Brave New World

The novel begins in the year 632 A.F. (which means After Ford, the god of the New World). The society depicted in the novel is based on a rigid caste system. The higher of the five castes enjoy superior tasks, while the lower ones perform inferior roles. Ten World Controllers hold all the power in this new world and peace is maintained by conditioning the minds of the population using a drug called soma and scientific conditioning methods. Marriage is forbidden, and children are not born, but produced in an embryo factory.

When the novel begins with students being given a guided tour through the London Hatcheries. Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne, two employees of this center, have been dating each other a little too often, going against state rules. Lenina's friend Fanny points this out to her and Lenina decides to date Bernard Marx. Lenina and Bernard decide to go on a vacation to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico, where people considered unworthy of Utopia are confined. On the reservation, the inhabitants live in an almost primitive manner. Before Bernard leaves for his vacation, he is threatened with exile to Iceland because of his ways of deviating from the „usual“ way of life in the Brave New World.

Lenina and Bernard accidentally meet Linda and her son, John the Savage, on the Reservation. Bernard learns from John that long ago Linda had come to the Reservation with Tomakin, who had abandoned her there. Linda knew that she could not return to Utopia because she was carrying Tomakin's child and stayed on the Reservation to raise John. Hearing this story, Bernard goes to the Controller and gains his permission to take John and his mother back to Utopia. When Bernard presents the pair to Tomakin, the Director is shattered and resigns from his position at the Hatcheries, having become an object of mockery. Bernard no longer has to worry about being exiled to Iceland.

While living in the custody of Bernard, John becomes the object of everyone's curiosity and amusement. At first, Bernard enjoys attention that he receives because of the Savage. John, however, soon becomes disgusted by the ways of the New World. Despite his mood, Lenina finds herself terribly attracted to John and tries to seduce him. John, however, fights his physical attraction for her and resists her advances.

When his mother dies, John goes crazy. He tries to convert the Utopians to his way of thinking. Bernard and Helmholtz Watson are blamed for the rebellion that arises. When the two of them are taken to Mustapha Mond, along with John, Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled. John is retained for further experimentation. He resists and tries to get away, but the citizens of Utopia continue to hound him. In a fit of misery and depression, John hangs himself.

John

• Son of the Director and Linda
• only major character that grew up outside of Utopia can't fit in
• has a wordview based on Shakespeare's plays, quotes them extensively

Bernard Marx

• Alpha male, but is shorter than most alphas → fails to fit in
• holds unorthodox beliefs about relationships, sports, and community events
• dates Lenina

Helmholtz Watson

• Alpha Lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering
• Friends with Bernard
• feels that his work is meaningless and wants to use his writing abilities for something more meaningful

Lenina Crowe

• vaccination worker at a conditioning center
• her behaviour is sometimes unorthodox (dates Bernard for too long, …)
• object of desire for a number of characters (Bernard, John, …)

Mustapha Mond

• World Controller of Western Europe, arguably the most powerful character in the novel
• was once a young scientist, then given the option to either go into exile or training to become a World Controller
• keeps a collection of forbidden literature in his safe

Linda

• Beta, John's mother
• lives in the Reservation, social outcast becaust of her conditioning
• is desperate to get back into Utopians

The Director

• works at a Hatchery and Conditioning Center
• threatens to exile Bernard to Iceland
• is the father of John, but keeps this fact hidden, because it's a scandal in the World State

• Use of Technology to Control Society: the book warns of the dangers of giving the state control over powerful technologies, for example the Bokanowsky process to “fabricate” children, the entertainment machines for leisure activities, or Soma.

• Dangers of an All-Powerful State: BNW portrays a dystopia in which the state controls everything to preserve stability and power. It does so by making its citizens so happy that they don't care about their personal freedom.

• Consumerism: Many clues point to the conclusion that the World State is simply an extreme—but logically developed—version of our society’s economic values, in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy one's needs, and success as a society is measured with economic growth and prosperity.