A Brave New World Literary Analysis

The concentration of power in the hands of a select few often results in corruption and censorship. An example of this occurring is depicted in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, in which satire is utilized to present a utopia dictated by a totalitarian government, universal happiness and extreme technological advancements. Set in London decades into the future, life is scientifically balanced, efficiently controlled, and allows for no personal emotions or individual responses. Citizens are strongly discouraged to speak out against the status quo and are threatened with being exiled. Similarly, in society today, and especially on the Internet, dissenting opinions are strongly frowned upon and discouraged. Often manipulative

During Bokanovsky’s process, dozens of eggs are engineered in a lab to produce identical embryos and the controllers lump these variations of twins into castes. In addition, citizens are conditioned to buy into the rules of society through hypnopaedia, where phrases are repeatedly whispered into the ears of young children while they are sleeping. The government is a totalitarian force that banishes people to remote islands for having ideas that could motivate the masses to question society. This is most apparent in Chapter 12, when World Controller Mustapha Mond is reading a paper titled “A New Theory of Biology.” Mond concludes that although “the author’s mathematical treatment of the conception of purpose is novel and highly ingenious,” it is also “dangerous, and potentially subversive” (Huxley 162). He vehemently declares that the paper cannot be released to the public because it is brimming with ideas that “might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes” (Huxley 162). This is a perfect example of the World State regulating what ideas the public has access to. Mond fears that exposing unpopular thoughts to the people, especially to the higher castes who are more capable of critical thinking since they were not poisoned during Bokanovsky’s Process, will tear apart the fabric of society. This paper is a threat to stability and therefore it forbidden to be released. Although many similarities can be drawn between the suppression of speech in Brave New World and the suppression of speech in today’s society, there’s one thing that Huxley was wrong about. The restriction of speech in the twenty first century is not done by the government, but by private