In short, this paper is essentially arguing that Brave New World is a cautionary tale about a totalitarian ideology that undermines the core values of humanity: truth, justice, equality, liberty, and human dignity. This paper will read Brave New World as a cautionary tale about the triumphant totalitarian ideology that envisions controlling individuals’ body and mind through Pavlovian conditioning, promiscuous sexualities, and institutionalized propaganda. Alternatively, one might wonder whether the novel celebrates the communal lifestyle in the World State or warns the readers of the nightmare of the triumphant totalitarian ideology that rules the World State. During classroom inquiry into of Huxley’s Brave New World, readers might come to wonder whether the novel is a cautionary tale about the unchecked expansion of science and technology, or one about abuse by powerful elites who exploit others for their interests. Therefore, because of Huxley’s ambiguous position, scholars’ opposing stances, and the novel’s rich and ambivalent narration, some problems might arise for readers (in this venue, English teachers) that need to be addressed to understand the text comprehensively and facilitate a critical discussion of the novel in classrooms. In support of their argument, they present Huxley’s other contemporary writings as evidence.
According to them, Huxley himself is a eugenicist and a strong advocate of human genetic manipulation. In addition, some historical critics have interpreted the novel as a Utopian vision of Huxley. On the other hand, some others have interpreted it as a cautionary tale about abuse by powerful elites who control the science and dehumanize the masses, exploiting its tremendous power. After its publication, however, some critics interpreted the novel as a cautionary tale about unchecked scientific development in the area of genetic engineering. A body of controllers consisting of Alpha double pluses governs the World State based on the ideology of its founder, Henry Ford.
In the same year, Huxley published his futurist novel Brave New World that portrays a dehumanized community in a totalitarian state named the World State that John the Savage, the central character of the novel, calls brave new world. In Texts and Pretexts, first published in 1932, while discussing his concern regarding the present and future, Aldous Huxley asserted, “Personally, I must confess, I am more interested in what the world is now than in what it will be, or what it might be if improbable conditions were fulfilled” (6).
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