Classics Corner: War of the “World”

By: Michelle Anstett
Editor-in-chief

What would you do if you were not allowed to marry or have children, you were born into a certain class and given a certain job from the beginning and a vacation would consist either of visiting a “Savage Reservation” or taking a drug and zoning out for a few days.

In Aldous Huxley’s brilliant novel, “Brave New World,” all of the above things are true.

The world has been divided into seven directorates, each of which is controlled by a leader.

All personal freedom of choice has been taken from these people, as they are born into a certain class and their jobs are assigned from birth. They are conditioned to like technology and hate anything beautiful or artistic.

No one is allowed to marry anymore, and childbirth has been relegated to a test tube filled with chemicals. When a woman does find herself pregnant, she is taken away, given soma and told to go to sleep until everything is taken care of. Religion has been reduced to the worship of Henry Ford and their ceremonies are nothing more than drug-induced orgies where free love is the only rule.

Lenina Crowne, a young lab assistant of the secondary class, is always being watched by Bernard Marx, an awkward psychologist belonging to the Alpha, or highest, class. The two agree to go on a date, later making plans to visit the Savage Reservation for a holiday.

While on the reservation, the two meet John the Savage, a young man with a keen interest in the outside world.

So, they take him back with them, where he attempts to acclimate himself with “civilized” life.

However, his traditional, Shakespeare-spouting ways do not mesh well with those of Brave New World, and he is chased out of society and ends his own life.

Written shortly before the outset of World War II, Huxley’s visions of the future are frighteningly similar to the way in which our world is headed.

Through his poetic descriptions and small side stories in order to show the reader what life is truly like in Brave New World, Huxley paints a horrifying picture in which people have lost their humanity.

Instead, they simply wander around from one work day and “orgy-porgy” to another, never making any lasting connections in the meantime.

And when someone comes along who wants a connection, he is driven out and given the choice to either assimilate or die.