How does Brave New World reflect the context in which it was written?

Essay by vicchick_007High School, 12th grade July 2004

download word file, 3 pages 4.6 2 reviews

Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" looks at the universal and timeless theme of the relationship between man and nature. Written during the post World War I era, the novel addresses issues of the struggle for peace, the development of science, and the totalitarian state. Set in the year A.F. 632 (after Ford), the novel views the economic, political, social and technological developments of the Brave New World and how its inhabitants have adapted. In particular Bernard Marx, of civilized London, and John Savage from the wild Savage Reserve; as both, from two seemingly different worlds, struggle with their individuality in a world of conditioning, conformity and pre-destined futures. Through these, and other minor characters, Huxley takes a satirical look into the future, where the relationship between man and nature has been altered as a result of the immediate issues of the post World War I era: the struggle for peace, but at what cost? the development of science and who controls it, and the extremes of totalitarianism.

"Community, Identity, Stability" (Ch1), otherwise known as the World State's Motto, these words are what almost immediately greet the responder upon opening. Following the turmoil of World War I, the majority of the world craved pace and stability, the importance of which is blatantly obvious in the Brave New World. This arrival at peace and stability aims at keeping all those in the Brave New World happy, where "no pains have been preserved" to make their lives "emotionally easy". This is achieved through soma, a drug that induces a "...warm, ...richly coloured, ...infinitely friendly world" for all in the Brave New World, who are expected, or expect to take regular doses of the drug. The struggle for peace also coincides with the controlling of nature where, in the Brave New World, "Bokanovsky's Process...