by Amy Huang

Created on: November 09, 2007   Last Updated: March 05, 2010

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley 1932

It may have been all fantasy, and Aldous Huxley probably never intended to predict the future, but how true the events are turning out for us according to the plot of 'Brave New World'.

For long and hard now the human race have been looking for the ideal society. 'Brave New World' is about a time, when the World Controllers have finally found the solution, and created a society where human beings are perfect: each human is designed with a pre-destined role in society, designed to perform menial tasks, and bred and educated accordingly. They are programmed to be happy and enjoy the unnatural pleasures provided by bio-technology.

Yet, one of these human being is not happy. For Bernard Marx, this endless compulsory solitude is just not what he is seeking in life, there is no more meaning to life and he is looking to break free in a world when other humans are programmed the way they are. He visits one of the remaining 'Savage Reservations' Center where life remains the way they were, and he discovers the way life should be.

Although we are still not at the stage where we are programmed to be certain people in society, we are constantly being dictated to by media and politicians on what to wear, how we should behave and what jobs we should do. Human beings are increasingly becoming slaves to capitalism and consumerism and makes the way we life not much different to what was being described in 'Brave New World'. The book is the ultimate fiction about what human race will eventually become and individualism will only be a theory of the past.

According to the 'Observer', this book is "A brilliant tour de force... may be read as a grave warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific advance. Full of barbed wit and malice-spiced frankness, 'Brave New World' is one of the most urgent appeals for a reconciliation of science with religion that our age has known".

Learn more about this author, Amy Huang.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.