Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Name: Caitlin

Grade: 12+

Title: Brave New World

Author: Aldous Huxley

October is an important month for me. My friends and I all seem to share October as our birth months, but most importantly October means my favorite holiday: Halloween. So, to celebrate October all month I read books that are terrifying in different ways. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is terrifying, but not the kind of terrifying one usually associates with Halloween. Brave New World is a classic dystopian read, meaning that it's a story about an anti-utopian society.

This anti-utopian book opens up with a very detailed and thought out description of a "hatchery." Hatcheries in Brave New World are where people are "born." Actually, they're not really born at all- they're created. Artificial wombs hold embryos at bay while their fates are decided and determined by a class system. Some people are born Epsilons, the lowest rung on the ladder, and some are born as Alphas. Epsilons are fed alcohol during different stage of development; they're created to be mentally retarded. Epsilons do the dirty work like working in factories, Alphas do the fun stuff like ruling the planet.

Having thoroughly been shocked and disgusted by the description of hatcheries, Huxley then leads the reader to a less disgusting, but all together more disturbing world. Outside of the hatcheries, people are ignorant; more ignorant that probably anyone reading this knows; the scariest part is, they don't care that they're ignorant. They spend all of their time taking a drug, Soma, to make them happy, partying and being very, very, promiscuous. They are taught from birth that everyone belongs to everyone and for that reason, it's perfectly fine to have hundreds of sexual partners-in fact it's encouraged.

At this point in the story, the reader has met Lenina, a beautiful girl who is very much a part of Brave New World's society. Lenina is a foil to two characters in the book, the first being Bernard.

Bernard is different; he's an alpha who isn't tall or handsome, he spends time alone, and detests soma. He spends a lot of his time pining after beautiful Lenina, which, eventually leads to a trip to a sort of Indian reservation. There, Lenina and Bernard meet John, a savage. John is not a Brave New Worlder- he was born on the reservation and has a love for Shakespeare and a dislike of soma.

Bernard, for his own personal and vengeful reasons, takes John the Savage back to his home town. While John is there, he causes havvoc and madness as he himself falls deeper and deeper into the need to disassociate himself from the Brave New Worlders he finds so disgusting. Eventually, John cracks and tries to save the brave new Worlders, but to no avail.

As society remains, John finds himself cracking under the pressure of trying to save himself and the people, leading to an ending that leaves the reader feeling almost as fearful as John himself was...

The themes and ideas in Brave new World were fantastic- I can't talk enough about them. This book was brilliantly written and terrifying. It made me think about how our society works and about how correct Huxley really might be. Whether you reads this book for school or on your own, make sure you pay attention because if you do, you'll take so much away from it. It's really astounding how relevant this book still is today.


Why I picked up this book: I actually read it in my English class, even though I was planning on reading it myself back in the day.

Why I finished it: It was really good and though-provoking.

I'd give this book to: Anyone looking for a slightly disturbing read, or anyone that's into dystopian fiction. It's a classic.

My Rating for this book: *****