Literary Themes in Aldous Huxley's Novel “Brave New World”

Imagine a world where your every desire is met immediately, where no one wants for anything, and everyone is entirely happy all of the time. It might sound like paradise, but, as you probably guessed, there is a dark side lurking underneath. This is the society presented in Brave New World, a society Aldous Huxley intends to warn his contemporaries could be right around the corner. Was Huxley right? Is a "brave new world" upon us? Read on to explore the themes of this pioneering work of modern Western dystopian literature, plus the overall message of the novel and other dystopian fiction that covers similar themes.

Brave New World Themes

Dystopia & Totalitarianism: Although things look perfect on the outside, the government exerts complete control over its citizens.
Technology & Control: The government uses technology and the drug soma to control humanity, including reproduction and its citizens' DNA.
Consumption & Commodification: The citizens are designed to consume and seek out pleasure and entertainment above all else.
Happiness: The citizens are happy because of the absence of suffering—their needs and wants are met, but they have no agency or creativity.
The Pursuit of Truth: Citizens are not allowed to pursue truth or study science, which the government believes could disrupt their stable society.
Individuality: The government has eliminated individuality, which also eliminates what it means to be human.

Section 1 of 7:

Dystopia & Totalitarianism

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The novel Brave New World depicts a society that seems perfect on the surface. Huxley's novel is a work of science fiction that tells a story set in an imagined future time. Everything seems wonderful on the outside—the people are happy, everyone's needs are met, and the world is at peace. But because this is a work of dystopia, you know there's something sinister lurking beneath the surface. Things are not all they seem in the World State.^{[1]
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- Quote: "'And that,' put in the Director 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 unescapable social destiny.'" The Controller, chapter 1.
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The World State in Brave New World has total control over its citizens. To achieve the shining image of a perfect society, the government in a dystopia must have complete control over everything its citizens think and do.^{[2]
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Go to source} One of the main ways the government does this is through hypnopaedic proverbs, suggestions the government plays to its citizens on repeat to condition their minds.
- Quote: "'Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!' The Director almost shouted in his triumph. 'Suggestions from the State.'" The Director explains hypnopaedic proverbs, chapter 2.
- The government controls its citizens essentially by keeping them stoned out of their minds on soma. Everyone's happy all the time, so they aren't motivated to question or resist.^{[3]
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Huxley shows that total control can never be benign. The World State seems like paradise—you can get whatever you want, whenever you want. Everyone is happy and enjoys their life. But because they have no freedom—either of thought or of action—the citizens of the World State act more like robots than humans. They're reduced to pure consumers and every interaction is a transaction—even sex is entirely commodified and devoid of emotional connection.^{[4]
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- Quote: "'But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.'" John the Savage to Mustapha, chapter 17.

Section 2 of 7:

Technology & Control

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The government controls citizens through the widespread use of soma. Imagine if, any time you felt even the least bit annoyed, you could take a drug that would immediately transport you into a blissful state and make everything ok. This is the promise of soma, the drug the World State government in Brave New World makes readily available to all citizens. Because everyone's high on soma all the time, nothing ever bothers them. They would never see any reason to question anything the government does or requires them to do.^{[5]
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- Soma allows the government to essentially control people's thoughts by simply telling them what to think while they're in a soma dream-state—and this is exactly what the World State does through hypnopaedic recordings.
- Quote: "'Now—such is progress—the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think—or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma…." The Controller to Bernard, chapter 3.
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The government controls reproduction through cloning. Citizens are created in labs using a process similar to cloning called Bokanovsky's Process—there are no mothers or fathers, no family units. The citizens created are divided into 5 hierarchical castes, with the lower castes engineered to have lower intelligence. Children are raised by the World State from birth and indoctrinated into the values of the society in which they were born.^{[6]
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- Cloning was not an incredibly far-fetched or unimaginable technology in Huxley's time—and it definitely isn't now, more than 90 years after the novel's publication. It's within reach for readers to imagine a society that does this.
- Cloning also allows the government to have absolute and complete control over its citizens, all the way down to the specific DNA that's used to create them.
- Quote: "'Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines!' The voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm. 'You really know where you are. For the first time in history.' He quoted the planetary motto. 'Community, Identity, Stability.' Grand words. 'If we could bokanovskify indefinitely the whole problem would be solved.'" The Director, chapter 1.
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The government controls citizens through feelies and other entertainment. Feelies are a form of mass entertainment similar to movies, except that they involve full sensory immersion for the ultimate pleasure. Other forms of entertainment are available as well, all designed to distract people and allow them to escape from reality.^{[7]
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- The entertainment available is completely devoid of meaning or any content that might stimulate independent thought. Much of it is pornographic, which reinforces the pleasure conditioning the World State uses on its citizens.
- Quote: "'Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry?' enquired the Assistant Predestinator. 'I hear the new one at the Alhambra is first-rate. There's a love scene on a bearskin rug; they say it's marvellous. Every hair of the bear reproduced. The most amazing tactual effects.'" The Assistant Predestinator to Henry, chapter 3.

Section 3 of 7:

Consumption & Commodification

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The government conditions its citizens to be good little consumers. When Huxley wrote Brave New World, he had recently returned from a visit to the United States. He was horrified by the rampant consumerism and mob mentality of Americans, and this partly inspired his creation of the World State as mass consumerism taken to its utmost extreme. From hatching, the people of the World State exist to consume.^{[8]
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- Quote: "'Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending.'"'But old clothes are beastly,' continued the untiring whisper. 'We always throw away old clothes. Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better...'" proverb, chapter 3.
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Human relationships and sexuality are used solely for pleasure and entertainment. Everyone in the World State is conditioned from infancy to view sexual touch and exploration as merely a meaningless way to find pleasure. They've internalized the repeated mantra that everyone belongs to everyone and literally think nothing about engaging in sex whenever, wherever, and with whomever they choose. Having sex is, in a sense, their duty to the state.^{[9]
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- There are very few people in the World State who don't participate in this meaningless sexual activity, and they're ostracized by everyone else because they simply don't make sense.
- Viewing sex as being entirely for pleasure is possible because the World State has completely divorced procreation from sex. It is interesting, though, that women are responsible for birth control.^{[10]
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- People in Huxley's Brave New World don't have romantic feelings for each other—they're conditioned not to think in such individualistic terms—and those who do, such as Lenina for John, are profoundly confused by them.
- Quote: "He let out the amazing truth. For a very long period before the time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal (there was a roar of laughter); and not only abnormal, actually immoral (no!): and had therefore been rigorously suppressed." The Director speaks to a class of children, chapter 3.
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People only exist to consume material goods and be entertained. The citizens of the World State are essentially pleasure-seeking machines. They spend all of their free time chasing after various pleasures and sensations because all of their basic needs are met and they have nothing else to worry about. They're conditioned to believe that buying new things will make them happy.^{[11]
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- Quote: "What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty—they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?" Lenina, chapter 3.

Section 4 of 7:

Happiness

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The World State maximizes happiness by eliminating suffering. The World State is based on the utilitarian principle that society should create the greatest good for the greatest number of people. To the World State, the greatest good is happiness, which equates to freedom from physical or emotional suffering of any sort, together with easy and immediate access to anything and everything they want.^{[12]
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- Even total control is fine as long as everybody's happy. Through this theme, Huxley asks you to consider how much is too much to pay for happiness and stability?
- Quote: "I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays." Lenina to Bernard, chapter 6.
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Happiness isn't as powerful without any negative emotions. While citizens of the World State are content, they've also never known any sadness or struggle. Because they've never known heartache or grief, they're incapable of understanding how wonderful and awe-inspiring true joy is. They are shells of humans whose lives are devoid of meaning—and they're okay with that, for the most part.^{[13]
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- Quote: "There was a silence. In spite of their sadness—because of it, even; for their sadness was the symptom of their love for one another—the three young men were happy." John, Bernard, and Helmholtz part ways, chapter 18.
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Huxley shows that eliminating suffering destroys creativity and authenticity. When people are conditioned to want only certain things, and those things are freely and easily available to them, they lose the desire to create or imagine anything else. They also don't understand what it means to be authentically yourself, because they've never actually thought for themselves.^{[14]
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- For the World State, this is a reasonable sacrifice to make in exchange for stability and their version of happiness.
- Quote: "'Because our world is not the same as Othello's world. You can't make flivvers without steel—and you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now." The Controller, chapter 16.

Section 5 of 7:

The Pursuit of Truth

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The pursuit of truth is incompatible with happiness. Truth causes chaos and turmoil, and the pursuit of truth leads to conflict and disagreement. All of these things are enemies of happiness—or at least the kind of happiness the World State values. Chaos and conflict are also a threat to stability. For this reason, the World State cannot allow the individual pursuit of truth.^{[15]
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- This includes not only scientific truth but also emotional truth, which you can see in the fact that relationships have been eradicated and familial bonds destroyed. Love and similar emotions also lead to heartache and disappointment, so you can't have those either.
- Quote: "Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut." Mustapha to John the Savage, chapter 17.
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Experimentation indicates problems and the World State has no problems. If everyone is happy and comfortable, there are no problems—there's nothing that needs to be fixed or added. When viewed from this perspective, science is dangerous. Experimenting is unpredictable and potentially chaotic.^{[16]
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- Quote: "'Yes,' Mustapha Mond was saying, 'that's another item in the cost of stability. It isn't only art that's incompatible with happiness; it's also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.'" Mustapha to John the Savage, chapter 16.
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With total mastery, there's no need to learn anything else. While the World State government uses the technology that resulted from scientific research, it believes that it has solved all of the problems of the world. Since it has mastered control over life and death, there are no more discoveries to be made that could provide any benefit. And, in Huxley's utilitarian society, if there's no benefit, there's no point. Curiosity is forbidden in the World State. All of the knowledge anyone needs is contained in the hypnopaedic proverbs.^{[17]
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- Quote: "Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy. Yes, even science." Mustapha to John the Savage, chapter 16.

Section 6 of 7:

Individuality

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The government actively suppresses curiosity. Asking questions or resisting authority is something an individual would do. They're also evidence of curiosity, a human drive the World State highly restricts. If people are happy and content, why would they ask questions? What would they possibly want to know? Soma also helps dampen any curiosity that might still exist in lower-class World State citizens.^{[18]
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- Quote: "'...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 colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta.'" Hypnopaedic proverbs, chapter 2.
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Individuality is incompatible with stability. This gets at the cost of happiness. The World State has figured out that individuality causes unpredictability and chaos, both of which threaten stability. Because the World State values peace and stability over everything else, individuality has to go. For some in the book, this is a perfectly reasonable price to pay for happiness and stability, but for others, such as Bernard, it isn't.^{[19]
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- Quote: "'Of course it is,' the Controller agreed. 'But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead.'" The Controller to John the Savage, chapter 16.
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Eliminating individuality means eliminating what it means to be human. The World State is a place where no suffering exists. But without suffering, there is no humanity either. Huxley might have you ponder whether there's something intrinsically human about suffering.^{[20]
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Research source} But it might not be suffering itself—it might be freedom and autonomy, which means taking risks and can sometimes result in suffering.
- The World State seems like a utopia, because it's a perfect place where no suffering exists. If utopia comes from Greek, then it technically means "no place." The implication might be that an actual utopia is impossible.^{[21]
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- Quote: "He woke once more to external reality, looked round him, knew what he saw—knew it, with a sinking sense of horror and disgust, for the recurrent delirium of his days and nights, the nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness." John the Savage reflects on Delta Bokanovsky groups, chapter 15.

Section 7 of 7:

The Overall Message of “Brave New World”

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The novel Brave New World warns about valuing happiness over autonomy. Through Brave New World, Huxley ultimately asks what you're willing to give up to be happy and live in a stable society. While the answer to that question will differ for everybody based on their background and lived experience, Huxley believes that happiness and stability aren't worth it if they come at the price of individual autonomy and freedom of thought and emotion.^{[22]
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- The society of Brave New World challenges readers—if everybody's happy, then what's the problem? Dystopias that followed, including The Matrix, continued to grapple with this same question.
- Through Brave New World, Huxley invites you to evaluate the use of technology in your own life and the degree to which it might limit your freedom and autonomy.
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Other dystopias cover similar themes to those covered in Brave New World. Brave New World was one of the first modern dystopian novels. If you found a particular theme compelling and would like to explore it some more, you might read one of these and get another author's perspective. If you've already read one of these, comparing them can be a good way to gain a better understanding of the theme in Huxley's book.
- Technology and control: The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Dune by Frank Herbert, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- Happiness as the absence of suffering: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Dune by Frank Herbert
- Consumption and commodification: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- The pursuit of truth: 1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Individuality: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, 1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury