Society In Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a dystopian novel written in 1932 outlining what society would be like if we used scientific advancements to create a “perfect” society. The story is set in the future in England. Society is broken up into castes called epsilon, delta, gamma, beta, and alpha. Members of each caste have a separate role to play in their society. From the stage of fetal development, steps are taken to separate the castes and make them best suited for the work they do. Methods to do this include using electric shocks on infants to make them dislike flowers and literature, exposing fetuses to chemicals and programming them while they sleep by telling them things while they sleep that they absorb. These examples are introduced and detailed in the beginning of the novel, giving the reader an

Generally, in our society, we see sex as something between a monogamous partnership and in times that this book was written it would have been viewed as something to stay within marriage. In Brave New World those values are thrown out the window and replaced by the statement that everybody belongs to everybody. Meaning that sleeping around with people is highly encouraged. This value is challenged in the book though by the character John Savage who still believes that lust is wrong and finds himself struggling with those beliefs when he becomes infatuated with another character named Lenina. John Savage who is from a “savage reservation” came about these radical ideas by reading the works of William Shakespeare, plays that are staples of our current culture. Sex is not seen as a means to bear a child whether as an act purely in the name of pleasure and recreation. Children are even encouraged to engage in “erotic play.” Feelies are a popular recreational activity that is basically pornography shown at a movie theater where you can also feel the sensations that the actors are