A Perfect World: Does it Exist?

Danielle Pouliot

Brave New World

By Aldous Huxley

Any person has the freedom to form their own path and make their own decisions. But, what if that wasn't the case? What if the government controlled every aspect of your life before you were even born? What if you were forced to follow the government or else you would be a laughing stock? That's the life of The World State in Brave New World. Reproduction, sex and drugs are the main focuses in this society, and no one is against it. 

We begin in the London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where humans are produced inside bottles and then are programmed to perform certain tasks. These tasks are performed based on a person's social class. Alphas are the highest rank of society, with each man and woman embodying a "perfect" version of themself. 

A group of students are touring the Centre with the help of The Director, who is the London Centre's director. He explains the process of the Centre to the students and introduces them to Lenina Crowe, "One could see that, for all the lupus and purple eyes, she was uncommonly pretty." (16) Lenina has been sleeping wth Henry Foster, "a fair-haired, ruddy young man..." (8), and many more people. Having many lovers is normal in The World State, and so is soma. Soma is a drug that makes citizens in The World State happy, it relieves them of their worries.

 During this tour the students meet Mustapha Mond, one of the ten World Controllers. He explains the past to the students, how children used to have a mother and father and how couples were loyal to each other.

Bernard Marx is introduced. Bernard is an Alpha psychologist, but he does not possess the normal characteristics of an Alpha male. He plans to take Lenina on a vacation, but wants to focus on the emotional aspects of a relationship, not physical. 

This book is not for everyone. It can get confusing at times and touches upon subjects that people may not want to read about. But, if someone does enjoy utopian fiction, I highly recommend this book. Although I have only read a section of the book, I am confident in saying that it will be a great read. If someone had also enjoyed reading George Orwell's 1984, I would suggest reading this book.

Aldous Huxley had done a fantastic job on writing Brave New World. Every part of this book has extreme detail and describes a life that is bipolar to the world we live in. It displays how distorted society could become if everything was perfect. It also gets the reader wondering what life would be like in the shoes of Lenina, Bernard or even The Director. Just like each person in our lives play a special role, these characters mold together a perfect version of The World State.

Unlike Brave New World, our society is not expected to be perfect. We all have our flaws and our issues, not matter how we portray ourselves. But, people accept is for who we are, flaws and all. For example, Bernard can't expose his flaw of not wanting an only physical relationship with Lenina because it's not socially acceptable. He, and many other people in The World State, don't accept their issues, they use Soma to fix themselves. Today, people hide behind their social media profiles to not show the truth. As Huxley once stated, "People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are."