Patrick DePeters

AP English Literature

            Aldous Huxley wrote a prophesizing, rhetorical novel regarding the industrialization and technological advancement of American society—and carried the message of an unavoidable apocalypse. His intuitive forecast is quite alarming because it has the characteristics of verity. John Locke’s sacrosanct idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is predicted to be short lived by both Huxley and George Orwell’s similarly cynic novels. Neil Postman is correct in his assertion that Huxley’s novel is more relevant today when compared to that of George Orwell’s. Although both authors propose strikingly possible predications and warnings, Huxley’s is more accurate with respect to modern day society, and innate human tendencies that are easily recognizable today.

            In Brave New World, the central theme is about human’s innate desire to make one’s life easier and more efficient—thereby becoming more technologically adept—and in the novel’s case to the outmost extreme. Huxley’s plot revolves around the World State society in which all of the inhabitants are products of artificial natal conception. The denizens have been deprived of literature, forbidden to form ideas that go against what is commonly accepted in the World State, have been made to think that history begins with the time of Our Ford—and have lost the aptitude, or at least the cognizant ability to do anything about it. Huxley’s predominant fear is that human beings will inherently evolve into zombie like peoples, where our distractions (including pleasures and luxuries) will take precedent over our morals, values, and our consciousness. Postman mentioned that Huxley’s message included a prediction of passivity and egoism. People would not necessarily become inactive in the physical sense, but their brains would certainly be idle. It is not clear that Huxley actually predicted egoism because most people, alphas to epsilons, would not have any ability to be Self Reliant (Ralph W. Emerson’s notion), and would therefore be concerned simply with their specified duties and not interested in the betterment of themselves (because the ability to become better is impossible in the World State).

            Throughout Huxley’s novel, many of the characters seem less and less real as time goes on. It seems impossible that everyone would be preoccupied with “feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.” But it is totally possible, all of the people are archetypes that are preprogrammed to think and act in an exact manner. Iniquity is omnipresent in this fantasy world of prison-like, nightmare-ridden circumstances.

            Humans must make sure that they weigh out the cost and benefits associated with science. Sometimes the pleasures create a façade and indulge humans without much thought. The consequences surface exponentially, and as Huxley illustrated, are eventually irrevocable. A rare exception to the majority of people is John. John would prefer the world as we know it now. He says:  “…I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin” (240). John, or The Savage as he came to be called, was willing to be unhappy, unsafe, unstable, so long as he could think and act independently and be free. Man’s “infinite appetite for distractions” is predicted to deprive people of their “autonomy, maturity and history.” However, as long as our society has social critics such as Orwell and Huxley, we may be able to consciously avoid a captive culture like World State.