Analysis Of Conversations In Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
In Chapter 3, Huxley combines three conversations to inform (drill) the perspective and lifestyle of Brave New World into the reader’s minds.
The first conversation arises between Mustapha Mond, the Director, and the students of the reproductive center. The scene begins with the boys being overwhelmed by meeting Mustapha Mond, one of the ten World Leaders. During introductions, Mond quotes Henry Ford to explain why the students have not learned any significant history. The Director and Mond share a (sketchy) moment. Next, Mond begins to teach the boys some history of the time before the World State was founded. He constricts the ‘channelling of emotion’ to water under pressure in a pipe; he explains that instability caused by emotion led to war, social unrest, and disease in the earlier period. Subsequently, Mond transfers into explaining the initial resistance to the use of artificial gestation, the caste system, and the use of hypnopedia. He leads the students through the timeline of the growth of the world state. This description includes the Nine Years War, how, ‘with a whisk, ’ entertainment and family passed into obscurity, the choosing of the date of commencement for the new era, and the modification of the cross. Citizens of the world chose voluntary slavery and security over freedom and instability. Mond describes the development and effect of soma, the perfect drug. All individuals could maintain the physical and mental characteristics of youth. Overall, the two leaders explain to the boys how the World State works abstractly.
The third conversation (takes) a different format. It is between two people, Henry and the Assistant Predestinator; however, it is also made up of Bernard reacting to and analyzing their conversation. The Predestinator suggests a “feely, ” a 4-D movie, (which Henry may want to attend). They discuss Lenina with the utmost affection; “Henry tells the Assistant he should ‘have her’ sometime. ” Bernard, overhearing the conversation, stands disgusted. The Assistant notices his sad expression, and he and Henry decide to bait him. Henry offers Bernard some soma, infuriating him. They laugh as Bernard curses them.
Last but not least, the third conversation is between Lenina and Fanny. Fanny, Lenina’s 19-year-old friend, is taking a temporary Pregnancy Substitute, the reason being she feels below par. This substitute mimics the hormonal effects of pregnancy. She is surprised that Lenina has been solely dating Henry for the past four months. Fanny advises Lenina to be more promiscuous, as the state promotes. Lenina acknowledges Fancy’s concern and advice and mentions Bernard Marx had invited her to the Savage Reservation. Fanny warns Lenina about Bernard’s abnormalities; however, Lenina decides to accept his invitation. Lenina says she “thinks he is rather sweet. ” and “I do want to go see a Savage Reservation. ” Their conversation finishes by Fanny admiring Lenina’s contraceptive holder, a gift from Henry.
Analysis
This web of conversation informs us of the technologically controlled totalitarian world state lifestyle the World State has created. Citizens of the world live in a world controlled by the saying, “Community, Identity, Stability. ” This means that the idealized situation of the World Leaders is that no one is a ‘true’ individual. Individuality is of the biggest fears the Brave New World society has to face.
Heartfelt relationships and strong emotions have disappeared. Mustapha Mond explains how strong emotion led to the downfall of the premodern world. The Director and Mond are explaining the prenatal and postnatal conditioning of the embryos. Lenina and Fanny discuss Lenina’s prolonged relationship with Henry. All these pieces of conversations are woven together on similar pages. This informs us that families, motherhood, emotion, connection, and romance and all other similar things have been replaced with meaningless sex and the rotation of partners, artificial gestation, and (fear of independence). The sexual play of the children, the student’s discomfort at the word mother, and Lenina’s relaxed nakedness show how the traditional attitudes of sexuality have been discarded. Henry Ford, the perfecter of the assembly line and father of mass production, is used in place of God and Freud; for example: “Our Ford’s day”, “Straight from the mouth of the Ford himself”, and “Our Ford-Our Freud”. This shows how the New World worships Henry Ford and all that he created. His concept of mass production psychologically and physically controls their world. Huxley conveys the materialism and consumerism, which dominate this new world society, by having time, a platform of life, be measured regarding Ford. Furthermore, by having time measured by the man who created mass production, the importance of the concept is emphasized. People are generated in mass using the Bokanovsky process by technology.
In Chapter 3, Huxley introduces the main social issues and themes of the story; I believe Huxley chose to weave the three conversations together for three reasons. Firstly, I believe the structure was meant to mimic the World Leaders by planting the (rules) of the society into the readers' minds through a process similar to hypnopaedia. The many concepts of the new society were introduced abstractly by the Director and Mond and enforced by the repetition of scenes of the society in action. Huxley starts to repeat some messages, for example, “I love new clothes”, which is (exactly- not abstractly) similar to the hypnopaedia technique. By using a process similar to hypnopaedia, Huxley was able to put the reader in a situation much like hypnopaedia so they could ‘experience’ it. Secondly, the way Huxley switches from conversation to conversation, without warning (makes me think) of something that is falling apart. The World Leaders believe that the ‘Brave New World’ they have created is a soma, a solution to the problems of the old world. From the beginning, the reader can identify the corruption that lies underneath the so-called stable government; they can identify that necessary pieces are missing from the citizen’s lives.
Additionally, the losing of organization and structure that Chapter 3 embodies may be foreshadowing that the ‘Brave New World” will fall apart or is possibly already falling apart. Lastly, I believe Huxley used these particular characters and speech to compare past and present societies of the novel. Mond and The Director discuss the history and how society evolved into what it is presently. Bernard Marx represents how citizens in the past thought and acted. The Assistant Predestinator, Henry, Fanny, and Lenina represent the new way of thinking.
