The novel, Brave New World, explores a technologically advanced dystopian society where all aspects of civilization, economic, social, and biological, are controlled by the government. People are developed in tubes with predestined social classes, jobs, and beliefs. The lower classes are designed to be both physically and intellectually less developed, just enough to satisfy the menial labor needed to sustain the economy. The higher classes are designed to be the thinkers and leaders of this society. In this world, where everyone is “happy”, the citizens take a drug called soma to escape any sadness or misfortunes that may arise. While every person’s life is already decided, characters in the book, Bernard, the Savage, and Helmholtz, who
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Whereas the people of this new world see “happiness” as lack of pain and suffering, Huxley argues that happiness is a result of one’s acknowledgement of their own value as an individual, not a collective member or slave to society, and requires the coexistence of pain. The Savage is the only person in the novel to experience both this new world, where everything is predestined, and the “uncivilized” world, which is depicted very similarly to the world we live in today. He said that the only time he felt happy was when he finished a project with his own two hands. The Savage felt genuine happiness. In contrast, the other characters and citizens of the new world, who are restricted from progressing or developing individually, only know what their genetically modified minds tell them. They have no concept of self-worth, hindering them from ever reaching the happiness that is felt by the Savage and the other inhabitants of the Reservation, where other “uncivilized” beings live. Their only happiness is the illusion that is given through soma. Even though they are given everything that is necessary to live and to maintain the civilization, it does not lead to happiness. In a nutshell, Huxley believes that you can have everything, but that is not happiness, it can only come from freedom. However, Huxley also argues that freedom and happiness cannot be without the existence of pain. You cannot know one without ever experiencing the other, and the two combine to make a human who they are, not like the robot-like people of the new world. The consequences of having neither freedom nor pain are put into the creation of Huxley’s futuristic
Whereas the people of this new world see “happiness” as lack of pain and suffering, Huxley argues that happiness is a result of one’s acknowledgement of their own value as an individual, not a collective member or slave to society, and requires the coexistence of pain. The Savage is the only person in the novel to experience both this new world, where everything is predestined, and the “uncivilized” world, which is depicted very similarly to the world we live in today. He said that the only time he felt happy was when he finished a project with his own two hands. The Savage felt genuine happiness. In contrast, the other characters and citizens of the new world, who are restricted from progressing or developing individually, only know what their genetically modified minds tell them. They have no concept of self-worth, hindering them from ever reaching the happiness that is felt by the Savage and the other inhabitants of the Reservation, where other “uncivilized” beings live. Their only happiness is the illusion that is given through soma. Even though they are given everything that is necessary to live and to maintain the civilization, it does not lead to happiness. In a nutshell, Huxley believes that you can have everything, but that is not happiness, it can only come from freedom. However, Huxley also argues that freedom and happiness cannot be without the existence of pain. You cannot know one without ever experiencing the other, and the two combine to make a human who they are, not like the robot-like people of the new world. The consequences of having neither freedom nor pain are put into the creation of Huxley’s futuristic