Aldous Huxley Brave New World

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1931)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. General: 2

1.1 The Novel 2

1.1.1 Short Info 2

1.1.2 The Style 2

1.2 The Setting 2

1.2.1 BNW Ð'- a "perfect" system ? 3

1.2.2 Satirical Elements in BNW 4

1.3 The Characters 4

1.3.1 Fanny Crowne 4

1.3.2 Lenina Crowne (Main Female Character) 4

1.3.3 Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (Thomas Tomakin) 4

1.3.4 Henry Foster 4

1.3.5 John the Savage 5

1.3.6 Linda 5

1.3.7 Bernard Marx (One of the most important male characters) 5

1.3.8 Helmholtz Watson 6

1.3.9 Mustapha Mond 6

1.4 BNW's Society and Moral Values 6

2. Themes, Motifs and Symbols 7

2.1 Themes 7

2.1.1 The Use of Technology to Control Society 7

2.1.2 The Consumer Society 8

2.1.3 The Incompatibility of Happiness and Truth 8

2.1.4 Class Conflict 8

2.1.5 Sex 8

2.1.6 Knowledge and Ignorance 9

2.1.7 Community, Identity, Stability vs. Individual Freedom 9

2.1.8 Technology as a Religion 9

2.2 Motifs 10

3 Plot Summary 10

4 Sources 11

1. General:

1.1 The Novel

1.1.1 Short Info

- Utopia (Dystopian / anti-utopian novel), all definitions can be used on BNW

- Written in 1931, published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley

- Novel questions the values of 1931 London using satire and irony, contemporary trends in British and American society are taken to extremes

- In BNW Aldous Huxley turns to an imaginative analysis of the future as it appeared to him already implicit in the present  he analyses the consequences for mankind of rapidly acquired scientific power and the problems arising out of hyper-development of the intellect at the expense of other human qualities

1.1.2 The Style

- Third-person, omniscient teller

- Chronological for the most part; only some flash-backs

- First six chapters are used to show how the World State's society functions

- The climax of the novel is Johns attempt to set up a riot in Chapter 15

- The tone of the novel is ironic, satirical, silly, tragic, juvenile, pedantic

1.2 The Setting

- Set in London, six hundred years in the future (in 2495)

- All people around the world are governed by a totalitarian state (most forms of freedom are abandoned, human values / moral standards are twisted around  family, life, and death mean nothing in this society), free from war, hatred poverty, disease and pain. People are expected to have pleasure living their life, society should run in a certain order and everyone is expected to be conform to the system to maintain this order.

- There are 10 controllers in charge

- Humans are created and conditioned in factories using a technology ( "Bokanovsky Process") to create ninety-six people from one fertilized egg

- People are conditioned differently depending on the class they are intended to belong to in the future

- There are five social classes, from Alphas Ð'- superior, highly intelligent, physically attractive  desirable and intellectually demanding jobs, to Epsilons Ð'- inferior, mentally deficient, physically unattractive  least desirable, menial jobs

 Conditioned with hypnopaedia (sleep conditioning) and electric shocks

 The people of a class are that well conditioned that they never strive after changing the status quo

 As adults people are content if they are allowed to fulfill their conditioned destinies

1.2.1 BNW Ð'- a "perfect" system ?

- A perfect system is like a circle which you can't penetrate

- The author must either "construct" a mistake in the system or else introduce somebody from outside, or both

1.2.2 Satirical Elements in BNW

Exaggerated actions in order to criticize

- Fundamental values have been ridiculed + perverted

- Means of a manipulation of language

- Author throughout book: express opposite o fwhat he means or ironically comments on certain activities on BNWorlders  consider the ???

1.3 The Characters

1.3.1 Fanny Crowne

- Nineteen years old, Beta, character is never really developed

- Friend of Lenina

- Only a "contrast-character": she accepts society's values completely vs. Lenina's unconventional behavior

1.3.2 Lenina Crowne (Main Female Character)

- Beta,