Meaning Behind Brave New World

"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." Chapter 17

Of all the works that Aldous Huxley has produced the most intriguing and philosophical one would have to be Brave New World. Throughout his carrier Huxley has written many satirical novels about the flaws of society but none can compare the symbolism and depth that this novel presents. As the above quote suggests the citizens of this futuristic society known as the World State chose to live a life of hedonism devoid of emotions and beliefs rather than suffer any pain. Both Huxley's focus on the tragic flaws of this society and satirical development of the utopian scheme, lead us to believe the hypocrisy of such a utopian state. Furthermore there are many parallels that can be drawn between our way of life and the society portrayed in the book; these parallels include soma, hynopaedic messages and sex. Huxley uses this parallelism to warn us that the path that our society is taking will lead us to damnation.

When we think about utopian society we would never imagine damnation. However, even though these two concepts might seem far and distant Huxley has uses them synonymously in the World State. In this utopian society the citizens act like mindless drones. They are merely gadgets used to keep the well-oiled society functioning. In order to act with such objectivity these people must have been deprived of morals, beliefs and emotions: in short their humanity.

"My dear young friend...civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise." Chapter 17

In this quote the heroics and nobility are just examples of the emotions that people are deprived of. Without the essentials of humanity, these people are damned to a life of pure materialism with no concept of the ideals that we hold so dear. Through the portrayal of this horrendous way of life Huxley shows us a lackluster side of utopian society. However the fact that there is any negative to a utopian society is contradictory in nature to its definition. Thus we begin to see the darker sides of this supposedly "perfect society."

A utopia by definition insinuates that everything within the society must be absolutely perfect. However humans are by nature imperfect and the only way to solve this problem is to take out the part of us that