetic engineering
- social conditioning
- mindless entertainment.
14Major Ideas Within the Novels
- Huxley was influenced by the previously
established caste system in Hinduism, which was
abolished in 1949. - Caste systems were created by predestination and
their function in society. - The caste system in Brave New World includes 5
major castes named after Greek letters (ie. Alpha
to Epsilon) - There are differences in the members of castes
(ie. outer appearance, intelligence, livelihood). - As a result, everyone is happy and stability is
achieved.
Alphas (?) highest, grey Betas (?)- bottle
green/mulberry Gammas (G)- leaf green Deltas (?)-
khaki Epsilons (?) lowest, black There are also
pluses and minuses with a caste (Alpha plus,
Delta minus) Variations in castes are achieved
through reproductive method (Bokanovsky for lower
castes) and oxygen deprivation.
15Function of the Caste System
- The society in Brave New World seeks to create
happiness for everyone. Everyone is happy to
belong to his or her caste. The caste system is
needed to cover every little part of the
processes that form the society (ie. work,
housing, etc.). Everyone works for everyone.
16Bokanovsky Process
- Fertilization process used to create Deltas and
Epsilons - Divide fertilized eggs to produce identical twins
- Produces up to 96 embryos, but 72 is the average
- Primary instrument of social stability
17Hypnopaedia
- The greatest moralizing and socializing force of
all time - Sleep teaching
- Moral education
- Class conditioning
- The childs mind is these suggestions,and the
sum of the suggestions is the childs mind
18Soma
- An anti- depressant and somewhat hallucinogenic
drug used by World State citizens to escape their
troubles - Soma really exists and originated in India
- Soma Holidays Half a gramme for a half-holiday
19Orgy Porgy
- A sexual experience used to unify all people.
- NOTE Sex is not the focus, unity is.
- SOLIDARITY SERVICE
- Group of 12 men and women
- Drink strawberry flavored Soma
- Chant to music
- Spiritual experience
- Everyone belongs to everyone
20Historical Allusions in the Novel
- Henry Ford
- who has become a messianic figure to The World
State. "Our Ford" is used in place of "Our Lord",
as a credit to popularizing the use of the
assembly line.
21Historical Allusions in the Novel
- Sigmund Freud
- "Our Freud" is sometimes said in place of "Our
Ford" due to the link between Freud's
psychoanalysis and the conditioning of humans,
and Freud's popularization of the idea that
sexual activity is essential to human happiness
and need not be open to procreation. It is also
strongly implied that citizens of the World State
believe Freud and Ford to be the same person
22Historical Allusions in the Novel
- H. G. Wells
- "Dr. Wells", British writer and Utopian
socialist, whose book Men Like Gods was an
incentive for Brave New World. "All's well that
ends Wells" wrote Huxley in his letters,
criticizing Wells for anthropological assumptions
Huxley found unrealistic.
23Historical Allusion in the Novel
- Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
- whose conditioning techniques are used to train
infants. - Thomas Malthus,
- whose name is used to describe the contraceptive
techniques (Malthusian belt) practiced by women
of the World State.
24Historical Allusions in the Novel
- William Shakespeare
- whose banned works are quoted throughout the
novel by John, "the Savage". The plays quoted
include Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Measure
for Measure and Othello. Mustapha Mond also knows
them because he, as a World Controller, has
access to a selection of books from throughout
history, such as a Bible.
25Sources for Character Names and References
- Bernard Marx, from George Bernard Shaw and Karl
Marx. - Lenina Crowne, from Vladimir Lenin, the leader
during the Russian Revolution. - Fanny Crowne, from Fanny Kaplan, famous for an
unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lenin.
Ironically, in the novel, Lenina and Fanny are
friends. - Polly Trotsky, from Leon Trotsky, the Russian
revolutionary leader. - Benito Hoover, from Benito Mussolini, dictator of
Italy and Herbert Hoover, then President of the
United States. - Helmholtz Watson, from the German physician and
physicist Hermann von Helmholtz and the American
behaviorist John B. Watson. - Darwin Bonaparte, from Napoleon Bonaparte, the
leader of the First French Empire, and Charles
Darwin, author of The Origin of Species. - Herbert Bakunin, from Herbert Spencer, the
English philosopher and Social Darwinist, and
Mikhail Bakunin, a Russian philosopher and
anarchist. - Mustapha Mond, from Mustapha Kemal Atatürk,
founder of Turkey after World War I, who pulled
his country into modernisation and official
secularism and Sir Alfred Mond, an industrialist
and founder of the Imperial Chemical Industries
conglomerate.
26Sources for Character Names and References
- Primo Mellon, from Miguel Primo de Rivera, prime
minister and dictator of Spain (19231930), and
Andrew Mellon, an American banker. - Sarojini Engels, from Friedrich Engels, co-author
of The Communist Manifesto along with Karl Marx
and Sarojini Naidu, an Indian politician. - Morgana Rothschild, from J P Morgan, US banking
tycoon, and the Rothschild family, famous for its
European banking operations. - Fifi Bradlaugh, from the British political
activist and atheist Charles Bradlaugh. - Joanna Diesel, from Rudolf Diesel, the German
engineer who invented the diesel engine. - Clara Deterding, from Henri Deterding, one of the
founders of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. - Tom Kawaguchi, from the Japanese Buddhist monk
Ekai Kawaguchi, the first recorded Japanese
traveler to Tibet and Nepal. - Jean-Jacques Habibullah, from the French
political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Habibullah Khan, who served as Emir of
Afghanistan in the early 20th century. - Miss Keate, the Eton headmistress, from
nineteenth-century headmaster John Keate. - Arch-Community Songster of Canterbury, a parody
of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican
Church's decision in August 1930 to approve
limited use of contraception. - Popé, from Popé, the Native American rebel who
was blamed for the conflict now known as the
Pueblo Revolt. - John the Savage, after the term "noble savage"
originally used in the verse drama The Conquest
of Granada by John Dryden, and later erroneously
associated with Rousseau.
27Essential Questions to connect the literature to
todays culture
- Is it better to be free than to be happy?
- Is freedom compatible with happiness?
- Is the collective more important than the
individual? - Can children be taught effectively to think in
only one certain way? - Can young people be taught so well that they
never question their teachings later? - Is stability more important than freedom?
- Can alterations made by advanced science to
mankind be made permanent at the DNA-level? - Can mankind be conditioned by science?
- Should the individual be limited/controlled for
the greater good? If so, how much?
28Do You Agree?
- History is worthless.
- Everyone belongs to everyone else.
- Throwing something away is better than fixing it.
- Everyone needs a mother.
- The elderly are valuable members of society.
- Cleanliness is next to godliness.
- Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have
today. - You have to experience misery to be able to
experience joy.