brave new world as a dystopian novel ?

Destopian novel

Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in 'a dark, nightmare world. ' The term dystopia is defined as a society characterized by poverty, oppression and the theme is most commonly used in science fiction and speculative fiction genres.

Huxley’s Brave New World is a modernist novel which reflects characteristics of a perfect society. Everything works properly, everyone seems to be happy and stable; however, all of these characteristics are presented in an ironical way by the author. Happiness and stability are achieved by suppressing people’s freedom, feelings and emotions. Nevertheless, certain features of authoritarianism and oppression can be seen throughout the novel.

These elements are typical of a dystopian society, that is to say, a society in which everything is supposed to be perfect and stable but the cost of this perfection is the creation of a dehumanized and artificial world, where people lack of will and self-decision as they are totally controlled by the higher authorities. Related to this issue, the main purpose of this paper is to show the reader how Huxley’s Brave New World depicts characteristics of a dystopian society.

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Dystopian society, concepts which have to do with the establishment and maintenance of a ‘fake ideal of society’, which is quite the opposite of a utopia society.

In this society, Social stability, happy citizens, a properly working society, no grief or sadness, no social question left unresolved, freedom; all of these characteristics belong to a utopian world. To talk about a utopia is talk about an ideal, a perfect situation, a perfect society; that is the reason why many authors have developed this concept in a wide variety of works concerning politics, socialism, religion, etc.

However, as there is a utopian world, there is also an anti-utopian world, in which social instability has been overcome through the application of science, technology and politics, as well as the sacrifice of certain cultural and historical values. Although the concept of this dystopian world seems to be perfect and ideal, as everyone is happy and everything is under control, most of the times this ideas of progress, science and politics are depicted in negative ways as their employment in the society cause the sacrifice of such themes as religion, history, freedom, feelings and emotions. This phenomenon, in which the perfect world is achieved by negative or not the ideal means, is known as dystopia.

Among the infinite number of dystopian definitions, the one provided by Booker and Thomas represents the general idea:

Briefly, dystopian literature is specifically that literature which situates itself in direct opposition to utopian thought, warning against the potential negative consequences of errant utopianism. At the same time, dystopian literature generally also constitutes a critique of existing social conditions or political systems, either through the critical examination of the utopian premises upon which those conditions and systems are based or through the imaginative extension of those conditions and systems into different contexts that more clearly reveal their flaws and contradictions .

A utopia is an imaginary place, that is socially, morally, and politically ideal. A dystopia is a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, technological, moral, religious or totalitarian control. In other words, “dystopia represents the fear of what the future may hold if we do not act to avert catastrophe, whereas utopia encapsulates the hope of what might be” There is a strong relationship between these two concepts; for example, Priest states that dystopia focuses on the negative aspect of utopia, thus, showing the imperfection of the perfection (8). Basically, the purpose of a dystopia is to make readers aware of the weakness of the seemingly perfect society, that is to say, to alert people about the dangers of becoming so unnatural in a future. So, the reality of dystopia, results to be the imperfection of the seemingly perfect society. This is done in order to make readers aware of the values of human beings and humanity; and to help readers understand that what is apparently good from the outside might be stained and flawed when seen from within.

The dystopian setting is brought about by technology and by higher authorities.  As technology increases, the use for human beings in the work force decreases leaving an overwhelming amount of depression among humans.  Therefore, a way to continue the production of technological findings is by bringing up humans from day one to accept their unhappiness as normal, by convincing people to accept the fact that they are born to do a specific job.  Higher authorities know the usefulness of humans’ emotions in order to stabilize what they think to be a utopian society.

In general words, dystopia can be represented as a failed try of a ‘utopian’ society which has been overcome by reality.

The dystopian society has many different characteristics, concerning the different aspects of a traditional society, but it is always based on totalitarianism or authoritarianism. Repression, lack of individual freedom, limitation of thought, total social control and manipulation, the use of technology to replace biological process, limitations of access to information and nature, creativity and emotions are also commonly depicted in dystopian works:

If utopian societies are typically designed to enable the maximum fulfillment of individual human potential, dystopian societies impose oppressive conditions that interfere with that fulfillment. These oppressive conditions are usually extensions or exaggerations of conditions that already exist in the real world, allowing the dystopian text to critique real-world situations by placing them within the defamiliarizing context of an extreme functional society (Booker and Thomas 66).

There are many characteristics in a dystopian society. This research paper is going to focus on four major characteristics of a dystopian society; these are the control of citizens, the use of technology, the concept of individuality and the constant entertainment provided by the state:

Citizens are rigidly controlled: In dystopian societies, people are not allowed freedom of thought and their movement is strictly limited or impeded. Conditioning: In dystopian societies, the use of psychological conditioning as a tool of official power is widely used. The idea is to control and do not let people to wonder things about the society, so this way people’s spirit is absent; there is only a rational think which is also conditioned and controlled. Through conditioning, people are brain washed and convinced to accept everything as normal and functional in order to keep the social stability working.

People are also denied the right of being informed, for instance, ancient art is hidden; they do not have access to this kind of information. In dystopian societies, people are hidden from the existence of god, of mothers and fathers, of natural and biological processes such as reproduction and creation; in other words, they are hidden the past and history:

Technology replaces nature: Often, dystopian works analyze the concept of technology going too far. For example, dystopian societies replace actual nature with a replicated environment. This distorts the views of citizens of the dystopia by having them trust or rely on technology. Technology is also used as a means to control society. Bookers and Thomas talk about this characteristic saying that “certain mechanical applications of technology lend themselves directly to political oppression”