Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Same Old World

Aldous Huxley’s 1932 Brave New World examines several topics present in the early twentieth century and places them in a futuristic setting. Although first published eighty-five years ago, Brave New World presents ideas still relevant in today’s society. Huxley’s novel explores issues such as attitudes toward the disabled, consumerism, and women’s roles in society, issues prevalent both in his time and today.

A popular early twentieth century belief about disabled people can perhaps be best summarized Julian Huxley, Aldous Huxley's brother: "Every defective man, woman, and child is a burden. Every defective is an extra body for the nation to feed and clothe, but produces little or nothing in return" (CITATION!) Thus,

considered "burdens," many disabled persons were placed in institutions, where they were often mistreated. According to New Statesman, Britain's 1913 Mental Incapacity Act institutionalized approximately forty thousand "morally defective" or "feeble-minded" people (Brignell), sending them to places where they had "no rights, no dignity, and no privacy" ("Exhibit"). Much like these institutions, Brave New World's "savage reservations" separated outcasts such as Linda from the rest of society.
In modern times, more efforts are being made to integrate people with disabilities into society; however, there are still flaws.

According to Joseph Shapiro, a National Public Radio (NPR) investigative correspondent, nearly six thousand Americans under the age of twenty-one currently live in nursing homes, and "the group after that, people who are 31 to 64, are actually the fastest-growing group in nursing homes now." Shapiro explains that "there aren't a lot of alternatives for [disabled people] to get the care they need at home," which means they are forced to move into nursing homes (Conan). However, there are some programs aimed at providing the disabled with options for care outside of institutions and nursing homes. One such program, Money Follows the Person, has allowed more than sixty-three thousand disabled people to transition "from institutions back into the community"

(Money).
Advances in technology and "innovative ideas and inventions in the areas of communication, transportation, and manufacturing" (American-Historama) in the 1920s led to a rapid increase in consumerism, transforming the United States into a "consumer society" (CITATION).

One "innovative invention", Henry Ford's assembly line, cut consumer costs by enabling the mass production of products to occur "quickly and efficiently" by way of a mechanical process. (American-Historama). Huxley incorporated both this increase in consumerism and Ford's invention into his novel. "The more stitches, the less riches," a proverb urging citizens to constantly purchase new products, is drilled into the brains of the people through hypnopaedia. The society's "god" is Henry Ford, and Bokanovsky's Process mass-produces human beings on an assembly line.

Consumerism has continued to increase. Americans today own "twice as many cars per person, eat out twice as often and enjoy endless other [new] commodities" (CITATION). According to a Mount Holyoke article, "consumerism leads to materialism, or the mentality for the need for excess" (CITATION). MT. HOLYOKE cites the prominence of advertisements as a cause of people purchasing products in

excess.
The roles of women were changing in the 1920s. As a result of work women did during World War I, the number of women in the workforce saw a twenty-five percent increase (BBC). Women such as flappers, the young working women of the northern cities, were also challenging gender roles, participating in activities such as "smoking, drinking, and sexual experimentation," activities previously mainly practiced by men (US-History.org). Flappers are reminiscent of the women in Brave New World, working women who were encouraged to be promiscuous.
Women today are still making progress. According to the United States Department of Labor, fifty-seven percent of women are employed (“Data”). However, women are paid “only seventy-seven cents for every dollar a man makes” (Chu and Posner). Though the number of women holding government positions is increasing, the Center for American Progress points out that they lack fair representation--women make up “more than half of the U.S. population,” yet only hold about eighteen percent of the seats in Congress (Chu and Posner).
Aldous Huxley explores several issues in Brave New World, including attitudes toward the disabled, increased consumerism, and the role of women in society. Each was a major issue when the book was published in 1932, and continue to remain relevant in today’s society.