Brave New World as a Science Fiction

Aldous Huxley is one of the greatest literary figures of the modern age in English literature. He is also considered to be one of the pioneers of the derivational novel known as science fiction. William Wilson used the term 'Science fiction' for the very first time in literature in 1851. According to William Wilson,

"Fiction in poetry is not the reverse of truth, but her soft and enchanting resemblance. Now this applies to science fiction, in which the revealed truths of science may be given interwoven with a pleasant story which itself may be poetical and true." By the term, science fiction, it is clear that it combines the elements of fiction with those of science. A fiction is a largely narrative prose especially known as novel in literature. It deals with characters, incidents and setting that imitate those found in real life. The story of a science fiction is based on either the real or imaginative elements of scientific technology.

Aldous Huxely's Brave New World is undoubtedly a science fiction. It contains all the elements of science fiction as well as of a novel. Its plot is well-organized with universal themes, suitable setting, and appropriate characters. It is written in a charming style with a particular philosophy. The setting of the novel is the vision of the future society in AF 632. The plot of the novel deals with the major themes which are the consumer society, sexuality, the use of technology in controlling society and the evils of an all powerful government. In the plot, it is clearly found that the government controls all aspects of the people through technological conventions. In this novel we can see that human beings are produced in test-tubes in hatchery. The produced people are conditioned to act by the decision of the government. The conditioning of people is done through various technologies. Various complicated entertainment machines and consumer goods are mass-produced for the needs of entertainment and instant satisfaction. The hallucinogenic drug soma is used to repress emotions. As a result, the people of the State World cannot feel any poverty, pain or disgust. The drug destroys their intellectual abilities. So, they cannot think out the various high purposes of life. They are totally dehumanized and mechanized and continue to enjoy superficial happiness. Huxley wants to say that this loss of humanity might be the result of the indiscriminate and exaggerated use of science and technology in the future. This kind of dystopian society poses a utopia for those who have blind faith in science and technology. In this novel, the Director represents those persons. The characters of Lenina, Linda, Fanny, Henry represent the conditioned persons in such a society of the World State who are very much happy to enjoy the advantages of science and technology. Their conformity with the norms of the World State represents utopianism. In this novel, we can see the people of World State worshipping 'Ford', an American industrialist instead of 'God'. They worship Ford after the Nine Years' War as the people suffered a lot at the war when God never took any action to save the people. At that moment Ford became the hero behind the happiness of the people. His invention of assembly line revolutionized production and the people become happy as they have no poverty, no war and no sorrow.

But there are also some different people in the society who are morally upright, insightful and who believe in values. This kind of people can see the harmful effects of everything. They can see the destructive and dehumanizing effects along with the usefulness of science and technology. In Brave New World, John the Savage is such a character who realizes the limitations and evils of science and technology. He is highly dissatisfied and annoyed with the life style of the people of the World State. In his character, we find him dissatisfying with the concepts of free sex, banishment of social, moral and religious values, art, the concepts of class distinction, the vulgar movies, banishment of old books, hatred towards flowers. The World State society creates a dystopia for him. The people of this society have lost all kinds of values because of the destructive influence of science and technology. A real man cannot survive in a dystopian society like the World State. John the Savage cannot match to the society. His attitude to the World State represents dystopianism.

To conclude, Brave New World is nothing but a great novel of science fiction. The elements of a science fiction are very much present in the novel and are craftily interwoven. All these have made this novel a well-constructed science fiction.