Book Report of Brave New World

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Book Report of Brave New World

Author:

Aldous Huxley was born in 1894, and died in 1963, the same day JFK was assassinated. He first went to Eton, and then to Oxford. He was a brilliant man, and became a successful writer of short stories in the twenties and thirties. The first novels he wrote were comments on the young generation, with no goal whatsoever, that lived after WW I. Before he became a writer; he worked as a journalist and a critic of drama. Other books of his include "Antic Hay", "Time Must Have a Stop" and "Island". Next to novels, essays and short stories he also wrote poems, biographies, plays, political books, and even a record of his experiments with drugs.

Theme:

The theme of Brave New World is freedom and how people want it. The people want poetry, danger, good and bad things. This novel shows that when you must give up religion, high art, true science, family, love and other foundations of modern life in place of a sort of unending happiness, it is not worth the sacrifice. These are all also distinguishing marks between humans and animals that were abolished here. In exchange, they received stability with no wars, social unrest, no poverty or disease or any other infirmities or discomforts. However, they only live with an artificial happiness, which they have been brainwashed to love since infancy. There is no marriage, no violence or no sadness which may result in an unstable society which would threaten the totalitarian government. But the majority of the people don't realize what they are missing as it's never been there. It's a society in which the human being only serves a sociological and scientifical purpose; the individual thought is overruled by one big autocratic state. Huxley is also telling us to be careful with our science, or we may end up like the Utopians, mass producing identical citizens, then brainwashing them to think alike and to think exactly what the government mandates.

Exposition:

In the first scene we are introduced to the futuristic world of London and how the babies are "conditioned" and categorized from birth. Then we meet some of the main characters, Bernard and Lenina who are both Alpha Plus status. It is foreshadowed that the two are going to make a trip to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico for vacation.

Complications:

Before Bernard and Lenina leave for the savage camp Ber...

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...lso dislikes the Utopian civilization. The problem with him is they let they him get too smart. That led him to want a better life, a dream he felt was unobtainable in Utopia. He was one of the few people that understood John and had similar interests in literature. He is also classified as an alpha-plus.

Setting:

The novel is situated around six hundred thirty-two years "after Ford" released the T-Model automobile, or around 2535. Ford has become somewhat of a God. It is essential to the theme that it be placed in the future because of the advancement in technology and science. Without these progressions the Utopian Society could not have been created.

Diction:

I thought that Aldous Huxley's style was good and easy to understand and follow. He used descriptive words when they were needed. They gave you the illusion of being in a futuristic world. The beginning is filled with technological information mixed in with the description of the world. The word "Ford" is often used instead of "God" and obscenities.

Method of Narration:

The novel is written in 3rd person omniscient and Huxley frequently uses characters to portray his thoughts about the Utopian Society.

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