THEMES AND STYLE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD

THEMES AND STYLE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD

Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984 were two of the first modern dystopian
novels. A dystopia is a kind of science fiction, or fantasy, world that predicts the future in a
negative light both told of a future society in which governments had complete dictatorial control
over people, while state control and conformity replaced the freedoms of modern life and a
person's right to the pursuit of happiness. Brave New World is a benevolent dictatorship: a static,
efficient, totalitarian welfare-state. There is no war, poverty or crime. Society is stratified by
genetically-predestined caste. It is a novel of ideas, and its themes are as important as its plot.
Some themes come to light when one character, a Savage raised on an Indian reservation,
confronts that world. These themes are not only about Huxley's Utopia, but also about Huxley's
real world and everyone.

Community, Identity, and Stability:
The society in Brave New World is shaped by a single all-embracing political ideology.
The motto of the world state is "Community, Identity, and Stability." That motto is the Utopia's
prime goals. Their motto is totally opposite of French Revolution; Fertinity, Equility and Liberty.
Community is in part a result of identity and stability. And it is achieved by organizing life so
that a person is almost never alone being happy. Community offers its members distractions that
they must enjoy in common- never alone- because solitude breeds instability.

Identity is in large part the result of genetic engineering. Society is divided into five
classes or castes, Alphas, Beltas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilon, hereditary social groups. In the
lower three classes, people are cloned in order to produce up to 96 identical "twins." Identity is
also achieved by teaching everyone to conform, so that someone who has or feels more than a
minimum of individuality is made to feel different, odd, almost an outcast like Bernard Marx.
But there is no freedom of individualism as they are identical from their birth process and almost
look alike as'' Fanny worked in the Bottling Room, and her surname was also Crown. But
as the two thousand million inhabitants of the plant had only ten thousand names between
them, the coincidence was not particularly surprising''. (3.58)

Stability is the third of the three goals, but it is the one the characters mention most often-
the reason for designing society this way. Stability means minimizing conflict, risk, and change.
The desire for stability, for instance, requires the production of large numbers of genetically
identical "individuals," because people who are exactly the same are less likely to come into
conflict. The director says in first chapter;"Bokanovsky's Process is one of the major instruments
of social stability!"

Literature is banned:
In the futuristic dystopia of Brave New World, the Controllers make sure people are
taught only what they need to know to function within society and no more. Knowledge is
dangerous and books are strictly forbidden as they are ‘accompanied by a campaign against
the Past; by the closing of museums, the blowing up of historical monuments (luckily most
of them had already been destroyed during the Nine Years' War); by the suppression of all
books published before A.F. 15O’ because if they are taught they will become corrupt. Art and
culture, which stimulate the intellect, emotions, and spirit, are reduced to pale imitations of the
real thing. Existing music is synthetic and characterized by absurd popular songs that celebrate
the values of society. Mustafa Mond says ―history is bunk and the only kinds of serious learning
are the sleep-teachings used to condition children to function as ideal members of society."The
principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnopædia, had been discovered."But two characters in text
try to reject this: one, John, who finds in Shakespeare the means to express his own passions, and
the other, Halmholtz, with a desire to write poetry of beauty and passion. Only the Controller has
access to the great literature and culture of the past in order to make the citizens of the brave new
world completely oblivious.

Science as a mean of control:
It is also a science-fiction novel but it does not predict much about science in general. Its
theme "is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals," Huxley did not focus
on physical sciences like nuclear physics, though even he knew that the production of nuclear
energy (and weapons) was probable. He was more worried about dangers that appeared more
obvious at that time- the possible misuse of biology, physiology, and psychology to achieve
community, identity, and stability that appear in the souls and flesh of human being. Science and
technology provide the means for controlling the lives of the citizens in Brave New World. First,
cloning is used to create many of human beings from the same fertilized egg. The genetically
similar eggs are placed in bottles, where the growing embryos and fetuses are exposed to
external stimulation and chemical alteration to condition them for their lives after being
―decanted‖ or ―hatched‖. Babies and children are subject to cruel conditioning by giving electric
shocks to make them averse to nature and literature. Adults use ―soma,‖ a tranquilizer, to deaden
feelings of pain or passion. Huxley aims to realize contemporary citizens to the dangers of
misuse of technology by totalitarian governments.

Dissatisfaction:
The dystopia portrayed in Brave New World something to be desired – namely
individuality, passion, and love. Because individuals have been programmed to be happy, those
who do feel this dissatisfaction are confused by it and completely unsure of how to act. Much of
the novel deals with putting words to these emotions, finding other people who feel the same
way, and finally acting with resolve to change the status quo. In some ways, the sheer number of

dissatisfied individuals in Brave New World-apparently all the islands of the world are populated
with these unique, headstrong rebels-represents the only optimistic part of the novel; despite
conditioning, drugs, and biological engineering, the human spirit will always yearn for
more.Allof them are dissatisfied to the extent on their parts as these statements are referred;
Helmholtz listened to his boastings in a silence so gloomily disapproving that Bernard was
offended."You're envious," he said. Helmholtz shook his head. "I'm rather sad, that's all,"
he answered. (11.20

The Power of Knowledge:
Huxley's civilized world is a society of ultimate knowledge. Humans have conquered
almost all areas of scientific inquiry; they control life, death, aging, pleasure, and pain. This
mastery of knowledge has given human beings great control over their world, and this control in
turn has given great power to those who first envisioned such a society, and who continues to
maintain its existence. However, such knowledge and the abuse of power that it inspires often
lead to downfall, as symbolized by Huxley's frequent allusions to Shakespeare's Macbeth. In
Shakespeare's play, Macbeth gains small pieces of knowledge of present and future events that
leads him to seek more power and control over his kingdom. However, this knowledge leads to
abuse of power and is the cause of his ultimate demise. In the same way, characters in Huxley's
novel must stay in the dark about the true workings of society because knowledge will lead to
their ultimate demise.

The misuse of psychologically conditioning:
Every human being in the new world is conditioned to fit society's needs and to do the
work he will have to make. In this novel human embryos do not grow inside their mothers'
wombs but in bottles. Biological or physiological conditioning consists of adding chemicals or
spinning the bottles to prepare the embryos for the levels of strength, intelligence, and aptitude
required for given jobs. After they are "decanted" from the bottles, people are psychologically
conditioned as in the text ―They’ll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an
'instinctive', mainly by hypnopaedia or sleep-teaching. They are exposed to flowers,
representing the beauty of nature, and given electric shocks to make them averse to nature. So
they are conditioned to hate books and nature. They are brought to the crematorium, where they
play and are given treats so that they will associate death with pleasantness and therefore not
object when society determines it is time for them to die. It might be said that at every stage the
society brainwashes its citizens.

Free Will versus Enslavement:
Only the Controllers of society, the ten elite rulers, have freedom of choice. Everyone
else has been conditioned from the time they were embryos to accept unquestioningly all the
values and beliefs of the carefully ordered society. Upper-class Alphas are allowed a little
freedom because their higher intellect makes it harder for them to completely accept the rules of

society. For example, they are occasionally allowed to travel to the Indian reservation to see how
outsiders live. It is hoped that exposure to an ―inferior‖ and ―primitive‖ society will finally
squelch any doubts about their own society’s superiority. Beyond this, however, no room exists
in ―civilized‖ society for free will, creativity, imagination, or diversity, all of which can lead to
conflict, war, and destruction. Therefore, dissidents who want these freedoms are exiled to
remote corners of the earth. Anyone who feels upset for any reason quickly ingests a dose of the
tranquilizer ―soma.‖ John the Savage exercises his freedom of choice by killing himself rather
than becoming a part of such a world.

Freedom:
Brave New World largely defines freedom through the structures that prevent freedom.
Bernard feels these constraints most acutely, as in a scene from chapter 6, when Bernard and
Lenina have a conversation about freedom. Lenina insists that everyone has a great deal of
freedom - the freedom "to have the most wonderful time." Soma represents this kind of freedom,
as it puts people in a hypnotic state in which they no longer feel as though they should ask
questions or defy the structures of society. Bernard insists that this is no freedom at all. Bernard
claims that his ideal of freedom is the freedom to be an individual apart from the rest of society.
Bernard strives to be free in his "own way...not in everybody else's way." Huxley argues here
that certain structures in our own modern society work in the same way that drugs like soma
work in this fantastical dystopia. Huxley often argues against the use of advertising specifically
for the way that it hypnotized people into wanting and buying the same products. Such things
keep people within predefined structures, and it quashes free thought, which ultimately restricts
freedom.

False happiness:

A society can achieve stability only when everyone is happy, and the brave new world
tries hard to ensure that every person is happy. It does its best to eliminate any painful emotion,
which means every deep feeling, every passion. It uses genetic engineering and conditioning to
ensure that everyone is happy with his or her work. This utilitarian society aims to produce the
greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people, this particular good is happiness, and
government, industry, and all other social apparatuses exist in order to maximize the happiness
of all members of society. John the Savage rebels against this notion of utilitarian happiness. He
argues that humanity must also know how to be unhappy in order to create and appreciate
beauty. People make use of soma in order to go on a "holiday" from any kind of unhappiness.

The cheapness of sexual pleasure and human impulse:

The inhabitants of Huxley’s future world have very unusual attitudes toward sex as sex is a
primary source of happiness. The brave new world makes promiscuity a virtue that one can have
sex with any partner one wants, who wants one and sooner or later as "everyone belongs to
everyone else." In this novel, neurotic passions and the establishment of family life, both of
which would interfere with community and stability. Nobody is allowed to become pregnant

because nobody is born; only decanted from a bottle, if they do get pregnant accidentally, they
hurry to the abortion center, a place Linda recalls with great fondness. She regrets bitterly having
had to give birth in what she feels was a ―dirty‖ affair. Many females are born sterile by design;
those who are not are trained by "Malthusian drill" to use contraceptives properly. Even small
children are encouraged to engage in erotic play. . However, as Huxley shows, even with the best
technology to prevent pregnancy, people can only maintain their loose sexual mores by
sacrificing intimacy and commitment. By abolishing institutions such as marriage and
encouraging behavior that society once considered immoral. However, Huxley also suggests that
the freedom of these impulses undermines humanity's creativity. Complete freedom to have
pleasure has made each person like an infant, incapable of adult thought and creativity. For
example, Bernard longs to have more control over his impulses, but the display of such control
unnerves others who have learned to be free with their impulses.

Power:
As one character says about power in Brave New World "Government's an affair of
sitting, not hitting"., Those in power in this futuristic society have simply programmed the
citizens to be happy with the laws rather than use violence to enforce the law as in text "We also
predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or
Epsilons, as future sewage workers or […] future Directors of Hatcheries." (1.67) This
power is bolstered by a free-flowing supply of drugs, the insistence on promiscuity, the denial of
history or future as any alternative to the present, and the use of sleep-teaching at a young age to
instill the irrationality of its choosing. This same power is limited only by those individuals who
desire, for one reason or another, to be unhappy.

Use of drugs:
Soma is a drug used by everyone in the brave new world. It calms people and gets them
high at the same time, but without hangovers or nasty side effects. The rulers of the brave new
world had put 2000 pharmacologists and biochemists to work long before the action of the novel
begins; in six years they had perfected the drug. The citizens of the "World State" have been
conditioned to love the drug, and they use it to escape any momentary bouts of dissatisfaction.
The problem, as one character identifies ―they used to take morphia and cocaine" (3.210-4)",
is that the citizens are essentially enslaved by the drug and turned into mindless drones. This is
another way for destroying their mental capabilities. Adults use ―soma,‖ a tranquilizer, to deaden
feelings of pain or passion because they refuse to experience unhappiness; the drug keeps them
from wonder and the appreciation of beauty, as in the scene when Lenina and Bernard fly over
the tossing English Channel. He sees a beautiful display of nature's power; she sees a horribly
frightening scene that she wants to avoid so she takes soma. Taking drugs works as a mean of
denial reality.

Spirituality:
In Brave New World, spirituality is a mix of Christianity. One character believes his
spiritual life is deepened through self-mutilation. But in the mind of the powerful world leaders,
religion simply isn't needed in a world of science and machines. Comfort comes in a bottle,
morality is taught in sleep-session brainwashing. In the world leaders' minds, God is obsol-2)

The destruction of family:

The society in Brave New World has destroyed any remnants of human relationships and
bonds. The relationships of father and mother no longer exist because all human beings are born
in a scientific lab and are no longer necessary because society shuns monogamy, and all men and
women learn to share each other equally. The combination of genetic engineering, bottle-birth, and
sexual promiscuity means there is no monogamy, marriage, or family. "Mother" and "father" are obscene
words that may be used scientifically on rare, carefully chosen occasions to label ancient sources of
psychological problems. The cost of such actions is that human beings cannot truly experience the
emotions of love. Both John and Lenina begin to feel these strong emotions over the course of
the novel, but they cannot act on these emotions in a constructive way because neither can
comprehend how to have such a relationship in their society. If anyone has his family, it is
considered as an act of embarrassment as director acts when he knows of his family. The
destruction of family is one of the great themes of this novel that is totally against natural way of
living.

The denial of death:

The brave new world insists that death is a natural and not unpleasant process. There is
no old age or visible senility. Children are conditioned at hospitals for the dying and given
sweets to eat when they hear of death occurring. This conditioning does not- as it might- prepare
people to cope with the death of a loved one or with their own mortality. It eliminates the painful
emotions of grief and loss, and the spiritual significance of death.

The oppression of individual differences:
Some characters in Brave New World differ from the norm. Bernard is small for an Alpha and
fond of solitude; Helmholtz, though seemingly "every centimeter an Alpha-Plus," knows he is
too intelligent for the work he performs; John the Savage, genetically a member of the World
State, has never been properly conditioned to become a citizen of it. Even the Controller,
Mustapha Mond, stands apart because of his leadership abilities. Yet in each case these
differences are crushed: Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled; John commits suicide; and the Mond
stifles his own individuality in exchange for the power he wields as Controller.

Society and Class:
Society in the futuristic setting of Brave New World is split into five castes: Alphas,
Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, with a few minor distinctions in between. Because of the
technology wielded by the World State's leaders, caste is pre-determined and humans are grown
in a manner appropriate to their status; the lower the caste, the dumber the individual is created
to be. As adults, the upper two castes interact socially with each other but never with the lesser
groups. In short, class is yet another mechanism for stability and control on the part of the
government. It's also a big part of the reason that personal identity goes by the wayside in this
novel – Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are simply faceless drones in color-coded outfits that exist
to serve the more intelligent Alphas and Betas. The following lines shows high class contempt
for the lowers:"… all wear green," said a soft but very distinct voice, beginning in the
middle of a sentence, "and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with
Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write.
Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."

Comodification:

Huxley views commoditized society as a detriment to human creativity. In the novel,
society modifies human behavior so that people will seek to consume goods and services as
much as possible. This modification in turn means that everyone who makes such goods or
provides such services will be able to stay employed. Thus, the society's economy will remain
stable. However, such reliance upon commoditization also blunts any attempt at original thought.
Consumption becomes so important to the society that all of a person's energy and reason is put
into activities of work and plays those consumer goods that in turn keep the economy running.
This is, of course, important for maintaining the structured and controlled environment of
Huxley's dystopia, but it also produces human beings who simply do what they have been taught
and have no reason to think on their own

In short, this novel has a good side: there is no war or poverty, little disease or social
unrest. But Huxley keeps asking, what does society have to pay for these benefits? The price, he
makes clear, is high. The first clue is in the epigraph, the quotation at the front of the book. It is
in French, but written by a Russian, Nicolas Berdiaeff. It says, "Utopias appear to be much easier
to realize than one formerly believed. We currently face a question that would otherwise fill us
with anguish: How to avoid their becoming definitively real?" It is totally opposite of natural
world and natural system of reproduction. Humans are conditioned to behave in a specific way
by eliminating individual differences.

Style in Brave New World
Aldous Huxley’s most enduring and prophetic work, Brave New World (1932), describes a
future world in the year 2495, a society combining intensified aspects of industrial communism
and capitalism into a horrifying new world order. Novel’s title, taken from Shakespeare’s play

The Tempest, is therefore ironic: This fictional dystopia is neither brave nor new. Instead, it is so
controlled and safe that there is neither need nor opportunity for bravery. As for being ―new,‖ its
unrelenting drives toward management and development, and its obsessions with predictable
order and consumption, are as old as the Industrial Revolution. Coupling horror with irony,
Brave New World, a masterpiece of modern fiction, is a stinging critique of twentieth-century
industrial society

Point of View:
Huxley tells the story of Brave New World in a third-person, omniscient (all-knowing) voice. The
narrative is chronological for the most part, jumping backward in time only to reveal some history, as
when the Director explains to Bernard Marx what happened when he visited the Indian reservation, or
when John and Linda recall their lives on the reservation before meeting Bernard and Lenina. The first six
chapters have very little action and are instead devoted to explaining how this society functions. This is
accomplished by having the reader overhear the tour that the Director, and later the Controller, led
through the ―hatchery,‖ or human birth factory, lecturing to some students.

Once familiarized with this future world, the reader learns more about the characters through their
dialogue and interaction. For example, Bernard and Lenina’s conversation on their date shows how
deeply conditioned Lenina is to her way of life and how difficult it is for Bernard to meet society’s
expectations of how he should feel and behave. Throughout the rest of the book, Huxley continues to
reveal the way the society functions, but instead of having the reader overhear lectures, he portrays
seemingly ordinary events, showing how they unfold in this very different society. When Huxley finally
presents the arguments for and against the compromises the society makes in order to achieve harmony,
he does this in the form of a dialogue between Mustapha Mond and John the Savage. The book ends with
a sober and powerful description of John’s vain struggle to carve out a life for himself as a hermit. This is
contrasted with the humorous, satirical tone of much of the book, making it especially moving.

Setting:
Brave New World set in London, England, six hundred years in Huxley’s future, Brave New World
portrays a totalitarian society where freedom, diversity, and conflict have been replaced by efficiency,
progress, and harmony. The contrast between our world and that of the inhabitants of Huxley’s futuristic
society is made especially clear when Huxley introduces us to the Indian reservation in New Mexico
where the ―primitive‖ culture of the natives has been maintained. Huxley chose London as his main
setting because it was his home, but he implies, by mentioning the ten world controllers, that the entire
world operates the same way that the society in London does.

Irony and Satire:
Brave New World is also considered a novel of ideas, otherwise known as an apologue: because the ideas
in the book are what are most important, the characterization and plot are secondary to the concepts
Huxley presents. In order to portray the absurdity of the future society’s values as well as our
contemporary society’s values, he uses satire (holding up human folly to ridicule), parody (a humorous
twist on a recognizable style of an author or work), and irony (words meaning something very different

from what they literally mean, or what the characters think they mean). Ordinary scenes the reader can
recognize, such as church services and dates, incorporate behavior, internal thoughts, and dialogue that
reveal the twisted and absurd values of the citizens of the future. Because the roots of many of the
practices seen in this futuristic society can be found in contemporary ideas, the reader is led to question
the values of contemporary society. For example, people today are taught to value progress and
efficiency. However, when taken to the absurd extreme of babies being hatched in bottles for maximum
efficiency, the reader realizes that not all progress and efficiency is good. Huxley even satirizes
sentimentality by having the citizens of the future sing sentimental songs about ―dear old mom,‖ only
they sing a version in which they fondly recall their ―dear old bottle,‖ the one in which they grew as
fetuses. Being sentimental about one’s origin in a test tube will strike many readers as funny, as well as
ironic.

Allusion:
Throughout the book, evidence of Huxley’s vast knowledge of science, technology, literature, and music
can be found. He makes frequent allusions to Shakespeare, mostly through the character of John, who
quotes the bard whenever he needs to express a strong human emotion. Indeed, the title itself is from
Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in which the sheltered Miranda first encounters some men and declares,
―How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people isn’t!‖ Huxley also makes many
allusions to powerful, influential people of his day, naming characters, buildings, and religions after them.
For example, Henry Ford (1863–1947) is as a god; his name is used in interjections (Oh my Ford!), in
calculating the year (A.F., or After Ford, instead of A.D., which stands for ―anno domini‖—in the year of
our Lord). Even the Christian cross has been altered to resemble the T from the old Model T car built by
Ford.

The character of the Savage is reminiscent of the Noble Savage—the concept that primitive people are
more innocent and pure of heart than civilized people. However, Huxley is careful not to portray him as
heroic or his primitive culture as ideal. The reader sympathizes with him because he is the person who
most represents current values.

One of the more subtle influences on the story, however, is Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the founder of
modern psychoanalysis. The Savage is a prime example of someone who suffers from what Freud termed
the Oedipus complex, a powerful desire to connect with one’s mother. At one point, when he sees his
mother with her lover, he identifies with Hamlet, who also had an Oedipal complex, an over attachment to
his mother that prevented him from accepting her as sexually independent of him. Freud believed that
childhood experiences shape adult perceptions, feelings, and behaviors, and the characters in the novel are
all clearly compelled to feel and act according to the lessons they learned as children, even when faced
with evidence that their behavior results in personal suffering.

Symbolism & Imagery:

Soma:
The drug soma is a symbol of the use of instant gratification to control the World State's populace. It is
also a symbol of the powerful influence of science and technology on society. As a kind of ―sacrament,‖ it

also represents the use of religion to control society. Soma is what the society uses to keep their selves
balance. They have a service where they overdose on soma and go into what is called a "some Holiday".

Zippers:
In Brave New World all the clothing in the World State has zippers on it. This symbol is as
simple as it sounds, the meaning of zipper is easy access in this world of instant gratification, and
buttons in clothes would cause the loss of precious time of nakedness. That shows how the
technology helps the perversion of sex, with the repetitive, rhythmic, almost musical sound of
the zippers.
Music:
Plays an important role in order to control them with rhythm. The whole sexual fiasco starts with a ritual
singing of "Orgy-porgy". The orgy actually happens during the singing.

Title:
The title Brave New Word is full of ironies and references to Shakespeare and his work,
concretely to The Tempest, in which Miranda says:
"O wonder! How many goodly creatures are
there here! How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world! That has such people in it!"
(Act V, Scene I)

This line is word by word repeated by John the savage in Huxley's novel. But now we are
going to explain the context in which Miranda says this. Miranda is a young woman who lives
on an island with only her father and two spirits. She never met a man for romance. In this
way we realize that this phrase, used at the end of the play, contains a lot of sexuality.
By contrast, the words that John the Savage repeats, contrary to sex without feelings,
demonstrate the ironic aspect of the title. We can think that John the Savage, fallen in love
with Lenina, uses these words without the sexual connotation, but probably not consciously.
At the end of the work, we realize that the John the Savage's opinion of the World State's
society has changed and not in a good way.
Animal imagery:
Animal imagery is rampant in Brave New World. Just look at the first chapter. There's the
repetition of "straight from the horse's mouth," Foster's implicit claim that "any cow" could
merely hatch out embryos, the platitude that "Rams wrapped in there mogene beget no lambs."
Later, when John goes to the hospital, he sees the Delta children staring at Linda with "the stupid
curiosity of animals." The hordes of identical bokanovskified twins seem to him "maggots." It
looks like Huxley's message is clear: the new world has so dehumanized its citizens that they
now resemble little more than animals. The irony is that "civilization" should seek to elevate
man, to make him less primitive, to put some distance between him and the other creatures of the
world.

Ford:
The choice of Henry Ford as the deity-like figure in Huxley's dystopia reveals the new world's
value system. Henry Ford was famous for the perfection of mass production and the assembly
line. In Huxley's world, even humans are mass-produced and grown with the help of, yes, that's
right, an assembly line. Efficiency, production, and consumerism are the most important values
here; not morality, compassion, or piety.

Bottles:
Bottles are introduced in Chapter One as the new way in which humans are created and grown.
Right off the bat, this just seems very wrong. But far more disturbing than the notion of little
zygotes inside bottles is the notion of full-grown humans being similarly trapped. Now we're in
the realm of the metaphor. Of course, Huxley being Huxley, we're told directly that this is what
he's going for in Brave New World. Look at Mustapha's words in Chapter Sixteen:

"Even after decanting, (man is) still inside a bottle – an invisible bottle of infantile and
embryonic fixations. Each one of us, of course……………………… goes through life inside a
bottle."

Brave New World; Allusions and Unique Terms:
In his fictional novel Brave New World, Huxley makes many allusions, or references to real-life
people, places or concepts. But he also invents his own terminology, and there are many new
terms and concepts with which we should become familiar before reading and for reference as
we read the novel.

Character/Concept Allusion to
Bernard Marx Karl Marx, founder of Marxism, Socialism
Lenina Crowne Russian revolutionary and founder of the communist party
Vladimir Lenin
Benito Hoover Combination of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Herbert
Hoover-31st American President during the Depression; known
for ―Hoovervilles‖ or shanty towns where homeless and
unemployed people lived.
Malthusian belt, Malthusian Political economist Thomas Malthus, an early proponent of birth
Drill control for population regulation
conditioning and Neo-Pavlovian Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov and his conditioning experiments
(Pavlov’s dogs)
Ford Henry Ford, creator of Model T Ford and modern assembly-line
work

George Bernard Shaw Irish writer and socialist George Bernard Shaw
Freud Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund
Freud
Helmholtz Watson John B. Watson, American psychologist, founder of
behaviorism, together with Rosalie Rayner conducted
controversial ―Little Albert‖ experiment
Mustapha Mond Founder of modern Turkey, Mustapha Kemal Atatürk
Mond monde—―world‖ or ―people‖ in French
Brave New World From Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Miranda says:
―O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people isn’t!‖

The Caste System:
Alphas Top of the caste system; top intellects; tall; wear grey (very few
Alphas; all are men)
Betas Managers; above average intelligence; wear blues, reds and
mulberry
Gammas Workers; low intelligence; wear green
Deltas Low workers; very low intelligence; wear khaki
Epsilon Near brainless workers; short; wear black

Terms:
A.F. Annum Ford, After Ford
Bokanovsky Group identical twins which have been created by a single egg divided
numerous times through Bokanvosky’s Process
Bottling process by which embryos are grown
Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy a game in which children throw a ball onto a rotating disk that
throws the ball back in a random direction, and is meant to be
caught
D.H.C. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning

decanting room a room where the babies are removed from the bottles
Ectogenesis a process by which embryos are grown outside of a womb, in
this case, they are grown in bottles
feelies similar to modern movie-theaters; viewers are able to feel the
emotion and smell the smells of the movie in front of them
hypnopaedia one step of the conditioning process by which while sleeping,
babies and children listen to repeated messages about morals and
their place in society, and are completely conditioned to live and
breathe these messages
Malthusian belt a belt that dispenses contraceptives
Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning loud noises, flashing lights and electric shock used on babies to
condition their likes and dislikes
Nine Years’ War the war that enabled the Ten World Controllers to take over
power
orgy-porgy a chant and dance of a Solidarity Service; sexual in nature
phosphorus recovery the process in which phosphorus is recovered from cremated
bodies to be used in fertilizer
pneumatic ―air filled‖ or well-endowed
Podsnap’s technique a process of ripening thousands of eggs at the same time so that
they can be born when needed
pregnancy substitute an injection that tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant,
controlling hormones
Savage Reservation a dumping ground for savages, or people who were naturally
born
Solidarity Service a religious service with a strong sexual content
Soma a legal drug without side- or after-effects; makes people ―happy‖
when needed
soma holiday to be drugged up with soma for a long period of time
viviparous bearing live young rather than eggs

THEMES AND STYLE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD

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THEMES AND STYLE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD