Analysis of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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In our world, there is a plethora of societies. Different societies have different approaches to freedom, and have different ideas of what freedom is. In our society, we are taught that freedom is something that everybody should have no matter who they are or where they are from. In A Brave New World, Huxley gives us two examples of societies. These societies are the World State and the Reservation and they both have very different types of and views on freedom. By using these two examples and providing the readers with multiple characters that live in each society, Huxley clearly shows us his view on the subject of freedom. The character that stands out the most is John, and this is because John is from the Reservation and his views clash with the views of the World State. John is the character that Huxley uses to show his stance on what freedom is and how society affects our approach to freedom.

Unlike the other characters in the book, John was born in the Reservation. The Reservation freely practices their freedom without being bothered by the rest of the world. Although John is part of the Reservation, he is not as free as the others are because he is not accepted by them. One of the reasons that John is not accepted by the others is because his mother, Linda, is from the World State. They believe that the views and ways of Linda will affect John and how he lives. John's freedom is limited in a place where freedom is a huge deal. He attempts to earn full freedom by winning his peers' approval, but fails because they see him as being different.

John seems to have limited freedom no matter where he is at because of the indifference that the others see in him. Even when John experimented with a new life in the World State h...

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...ploding. By showing two societies on exact opposite sides of the spectrum, Huxley allows us to see how bad it is to focus merely on one side. As a whole, he believes that in order to have a thriving society, the society must have a proper balance of the Reservation and the World State. If the people in the world started to stop caring for their freedom and allowed the powerful to take it from them, then the world could very well come to be similar to the World State. Or, if the people decided that they wanted to get rid of every government or ruler and live purely on free will, then a society similar to the Reservation could be an eventuality. If we do not want this book to be a foreshadowing of our future, then we must remember to always keep a balance.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

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