Brave New World

1. Brave New World By Aldous Huxley Test Review – ENG3U

2. Plot Synopsis A satire on a utopian society based on assembly lines. Everybody in the world is happy because they have soma. The main part of the book is about a savage, John, who is alienated by the utopia.

3. Characters Protagonist: Bernard Marx “I am I, and I wish I weren’t.”(Huxley 35) Antagonist: Lenina Crowne “How can you talk about not wanting to be part of the social body?…We can’t do without anyone!” (Huxley 91) Protagonist: John (The Savage) “ ‘O brave new world with such people in’t!’ It was a challenge, a command.” (Huxley 216) “I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin…I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” (Huxley 246) Antagonist: Mustapha Mond “But that’s the price of stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness… and high art.” (Huxley 226) “Sometimes, I rather regret the science-happiness is a hard master.” (Huxley 233)

4. Characters – In Detail • Mustapha MondThe World Controller, intellectually and politically powerful. He offers a historical view of the brave new world at the beginning of the novel and later debates John and Helmholtz on society’s values. Mond sentences Bernard and Helmholtz to be banished to the Falkland Islands and determines that John must stay in London. • The D.H.C.    The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, called “Tomakin” by Linda. He occupies an important position in the brave new world but loses it when Linda announces that he is the father of their son, John. • Henry Foster    An Alpha who is seeing Lenina Crowne. He is a typically conventional Londoner. • Fanny Crowne    Lenina’s friend. Fanny represents the conventional views of the brave new world. She encourages Lenina to pursue John sexually if he will not take the lead.

5. Characters - continued • Bernard Marx    An Alpha-Plus psychologist, rumored to have received alcohol in his blood surrogate, a circumstance that would explain his shortness. Identifying himself as a true individual, Bernard bristles at the social pressures for conformity and longs for the intense, heroic feelings but lacks the ability to be a rebel. He brings John the Savage and Linda back from the Savage Reservation and so makes possible the conflict that informs the last third of the novel. • Lenina Crowne    A technician, attracted by Bernard, in love with John. A conventional young woman who is drawn unconsciously toward danger, she represents ideal beauty for John. • Helmholtz Watson    Bernard’s friend, later a friend of John. An Emotional Engineer, he longs to become a poet. He represents a more courageous and intellectual character than Bernard.

6. Characters - continued • John the Savage    The son born of parents from the brave new world but raised in the Savage Reservation, John represents a challenge to the dystopia. He is the character closest to being the hero of the novel. • Linda    John’s mother. An upper-caste Londoner, she commits the ultimate social sin by bearing a child. She is deeply ashamed and longs for escape, finding it in peyote, mescal, sex, and soma. • Popé    Linda’s lover in Malpais. Popé’s involvement with Linda inspires John’s deep revulsion for sex. • Mitsima    An old Indian man in Malpais who begins to teach John to mold clay and presides in the marriage ceremony John witnesses. He represents the beginning and end of John’s involvement in the traditional life of Malpais.

7. Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller of Western Europe, governs a 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.

8. He instills the fear that a future world state may rob us of the right to be unhappy. • Brave New World is centered around both control and manipulation

9. Vocabulary • Feelies - motion picture shows which offer the audience not only visual and auditory images but also tactual sensations. The audience takes hold of two knobs on the seat and feels the action taking place on the screen. • Phosphorous Recovery - The cremation factories are able to recover 99% of the phosphorous contained in each body. This is then used as a raw material or in fertilizer returned to enrich the soil. • Podsnap's Technique - A method for speeding up the ripening of mature eggs. The process makes possible the production of many identical human beings at roughly the same time.. • Savage Reservation - One of the only places left on earth where people remain in a state of nature. The Savages were not considered worth civilizing and were therefore placed in fenced off areas which contained some of the worst land. John was born here. His mother, Linda, is a former resident of the Brave New World.

10. Conflicts Individual versus society John (Savage) versus the utopia “ ‘O brave new world with such people in’t!’ It was a challenge, a command.” (Huxley 216) Individual versus self Bernard Marx versus his conditioning “But wouldn’t you like to be free in some other way…in your own way; not in everybody else’s way?” (Huxley 91)

11. Themes Happiness is the best thing It comes at the price of truth. We should not be so materialistic We need to be happy with who we are. The individual is more important than the state.