The document outlines key facts about Aldous Huxley, particularly focusing on his novel 'Brave New World.' It describes the dystopian society in the book, characterized by genetic engineering, a strict caste system, and government control over individual lives, as well as Huxley's concerns regarding loss of individuality and cultural values in the face of industrial progress. The narrative is set in a future where happiness is artificially maintained at the cost of personal freedoms and authentic human connections.

1. BRAVE NEW WORLD
Aldous Huxley

2. Fun Facts
 His full name is Aldous Leonard Huxley.
 He was born on July 26, 1894.
 His family members were prominent figures of the English ruling
class and intellectual elite.
 His father was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley (great biologist
who helped to develop the theory of evolution).
 His mother was the sister of Mrs. Humphrey Ward (novelist).
 His mother was the niece of Matthew Arnold (poet).
 His mother was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold (famous
educator and headmaster of Rugby School who also became a
character in the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays.
 Huxley’s ancestry “brought down on him a weight of intellectual
authority and a momentum of moral obligations.”
---Gerald Heard (longtime friend)

3. Aldous Huxley
 When he was 16 years old, he was a student at the prestigious
school of Eton.
 He suffered an eye illness which almost made himblind.
 He was able to attend Oxford University and graduate with honors.
 He was not able to fight in World WarI. orengage in scientific
work.
 He laterbecame an authorand screenwriter.
 He published his first book, which was a collection of poems in
1916.
 He also married Maria Nys in 1912.
 They had one child named Matthew.
 The family traveled to London and Europe in the 1920s.
 The family also traveled around the world in 1925 and 1926.
 His experiences in these places provided material to be used in

4. Aldous Huxley
 Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931. This was afterWWI. and
at the onslaught of the Great Depression. This was also before
Adolf Hitlercame to powerin Germany and Joseph Stalin became
responsible forthe deaths of millions of people in Germany.
 It tookhimfourmonths to write.
 It was published three years after his best-seller, Point Counter
Point.
 He also wrote six books of stories, essays, poems, and plays in
those three years. He would go on to write other books and produce
47 before he died.
 In the 1950s he became interested in LSD. He took LSD over a
dozen times in 10 years. It is said that he was looking for a drug
that would allow him to escape from himself.
 He died on November 22, 1963 (the same day that President John
F. Kennedy was assassinated).

5. Important Terms
 Utopia: Imaginary; indefinite place of ideal perfection
(especially in laws, government, and social conditions)
Are people really happy?
 Totalitarianism: The political concept that the citizen should
be totally subject to an absolute state authority
 Caste System: division of society based on differences of wealth,
inherited rankorprivilege, profession, occupation, orrace

7.  A piece of literature designed to
ridicule the subject of the work.
 While satire can be funny, its aim
is not to amuse, but to arouse
contempt.
 Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and
several other techniques are
almost always present.

8.  Brave New World is an unsettling,
loveless and even sinister place

9. Introduction
 Thomas (The Director)
 Administrator in the year 623AF of the Central
London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The
Director runs a futuristic baby-factory where the
assembly-line production of genetic castes is
streamlined and controlled, and maturing youngsters
are conditioned to be happy about their state-allotted
roles in life.

10. At the beginning of the story we find a group of students
visiting a centre where babies are produced.
The director of the centre explains them the scientific
process by which human beings are fertilized and custom
made.
The new society is based on serial production: human
beings are produced in factories just like cars; there are
no more family relationships and human feelings.

11.  Individuality is not important and is not allowed;
massification is at the base of this society.
 This form of government is very much like
totalitarism regime: culture is controlled, books are
forbidden and so on.

12.  Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller of Western Europe,
governs a society where all aspects of an individual's
life are determined by the state, beginning with
conception and conveyor-belt reproduction.
 A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides all
roles in the hierarchy.
 Children are raised and conditioned by the state
bureaucracy, not brought up by natural families.
•There are only 10,000 surnames.
• Citizens must not fall in love, marry, or
have their own kids.

13. Caste System in Brave New World
 Huxley was influenced by the previously
established caste system in Hinduism,
which was abolished in 1949.
 Caste systems were created by
predestination and their function in
society.
 The caste system in Brave New World
includes 5 major castes named after
Greek letters (ie. Alpha to Epsilon)
 There are differences in the members of
castes (ie. outer appearance,
intelligence, livelihood).
 As a result, everyone is happy and
stability is achieved.

14. In this world, human beings are divided into four
castes:
 Alphas (grey), the most clever, are the leaders;
 Betas (purple) are created for positions which
require high intelligence;
 Gammas (green) and Deltas (kaki) are destined
for jobs which require less intelligence and in
the last there are
 Epsylons (black) employed in repetitive tasks
that don’t require much intelligence.

15. Function of Caste System
The society in Brave New World seeks to create
happiness for everyone. Everyone is happy to
belong to his or her caste. The caste system is
needed to cover every little part of the
processes that form the society (ie. work,
housing, etc.). Everyone works for everyone.

16. Structure
10 World Controllers
Alphas (ruling elite)
Alphas (elite)
Betas
Gammas
Deltas
Epsilons

17. settings (time): 2540 AD;
referred to in the novel as 632
years AF (“After Ford”), meaning
632 years after production of the
first Model T car
narrator: Third-person
omniscient
point of view: Narrated in the
third person from the point of
view of Bernard or John, but also
from the point of view of Lenina,
Helmholtz Watson, and
Mustapha Mond

18. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
presents a controlling, over-processed,
anti-social world which creates a faulty
version of perfection when trying to
obtain it.

19.  In brave new world every thought and
opinion tries to be controlled from birth.
 Children's minds are whorped into
predetermined opinions before they
even get to experience the world.
 People are brainwashed into thinking
their lives only have one meaning, a
predetermined meaning.

20.  A society without control would
crumble but a society with to much
control will to.
 “All conditioning aims at that
making people like their
inescapable destinies”. Brave New
World (16)

22.  The community described in Brave new
World over processes every situation so
that no one truly has to make a decision.
 “ Moral education which ought never in
any circumstances be rational”. Brave
new World.

23.  Children are not taught anything
about being morally just.
 All they are taught is how to do their
jobs, and they are only taught a
little.

24.  “Ninety six identical twins working
ninety six identical machines”. Brave
New World(7)

25.  In his novel Aldous Huxley presents anti-
social characteristics to a community
that is encouraged to be social.
 ‘It’s such horribly bad form to go on and
on like this with one man”. Fanny Brave
New World (41)

26.  Characters in Brave New World
never to anything but date. When
left alone individuals have social
conversations, nothing emotional or
deep. So really there not getting to
know anyone at all. Making them
less social.

27.  “How can you talk like that, about
not wanting to be part of a social
body?” Lenina Crowne Brave New
World.

28.  In Brave New World it’s unheard of to be
in love, to keep to one’s self , or go
against the ‘norm’. The characters don’t
really know each other and are blindly
told what to do. A real society could
never survive like that.

29.  In the second part of the novel the
author talks about an area which has
remained untouched by this new
society: it is set in New Mexico. Here old
values and freedom are kept alive.

30.  The main character of this second part is
the Savage: he lives alone like a hermit in
a lighthouse and he looks for God and
poetry. But he realises he will never have
the freedom he’s longing for and at the
end he hangs himself.

31. Dystopian Novel

32. Dystopian versus Utopian
• Dystopian is the opposite of utopian; it is often a
utopia gone sour, an imaginary place or state
where everything is as bad as it could possibly
be.

33. Brave New World
• Brave New World by Aldous
Huxley (1932)
– At first, the world it describes sounds
like a utopia: humanity is carefree,
healthy, and technologically
advanced.
– Warfare and poverty have been
eliminated, and everyone is
permanently happy.
– However, all of these things have
been achieved by eliminating family,
cultural diversity, art, literature,
science, religion, and philosophy.

34. Relation to the Real World
• The issues raised in the book were
influenced by the issues of Huxley’s
time.
– The Industrial Revolution had brought
massive changes to the world.
– Mass production made cars,
telephones, and radios cheap and
widely available.
– The effects of World War I and
totalitarian regimes were still being felt.
• Huxley used his book to express the
fear of losing individual identity in
the fast-paced world of the future.

35. Relation to the Real World
• One event that influenced Huxley was an
early trip to America.
– Huxley was outraged by the commercial-led
cheeriness and selfish nature of many of the
people.
– There was a strong fear in Europe of
worldwide Americanization.

36. Relation to the Real World
• Therefore, in Brave New World,
Huxley explores the fears of both
Soviet communism and American
capitalism.
• Worse, he suggests that the price
of universal happiness will be the
sacrifice of everything important in
our culture: motherhood, home,
family, community, and love.

37. Presented by:
Dr. Sheelu Singh Bhatia
Jazan University, KSA