Brave New World 1

“‘I want to look at the sea in peace…It makes me feel as though… I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, no so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body. Doesn’t it make you feel like that, Lenina?’

But Lenina was crying… ‘How can you talk like that about not wanting to be a part of the social body? After all, every one works for every one else. We can’t do without anyone. Even Epsilons…’

‘Yes, I know,’ said Bernard derisively. ‘“Even Epsilons are useful”! So am I. And I damned well wish I weren’t! … What would it be like if I…were free—not enslaved by my conditioning.’” (90)

In this scene Bernard is letting out emotions that have been pent up and torturing him to Lenina, a girl who happens to also be a little different from everyone else. However, he overestimates this difference, as Lenina is only very slightly able to think and act away from the norm. This scene really points out the dystopia of the novel because Lenina’s reaction is so strange and different from what a girl’s typical reaction would be were Bernard in our society. When someone opens up to another person this much (in our society), it is an indication of trust; an expected reaction would be sympathy or inspiration. However, Bernard receives only the conditioned disgust of Lenina. Furthermore, this is the first time in the novel that anyone talks like a real human being rather than a robot or twisted mad scientist, and all Lenina manages to do is repeat her conditioning. The contrast of such raw honesty and rigid repetition brings out the frustration of a soul trying to emerge in a society that tries to suck it away.

Conformity and sameness make up the essence of the Brave New World society. Because there are no individuals, there are no problems. There is always a solution because no one has unique problems. In this passage, Bernard is wishing for what is obviously missing: individuality. He puts an interesting twist on it in this passage, though; he compares the societal system to slavery. In this perspective, it seems undeniable that the citizens are truly mindless slaves forced from birth into jobs and mindsets. Bernard wants to be more than a part of a whole, not one of a million but one in a million. He wants to escape the purpose of being useful in order to find a purpose of his own. However, his wishes can never be fulfilled because, as this passage illustrates perfectly, morals can be defined and molded by society and its controllers; thus, Bernard’s feelings are deemed immoral and punishable. Huxley frighteningly proves that the Brave New World society can be possible because of the subjectivity of morals.

Q: Is a life you cannot control, being brainwashed and conditioned, worth living at all? 

--Olivia Lin