Huxley’s Message

Jehova Boogenheim

November 16, 2006

English 3

Huxley’s Hidden Message

Aldous Huxley has a humanistic, deep and enlightened view of how society should be, and of what constitutes true happiness. In his novel, Brave New World, he shows his ideas in a very obscure manner. Huxley presents his ideas in a satirical fashion. This sarcastic style of writing helped Huxley show his views in a very captivating and insightful manner. The entire novel describes a dystopia in which intimate relationships, the ability to choose one’s destiny, and the importance of family are strictly opposed. In Huxley’s mind, however, these three principles are highly regarded as necessary for a meaningful and fulfilling existence.

Intimacy and Relationships are a major theme in Brave New World. In the New World Society, people are encouraged to act promiscuously. When Lenina’s friend, Fanny, hears of Lenina’s four month affair with Henry, she responds with disdain and surprise: “It’s such horribly bad form to go on and on like this with one man” (Huxley 41). In the New World Society, a young woman like Lenina should be constantly switching partners. Sex, much like the society’s feel-good drug soma, is a very instant form of gratification. Building a long term relationship can be emotionally taxing, something that society in Brave New World opposes. Why spend time trying to build deep and intimate relations with a person, when happiness can easily be achieved through multiple partners and constant satisfaction? This philosophy, of course, is the opposite of what Huxley truly believes about love. Deep and profound joy can only be found in true love, achieved through patience and commitment, which seems to be absent in the society of Brave New World. Huxley believes that Humans need long term relationships based on emotional attachment, not just physical intimacy, to be truly happy.

The people who live in Huxley’s New World Society have lives which are predetermined for them. Even prior to birth, they are genetically and physically conditioned to a certain degree, depending on their predestined caste and occupation. Once born, they are conditioned, by caste, to each bear identical morals using a technique called “hypnopaedia”, or sleep-teaching. These morals are indoctrinated into their brains, and follow them throughout their entire lives. The people’s existence is now secured, as there is little the individual can do to change anything about his or her life. Even a person’s emotions have been decided for them, primarily through the use of the quick fix “happy” drug, Soma. Happiness, however shallow it may be, prevails over any other emotion. "And that," the Director explains sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny" (Huxley 16). Only the individuals whose conditioning has been flawed, such as Bernard for example, have the ability to see beyond the workings of society and question their lives and surroundings. John the “savage” also notices the defects in the New World Society. Defying the moral values of the New World Society, John wishes for “god…poetry…danger…freedom…goodness…sin” (Huxley 237). Although these individuals may not always be happy, Huxley uses them to represent a more humanistic and benevolent type of existence, which is close to his own ideals. The author