Brave New World - Utopia or Dystopia?
There is a very significant difference between a utopia and a dystopia, however Brave New World by Aldous Huxley could be seen as either. There are many aspects of this society which are perfect and completely cancel out many problems with our real world, nevertheless along with these are effects which could be seen as the opposite. This essay will discuss these aspects and effects and whether the Brave New World society is a utopia or a dystopia.
A utopian society is one which is perfect (Mastin (2008), What is a Utopia?). In the case of Brave New World: everyone has a job; all people live in harmony, meaning there is no war; there is a lack of poverty and crime. These things alone would mean this society is indeed utopian. Obviously there are many issues with our real society we live in, most of which are seen every day. People are robbed, people die, people suffer from physical and mental illnesses and wars are fought between countries constantly. None of these things exist whatsoever in the society where the novel is set, in this brave new world. Aldous Huxley gives his estimation of the world in the year 2540, with a number of significant differences. These “perfect” parts of the brave new world give the impression of a utopia. However, this impression is only surface deep.
Brave New World could also be seen as a dystopia. In this society, there is a long list of aspects to support a dystopia, which is an imperfect society (Merriam-Webster (2013), Dystopia Definitions). People are built in factories, rather than being produced via human interaction. Early on in the novel, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning explains to a group of students how one single human egg can actually divide to form 96 identical twins, using the Bokanovski method (Huxley, 1932, p. 18). In a child’s upbringing, they are ‘conditioned’, meaning they are trained to like or dislike certain things. The director also explains this as they observe a group of Deltas being shocked
A utopian society is one which is perfect (Mastin (2008), What is a Utopia?). In the case of Brave New World: everyone has a job; all people live in harmony, meaning there is no war; there is a lack of poverty and crime. These things alone would mean this society is indeed utopian. Obviously there are many issues with our real society we live in, most of which are seen every day. People are robbed, people die, people suffer from physical and mental illnesses and wars are fought between countries constantly. None of these things exist whatsoever in the society where the novel is set, in this brave new world. Aldous Huxley gives his estimation of the world in the year 2540, with a number of significant differences. These “perfect” parts of the brave new world give the impression of a utopia. However, this impression is only surface deep.
Brave New World could also be seen as a dystopia. In this society, there is a long list of aspects to support a dystopia, which is an imperfect society (Merriam-Webster (2013), Dystopia Definitions). People are built in factories, rather than being produced via human interaction. Early on in the novel, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning explains to a group of students how one single human egg can actually divide to form 96 identical twins, using the Bokanovski method (Huxley, 1932, p. 18). In a child’s upbringing, they are ‘conditioned’, meaning they are trained to like or dislike certain things. The director also explains this as they observe a group of Deltas being shocked
References: Huxley, A (1932), Brave New World, Penguin Books, Great Britain. Mastin, L (2008), ‘What is a Utopia?’, Utopian Literature, visited 13 May 2013, <http://www.utopianfiction.com/> Dystopia Definition, (2013), Merriam-Webster, viewed 13 May 2013, <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dystopia>