About A Brave New World

After finishing A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, it left me a little confused about the ending since the way they described John being found dead made me re-read the page over and over again. Apart from being confused, the book did a good job leaving me clueless and inspired for some reason every time I put it down. The book started off with the Director touring a group of students throughout a factory where they genetically grow and shape people into what they want to place them in society and it made me think about the future if technology could really advance to that point. If technology really does get us that far and people are suddenly creating Bokanovksy groups then there

won't be any real humans around tho show what all was like before. The thought of that happening really throws me off for some reason. It's also really unsettling how they create their 'humans' like Bernard for example where people say that he has alcohol put in him while he was still in a tube. Another was when Henry Foster showed the Director and the students how they make babies hate books and roses by electrocuting them and how they brainwash children so what/how they should think is drilled into their minds. Looking back into the story's motto, 'Community, Stability, Identity' I find no such thing as identity in any of these cases. Sorry if I rambled too much but allow me to share my thoughts.

'COMMUNITY' The community and/or society of A Brave New World is not a good community to be clear. Sure, the work and economy is stable and everyone is conditioned to be happy but is it a really a community? The Google definition of a Community is- A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. Or, a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals. There is no feeling of fellowship nor sharing of common goals in this London Community. There is no goals shared by the cloned people of the story. The only goals are made by the scientists who are trying to make a thousand clones. While the other goals made by the characters- Lenina - are pointless, it's not quite the same with the others. Lenina's goal of wanting to get into bed with Bernard Marx after doing 'that' with Henry Foster and wanting to try and approach in a different way is not really the same goals as others is it? Since nobody wanted to sleep with Bernard until chapter 11. Though everyone likes and goes to the same Feely Theatre and watches the same movies and feels the same way, there is no genuine feelings about all the things they watch and listen to because all in that 'community' is conditioned to like these things so technically speaking, there is no common interest apart from brainwashing. Also, there is the thought that everything is perfect and everyone is undoubtedly happy. Clearly not everyone is happy with the society they're living in. Like Helmholtz Watson who just wanted to be free from their society and spread his open-mindedness, like Mustapha Mond who had to give up his art and freedom for the happiness of his people, like Bernard Marx who is just generally unhappy and discontented with the life he has, and lastly, John the Savage who just wanted to know the 'truth' but ended up dying before he found his answer. The community is clearly in a wrong.

'STABILITY' True, society in A Brave New World is stable enough to support its minor characters and citizens but the stability is only prevalent in London but what about the rest of the world? We are only shown about the success of cloning in Asia, the savages living in old ways in New Mexico, and the isolated island of Iceland. The only Stability is the soma induced minds of the characters. I might admit that society today is not stable at all, the society in the story sure isn't. Though it way seem that way, we know that all isn't soma and feely music. To reach stability, they had to sacrifice a lot in order for the people to coincide with one another and to be happy and stable. They had to sacrifice languages, the ability to think freely, romance, art, literature, basic freedom. All of it to ensure that nobody is going to start an uprising and ruin everything. They gave up being human so that their society can run in their control. If anyone in the story were still aware, apart from John and maybe Helmholtz and us the readers, then they would realize that this is not stability. It's may seem that way, but it isn't.
'IDENTITY' Identity in this story is false. You are made and conditioned to be who you are and how you act at birth and they make you how you are, every citizen in this society is made in the vision of the scientists and the government so there is no real identity in the story. The only identity is the ranking; You're either a Beta, an Alpha, a Gamma, a Delta or an Epsilon and whatever you are is whatever anyone in your rank is. Everyone that lived in the story isn't free to choose who they are, who or what they want oto be because everything is chosen or made for them so there isn't any original identity . The wikipedia definition of Identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. Well, nobody is technically a real person since they're all clones from one specific person. Everyone is the same if you're in the rank you're in. Apart from your looks, all you are is what everyone else is. Sure, some characters like Bernard are different from the rest but he is just like everyone else because Bernard is Alpha, like his co-workers. At a young age, you have your identity stripped from you through brainwashing and hypnotism because being true to yourself in this world topples that stability and fake happiness the government is trying to maintain. Having an identity in this story is being different. And being different is something to be ridiculed.
I understand if what i'm trying to say may not add up but i'm just telling my feelings about the book. Aldous Huxley showed a really odd way of displaying utopianism and happiness that if we applied the story to the real world, as of right now, not everyone would agree with the motto. Overall, if society can't cater the needs of its people and it has to abandon everything from freedom to arts for happiness? Then people need to re-think everything else because true happiness can never be achieved.
-Julianne Z.