Brave New World

1-Sentence-Summary: Brave New World presents a futuristic society engineered perfectly around
capitalism and scientific efficiency, in which everyone is happy, conform, and content — but only at first
glance.

“You can`t consume much if you sit still and read books,” World Controller Mustapha Mond tells a group of
children as they tour the “Hatchery and Conditioning Center” in London in the year 2540 AD. He has a point
— and if you read books like Brave New World, you`ll want to consume even less afterward.

Published in 1932, Brave New World was decades ahead of its time, and of its sibling, 1984, the
other of two defining works outlining what a modern dystopia could look like. Unlike 1984, however, the
people in Brave New World are slaves to pleasure, not pain.

Living in the extremely shaky political time that is the period between World War I and World War
II, author Aldous Huxley was both drawn to the idea of stability (even to the point of sacrificing democracy)
and terrified by what domination of any kind might bring.

As a result, Brave New World is an ambivalent book, open to many interpretations, and after selling
millions of copies over nearly 100 years of being in print, the book is still being interpreted in new ways
every day. Just in 2020, a new TV show was made, and every year, young adults read the book as part of
their high school education. Here are three lessons from this literary classic:

Lesson 1: A perfect world in which you can have everything will inevitably be
devoid of any meaning.

Humans are grown in bottles as needed to perform certain tasks, ranging from smart Alphas to
“semi-moron” Epsilons. From birth, people are sleep-conditioned to stay in their caste, to prioritize easy
pleasures, like “soma,” the perfect drug, and sex, and to consume as much as they can.

Two of the book`s protagonists, psychologist Bernard Marx and writer Helmholtz Watson, see
through this veil of cheap satisfaction. Bernard wants a traditional, monogamous relationship — a big no-no
in his promiscuous society — preferably with the beautiful but all-too-well-conditioned hatchery worker
Lenina Crowne.

A constant state of satisfaction is its kind of prison, and it is this prison Bernard and Helmholtz hope
to escape from, one by taking the woman of his dreams on an adventurous trip, the other by penning some
daring lines and reading them to his students. Of course, both of them get into trouble for breaking the mold,
which brings us to the second lesson.

Lesson 2: There is nothing we hate more than not fitting in, and yet, even in the
most homogenous groups, there`ll always be differences between people.

Unlike Helmholtz, who`s too smart for his good but otherwise a perfect example of an Alpha,
Bernard is slightly shorter than intended — some mishap during his “hatching” — and, as a result, often gets
mocked by women, peers, and even his subordinates.

Thankfully, Lenina agrees to accompany Bernard on what`s supposed to be a romantic trip to a

natural reservation in New Mexico. There, they not only see people living traditionally — giving birth,
drinking alcohol, practicing religious rituals, hunting for food, aging, mourning their dead — but also
encounter John, “the Savage.”
 As it turns out, John is the illegitimate son of the director of the hatchery and Linda, a woman he
brought to the reservation years ago and who still lives there, hating every minute of it. Like Bernard, John
has been ostracized by the Native American tribe for his different looks (and later, his ability to read, which
he uses to devour the works of Shakespeare). Naturally, Bernard is thrilled to meet someone who, like him,
doesn`t fit in.

Helmholtz wants to write real poetry, but he`s not allowed to. Even Mustapha Mond, the World
Controller, was originally a man of science who asked too many questions — and that`s how he ended up
being a Controller in the first place, choosing misery over exile.

Few pains sit deeper than the suffering of not fitting in and feeling rejected by our fellow humans,
and yet, no matter how much we try to be alike, humans will always be different from one another.

Lesson 3: For true happiness to exist, we must also face the potential for suffering

Since the director of the hatchery threatened to send him into exile in Iceland over his odd behavior,
Bernard comes up with a brilliant plan: He`ll take the Savage and Linda back to London, using them to
embarrass the director out of his threat. The plan initially works and even makes Bernard famous, for he is
now the custodian of the mysterious Savage everyone wants to see.

At first, John is also excited, not least because he likes Lenina, and it is before his departure from the
reservation that he utters the Shakespeare line that gives the book its title: “O brave new world that has such
people in it. I want to sin,” he will later tell Mustapha Mond in the novel`s pivotal conversation. Eventually,
he and Helmholtz end up fighting a horde of Epsilons, trying to take away their soma rations, thus
“liberating” them. Bernard tries to break up the fight, but eventually, all three are hauled before Mustapha
Mond. “You`ve got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can`t think of the really good, penetrating, X-rays
phrases,” Helmholtz explains, choosing the Falkland Islands for his exile, thinking their bad weather will
inspire his writing.

The Savage, meanwhile, is made to stay, though, in a long argument, the World Controller admits he
has a point when he says: “I`m claiming the right to be unhappy.” The government chose to sacrifice art,
science, and religion in favor of the shallow but stable happiness he now sees around him, Mond admits:

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for
misery. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the
picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never
grand.”

The happiness in Brave New World is fake, for it is neither a side effect of true living nor a reward
for suffering. Ultimately, John gets what he asks for. It is often a side-effect and sometimes a hard-won
reward, but true happiness can never be something we get on tap or by swallowing a pill. If we reject the
potential for suffering, we also reject the potential for true, deeply fulfilling happiness — and that`s perhaps
the most powerful lesson the book can teach us.