in brave new world, british novelist, aldous huxley, describes a perfect society 600 years in the future. with advanced technology, people live prosperous, material lives in their society. there is no coldness, starvation, and disease. however, as world state’s motto declares: “community, identity, stability,” (p. 1) there is no individual freedom, no personal thought, and no religions under the totalitarian reign. people even have no real sentiment for each other. in addition, there are lots of absurd rules for the purpose of consolidating stability in the community. for example, people are forbidden to read books, because they might learn something from them and start to think. thinking threatens the stability of the society since people are difficult to control when they think for themselves. what is called a brave new world is actually an inhuman and horrible society. therefore, people become discontented and resist the new world. there are two kinds of people both from inside and outside the new world. they try to against non-humanity of the new world, but the former get exiled, and the latter is forced to suicide. these facts explain that independent people have no place to stay in this new world. the brave new world is an inhuman world killing people’s personality and individual liberty.

　　not all of the social members agree with the new world’s values and morality although the controller brainwash people by various methods. a few of them refuse to live mindlessly in a society which is full of material and carnality. bernard marx and helmholtz watson are this kind of people. they are friends since they can exchange information about this serious topic, the personality. they gradually express their individual consciousness when they think of pursuing a free life. unfortunately, both of them get expelled in the end.

　　marx is a complicated character in the novel. he looks smaller than normal alphas because alcohol was carelessly blended in his blood when he was in embryo period. the small stature causes he is not attractive to girls. he feels inferior about that so that he does not get on well with other people. since marx does not contact with the new world’s members too much, he always has some “strange” thought in his mind. for example, when marx is persuaded to see a wrestling in a crowd, he drearily tells lenina: “i’d rather be myself…myself and nasty. not somebody else, however jolly” (p. 77). marx wants independence even though it is harder than the life in the new world. as a typical new world’s member, lenina cannot understand what marx’s meaning. she also feels horrible and awful when she knows marx does not want to be “a part of something else…a cell in the social body” (p. 78). the world state’s government is afraid that members create individual and independent consciousness. a person with personality means he might doubt the main idea the society encouraged, and further resist the social system. therefore, marx is treated as “an enemy of society, a subverter” (p. 129). he is dismissed by bloomsbury centre and sent to iceland in case he influences other members’ mind.

　　another eccentric in the new world is helmholtz watson. he is a great emotional engineer of the community. he is smart and works hard, and he makes outstanding achievements. compare with marx’s physical defect, watson’s dissatisfaction of the new world comes from his extra power. huxley explains: “by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation. that which had made helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and all alone was too much ability” (p. 58). his high intelligence increases his aloneness because he found he is different with other people in the society. he suddenly lost interesting on sex and social activities, and he finds that he is interested in something else. he tells marx: “i’ve been cutting all my committees and all my girls. you can imagine what a hullabaloo they’ve been making about it at the college. still, it’s been worth it” (p. 59). watson’s unusual behaviors explain that he is tired of living with “infantile decorum.” the betrayal to the new world implies that watson wants to pursue an independent life he is more satisfied. since watson wants individual freedom, he is regarded a danger person who waver the stability of the society. so watson cannot stay in the new world as well. the controller has to exile him to falkland island to protect their absolute authority.

　　from the outside of the new world, the savage, john, affect the new world’s development. he grows up in an indian reservation and accepts normal education. he cannot understand how people can live in this new world. it is a terrible society without freedom, personality, morality, and love to him. a person likes john who has belief, pursues individual freedom, needs moral constraint cannot live in this world although the members always happy and live well. the conversation between john and the controller shows john’s attitude of life: “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…i’m claiming the right to be unhappy” (p. 211). only material life cannot satisfy john, what he need is personal liberty. he not only asks freedom for himself, but also tries to help people in the new world to be men. he throws all the soma, which is a kind of drugs making people forget all the trouble, out into the area. he teaches people do not to be slaves but men. however, he is so powerless to change their way of living that be beat up by deltas coming to get soma. finally, john cannot stand people’s ignorance and live in a remote lighthouse to shelter him from the pollution of the new world. unfortunately, john commits suicide at end of the story because he cannot get rid of being harassed by the reporters from the society.

　　brave new world opens up a dark picture of a new world in the future. citizens of the world state live in an inhuman world under autocratic totalitarianism. their thoughts have been controlled by various kinds of technology since they are cultured in the battles. this new world cannot contain any personal consciousness like lenina says: “when the individual feels, the community reels” (p. 81). the controller prevents people from creation of personality by satisfying people’s feeling desire. however, marx and watson are exceptions. they pursue free lives but meets with banishment. moreover, john uses death to accuse the brave new world of killing people’s personality and individual liberty. there is no complete independence in the brave new world.

 

　　work citation

　　huxley, aldous. brave new world. toronto: vintage canada, 2007. print.