FINAL CONCLUSION
When I first read Brave New World, I was amazed by the quality of it, because I hadn’t expected so much. Now, once I have already read the book and have analysed it, I can say that it is an extraordinary book, I love it. It’s a universal book, because the concepts are very important and interesting still in our present, and I think this book will still be having fundament for further generations. It deals with a lot of themes, which, all of them, are interesting. Technology, science and its dangers is a very common thing nowadays; and this is because Aldous Huxley wrote a literary prophecy. There is a passage that I particularly like: it is at the end of the conversation between Mustapha Mond and the Savage. John says that the New World citizens don’t regard that unhappiness may also be a concept to like or to desire, like John.
"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin"
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you’re claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right, then," said the Savage defiantly, "I’m claiming the right to be unhappy."
I feel very alike to John in this passage, so I think this is the reason why I like it so much. I think that unhappiness is also a part of life that you have to experience; you can’t avoid it and think that everything is perfect, besides, I like some aspects of being unhappy. I really think that being a happy person during all your life would be boring. My aim in life isn’t to be happy, it is to live. And life consists in feeling, in having experiences, although some of them may be unpleasant.
A perfect world has been created, a world in which everybody is happy, people don’t get bored and nobody has problems. It is the ideal paradise on earth. Huxley makes his readers think; after reading the novel, the reader is incited to think about the meaning of real happiness, and the price for it, as well the importance of truth. The reader, if he/she has understood the meaning of the novel, would ask a question: what is better: living happily ever after (although personally I think it is a stupid happiness) or living according to the truth but suffering all kind of inconveniences. The intention is like in Brecht's novels, where he showed or introduced the readers a subject, analysed its pros and cons so that the reader could decide for himself/herself. Brecht and Huxley don't try to find readers who indentify themselves easily with the characters and keep in mind the mere argument; these authors, who are the really interesting ones, give the reader an active role; thinking.
I also admire the way Huxley writes; not only his style, but also how he organises the things which are to be narrated. For example, in the first chapter and the followings, Huxley creates this students who are learning the functioning of determined centres; this is a way of explaining the reader how is Brave New World without having to read a boring description. In chapter three, for example, he mixes three different dialogues; this makes the text much more vivacious. Apart from the trascendental subjects, he also writes in a very fluid style, experimenting with narrative techniques. There are a lot of monologues in the book from lonely people like Bernard, John or Hemholtz.
The literary prophecy is nowadays a reality. The book was first published in 1932, but seeing that his predictions were being fulfilled much more quicker than he expected he wrote a foreword to the book in 1946, explaining some aspects of his satirical work and his intention. Brave New World is a our present, not exactly the same, but, unfortunately, there are a lot of similarities. Television and the media in general influence people’s mind a lot. Now the possibility of clonation is very near; now morality arises when dealing with this subjects. Is it licit to create people from isolated cells? Personally, I don't see the problem of clonation; it would be very good for the development of medical, biological and other science investigations. I agree with Mustapha Mond when he says that science and its knowledge is the knowledge of truth. And, in my opinion, the more we know, the better, because then we can take decisions knowin g all the consequences we might suffer. I am in favour that these investigation researches go on, but I might be a little afraid when considering the range of damages that industrial development would cause. In Brave New World, this problem doesn't practic ally appear; when describing the way of life in the Utopian World Huxley doesn't say anything about the environ mental problems that the development of industry would motivate. I also hate the intention of companies which sell their goods when advertising the products; they try to manipulate people's minds, specially, the ones of younger people, by very similar methods used in Brave New World. For example, the catchy phrases of the advertisements that are pronounced by determined type of voices are very simila r to the hypnopaedia used to influence the children's behaviour. Fortunately, the aim isn't the same: in the Utopian World they try to control us, and in our modern society they try to gain buyers for their products. We just have to avoid manipulation, and I think the best method is trying to learn more and more, developing your mind's capacity. In Brave New World, only some Alphas were aware that they were controlling and manipulating them, but not Gammas or Deltas, who were happy as they were and didn't a sk themselves anything of this kind. What we have to do is try to be like these Alphas, analyse things.
I really like this book; it is a very interesting reading and I think you can learn a lot from it. I admire Huxley because he was capable of doing such a fabulous work; he built a parallel world which functions absolutely logically, and he found answers f o r all possible arguments of people saying that Brave New World wasn't a perfect society. The passage of Mustapha Mond and John the Savage is really wonderful, because a whole lot of theses are perfectly answered. Huxley uses a satire to warn us against th e quick development of science, technology and industry. I also hope that this work may also be useful for other people who want to know more about Aldous Huxley and his most famous book Brave New World.
© Mireia Ferrandis Pradas