1. By which time the original egg was in a fair way to becoming anything from eight to ninety-six embryos—a prodigious improvement, you will agree, on nature. (7)
Bokanovsky’s process is defined as progress in the World State. However, this “ingenious revolution” is actually a set back to the community. This quote directly apples to the theme that people are losing their identities by conforming to societal standards. In my research I found that Huxley feared the future because people would lose sight of who they were. The World State completely diminishes any chance of developing personal character when nearly one hundred people are genetically programmed to be exactly the same. This quote also relates to the motif of dangerous technological advancements, which conceal the truth.
2. "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!” The Director almost shouted in his triumph. “Suggestions from the State." (28-29)
The “Suggestions from the State” brainwash the citizens to conform to the ideologies that are developed by the directors and controllers. The government replays soundtracks every night, for a certain period of time; sleep conditioning the members of the society. Mustapha later explains that sleep conditioning was banned in England because it defied liberalism, which was a “miserable ideology.” The quote correlates with the motif of confinement, and it demonstrates how the World State will not allow people to think for themselves.
3. Speaking very slowly, "Did you ever feel," he asked, "as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren't using–you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?" He looked at Bernard questioningly. (69)
Helmholtz is similar to Bernard in the way that both of these characters are outsiders. Neither one of them believe that the World State offers the full extent of human happiness. Helmholtz’s character is interesting because on the outside he is a desirable man, but on the inside he has thoughts that disobey the World State. His complex characterization surges Bernard’s envious behavior. This quote may be foreshadowing Helmholtz rising to power or defying the rules of the government. He has inner strength and courage that could drastically transform the utopian society.
4. Oh, I wish I had my soma. (116)
Lenina desires her soma when among the “savages.” Lenin fears having genuine feelings, and she is conditioned to take soma whenever she feels unhappy. The World State citizens often use this drug when feeling anxious or unhappy. Soma makes the people automatically happy, but only for a short period of time. This drug symbolizes the World State’s control over the citizens. Through the use of their innovative technology, the government can once again chemically make people to feel a certain way.
5. “You have a most peculiar way of talking sometimes," said Bernard, staring at the young man in perplexed astonishment. "And, anyhow, hadn't you better wait till you actually see the new world?" (139)
John describes the World State as a “brave new world.” This quotes is an allusion to Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. The people of the World State are sheltered from the type of literature that John loves. John develops a unique philosophy on life due to Shakespeare's book, which later allows him to see fault in the World State. John has only heard the stories his mother tells him about the cleanliness, happiness, and rules of the World State. To this point, he had never experienced the government first hand. He is perplexed by the technological innovations that he has never heard of in the Savage Reservation. However, Bernard warns him not to glorify the corrupt system because he knows that the World State is only using its technological power to control the minds of the citizens.
6. "Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?"/"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."/He laughed, "Yes, 'Everybody's happy nowadays.' We begin giving the children that at five. But wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else's way."/"I don't know what you mean," she repeated. (91)
Lenina is unable to comprehend the fact that Bernard believes that they are not free, but under the control of the World State. Lenina’s resistance to accept the truth falls under the motif of false happiness and false truths. The government has brain washed the citizens to believing that they should be content with their lives. Bernard, however represents the dissatisfaction of the people under control, and he further demonstrates Huxley’s idea of false contentment.
7. “But everyone belongs to everyone else,” he concluded, citing the hypnopaedic proverb. (40)
As Mustapha is describing the phenomenon of a mother and a father to the young boys, one of the children responds with this quote. The hypnopaedic proverb is an essential piece to the sleep conditioning technology. This quote further relates to the motif of confinement. The World State teaches people that everyone belongs to everyone, but it does not allow personal intimate relationships. This ideology may seem productive on the surface, but it establishes a false happiness by restricting the concepts of family and love.
8. As for the women, they indignantly felt that they had been had on false pretences-had by a wretched little man who had had alcohol poured into his bottle by mistake-by a creature with a Gamma-Minus physique. It was an outrage, and they said so, more and more loudly. The Head Mistress of Eton was particularly scathing. (173)
Bernard experiences a downfall when John refuses to attend his assembly party. The citizens are outraged by his false pretences. Bernard is glorified for brining the Savage to the World State, but the people later realize that he is still the misfit man he was before. Bernard’s glory is lived through John, but as soon as John denies him, he is no longer accepted. The women do not wish to be sexually involved with Bernard after this point because he is not worthy of their affection. Bernard returns to being alienated, yet he loses all of his previous ideologies about the corruption of the World State.
9. “Well, I’d rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here.” (179)
John is one of the few people in the World State that recognizes that the government has created false happiness. The people are not allowed to feel pain, think for themselves, or learn about the past. John declares that the happiness the World State literally feeds the people is an extreme case of imprisonment. The citizens are confined by the knowledge that the administrators chose to give to them. They accept sleep conditioning, and rely on soma for happiness. This quote applies to the theme that happiness cannot exist without a sense of unhappiness.
10. Should she speak to him? try to bring him back to a sense of decency? remind him of where he was? of what fatal mischief he might do to these poor innocents? Undoing all their wholesome death-conditioning with this disgusting outcry-as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that! It might give them the most disastrous ideas about the subject, might upset them into reacting in the entirely wrong, the utterly anti-social way. (206)
John is utterly distraught when Linda dies in the hospital. As his mother is lying dead in front of his eyes, ten of twins are running about the hospital. John becomes infuriated with their behavior, and he begins to slap the children away from Linda’s bed for not showing any respect to his death mother. The children and the nurse cannot fathom why John is acting that way, just because someone he knew died. The children are being conditioned to accept death, and John is causing a nuisance to their conditioning. This quote applies to the motif to control through technology. It also demonstrates how love and family are obscured ideologies in the World State.
11. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma. (220)
Mustapha Mond explains to John why he thinks false happiness is a superior idea to experiencing truth. He believes that if there is no pain, there is no reason to be unhappy. Thus, Mustapha Mond created the World State. He also mentions the symbloism of soma. Soma is taken to mask people’s worries, and to create a blissful happiness. John contradicts Mustapha Mond’s arguments by saying one has to have the chance to be unhappy to know true happiness. However, in the end, John is destroyed by the World State, and false happiness ultimately wins. Huxley’s purpose of this satire is to warm the people of the future of blissful happiness created through the loss of truth.
12. God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. You must make you choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. (234)
Mustapha Mond describes why the World State disregards old ideas. He believes that the only way to reach happiness is to discount the past because the past clearly created an unstable society. He does not accept religion because God cannot ensure happiness. Mustapha Mond thinks that Christian morals are useless when sleep conditioning is available. This further expands on reasons for disregarding old traditions in place of technology.
13. The Savage nodded gloomily. At Malpais he had suffered because they had shut him out from the communal activities of the pueblo, in civilized London he was suffering because he could never escape from those communal activities, never be quietly alone. (235)
John was a misfit in Malpais because he was always isolated from the Native Tribes. He resented the way that the savages treated him. John was looking forward to being part of the World State so that he would no longer be isolated. However, once he arrives in the World State, he could not escape civilization. John flees to the lighthouse, trying to avoid others. Ironically, he becomes overwhelmed with the amount of attention he receives, and he seeks to be isolated. John realizes that being around people all the time does not allow for identity. The enforced conformity drives John insane, urging him to kill himself.
14. Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south- west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east.. (259)
The books ends when John hangs himself at the lighthouse. He is utterly disturbed by all the people coming to disturb him, and he cannot be left alone. John is overwhelmed by the constant visitors, and he only wishes he could be isolated again. Realizing there is no other way to escape the conformity, John ends his life. His “two unhurried compass needles” symbolize how John was lost. The feet turn in each direction, as John searched in every direction to find somewhere to fit in. John’s death symbolizes how the World State destroyed his individual identity, and how it could do the same to us.
Bokanovsky’s process is defined as progress in the World State. However, this “ingenious revolution” is actually a set back to the community. This quote directly apples to the theme that people are losing their identities by conforming to societal standards. In my research I found that Huxley feared the future because people would lose sight of who they were. The World State completely diminishes any chance of developing personal character when nearly one hundred people are genetically programmed to be exactly the same. This quote also relates to the motif of dangerous technological advancements, which conceal the truth.
2. "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!” The Director almost shouted in his triumph. “Suggestions from the State." (28-29)
The “Suggestions from the State” brainwash the citizens to conform to the ideologies that are developed by the directors and controllers. The government replays soundtracks every night, for a certain period of time; sleep conditioning the members of the society. Mustapha later explains that sleep conditioning was banned in England because it defied liberalism, which was a “miserable ideology.” The quote correlates with the motif of confinement, and it demonstrates how the World State will not allow people to think for themselves.
3. Speaking very slowly, "Did you ever feel," he asked, "as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren't using–you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?" He looked at Bernard questioningly. (69)
Helmholtz is similar to Bernard in the way that both of these characters are outsiders. Neither one of them believe that the World State offers the full extent of human happiness. Helmholtz’s character is interesting because on the outside he is a desirable man, but on the inside he has thoughts that disobey the World State. His complex characterization surges Bernard’s envious behavior. This quote may be foreshadowing Helmholtz rising to power or defying the rules of the government. He has inner strength and courage that could drastically transform the utopian society.
4. Oh, I wish I had my soma. (116)
Lenina desires her soma when among the “savages.” Lenin fears having genuine feelings, and she is conditioned to take soma whenever she feels unhappy. The World State citizens often use this drug when feeling anxious or unhappy. Soma makes the people automatically happy, but only for a short period of time. This drug symbolizes the World State’s control over the citizens. Through the use of their innovative technology, the government can once again chemically make people to feel a certain way.
5. “You have a most peculiar way of talking sometimes," said Bernard, staring at the young man in perplexed astonishment. "And, anyhow, hadn't you better wait till you actually see the new world?" (139)
John describes the World State as a “brave new world.” This quotes is an allusion to Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. The people of the World State are sheltered from the type of literature that John loves. John develops a unique philosophy on life due to Shakespeare's book, which later allows him to see fault in the World State. John has only heard the stories his mother tells him about the cleanliness, happiness, and rules of the World State. To this point, he had never experienced the government first hand. He is perplexed by the technological innovations that he has never heard of in the Savage Reservation. However, Bernard warns him not to glorify the corrupt system because he knows that the World State is only using its technological power to control the minds of the citizens.
6. "Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?"/"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."/He laughed, "Yes, 'Everybody's happy nowadays.' We begin giving the children that at five. But wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else's way."/"I don't know what you mean," she repeated. (91)
Lenina is unable to comprehend the fact that Bernard believes that they are not free, but under the control of the World State. Lenina’s resistance to accept the truth falls under the motif of false happiness and false truths. The government has brain washed the citizens to believing that they should be content with their lives. Bernard, however represents the dissatisfaction of the people under control, and he further demonstrates Huxley’s idea of false contentment.
7. “But everyone belongs to everyone else,” he concluded, citing the hypnopaedic proverb. (40)
As Mustapha is describing the phenomenon of a mother and a father to the young boys, one of the children responds with this quote. The hypnopaedic proverb is an essential piece to the sleep conditioning technology. This quote further relates to the motif of confinement. The World State teaches people that everyone belongs to everyone, but it does not allow personal intimate relationships. This ideology may seem productive on the surface, but it establishes a false happiness by restricting the concepts of family and love.
8. As for the women, they indignantly felt that they had been had on false pretences-had by a wretched little man who had had alcohol poured into his bottle by mistake-by a creature with a Gamma-Minus physique. It was an outrage, and they said so, more and more loudly. The Head Mistress of Eton was particularly scathing. (173)
Bernard experiences a downfall when John refuses to attend his assembly party. The citizens are outraged by his false pretences. Bernard is glorified for brining the Savage to the World State, but the people later realize that he is still the misfit man he was before. Bernard’s glory is lived through John, but as soon as John denies him, he is no longer accepted. The women do not wish to be sexually involved with Bernard after this point because he is not worthy of their affection. Bernard returns to being alienated, yet he loses all of his previous ideologies about the corruption of the World State.
9. “Well, I’d rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here.” (179)
John is one of the few people in the World State that recognizes that the government has created false happiness. The people are not allowed to feel pain, think for themselves, or learn about the past. John declares that the happiness the World State literally feeds the people is an extreme case of imprisonment. The citizens are confined by the knowledge that the administrators chose to give to them. They accept sleep conditioning, and rely on soma for happiness. This quote applies to the theme that happiness cannot exist without a sense of unhappiness.
10. Should she speak to him? try to bring him back to a sense of decency? remind him of where he was? of what fatal mischief he might do to these poor innocents? Undoing all their wholesome death-conditioning with this disgusting outcry-as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that! It might give them the most disastrous ideas about the subject, might upset them into reacting in the entirely wrong, the utterly anti-social way. (206)
John is utterly distraught when Linda dies in the hospital. As his mother is lying dead in front of his eyes, ten of twins are running about the hospital. John becomes infuriated with their behavior, and he begins to slap the children away from Linda’s bed for not showing any respect to his death mother. The children and the nurse cannot fathom why John is acting that way, just because someone he knew died. The children are being conditioned to accept death, and John is causing a nuisance to their conditioning. This quote applies to the motif to control through technology. It also demonstrates how love and family are obscured ideologies in the World State.
11. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma. (220)
Mustapha Mond explains to John why he thinks false happiness is a superior idea to experiencing truth. He believes that if there is no pain, there is no reason to be unhappy. Thus, Mustapha Mond created the World State. He also mentions the symbloism of soma. Soma is taken to mask people’s worries, and to create a blissful happiness. John contradicts Mustapha Mond’s arguments by saying one has to have the chance to be unhappy to know true happiness. However, in the end, John is destroyed by the World State, and false happiness ultimately wins. Huxley’s purpose of this satire is to warm the people of the future of blissful happiness created through the loss of truth.
12. God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. You must make you choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. (234)
Mustapha Mond describes why the World State disregards old ideas. He believes that the only way to reach happiness is to discount the past because the past clearly created an unstable society. He does not accept religion because God cannot ensure happiness. Mustapha Mond thinks that Christian morals are useless when sleep conditioning is available. This further expands on reasons for disregarding old traditions in place of technology.
13. The Savage nodded gloomily. At Malpais he had suffered because they had shut him out from the communal activities of the pueblo, in civilized London he was suffering because he could never escape from those communal activities, never be quietly alone. (235)
John was a misfit in Malpais because he was always isolated from the Native Tribes. He resented the way that the savages treated him. John was looking forward to being part of the World State so that he would no longer be isolated. However, once he arrives in the World State, he could not escape civilization. John flees to the lighthouse, trying to avoid others. Ironically, he becomes overwhelmed with the amount of attention he receives, and he seeks to be isolated. John realizes that being around people all the time does not allow for identity. The enforced conformity drives John insane, urging him to kill himself.
14. Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south- west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east.. (259)
The books ends when John hangs himself at the lighthouse. He is utterly disturbed by all the people coming to disturb him, and he cannot be left alone. John is overwhelmed by the constant visitors, and he only wishes he could be isolated again. Realizing there is no other way to escape the conformity, John ends his life. His “two unhurried compass needles” symbolize how John was lost. The feet turn in each direction, as John searched in every direction to find somewhere to fit in. John’s death symbolizes how the World State destroyed his individual identity, and how it could do the same to us.