This website is your complete guide to the controversy

created by the novel Brave New World. Explore our links below for more information.

Summary History of Censorship

Summary

This brave new world takes place three hundred years in the future. This future world is free from war, disease, and poverty however the people take part in sex, drugs, and do not have families. Ten totalitarian rulers known as the “Controllers” run the world and decided to eliminate many forms of freedom by manipulating the people into believing anything they say. The Controllers create people in factories and then they brain wash all the children into believing ideas about their class and their society. Their classes include Alphas, which are the highest class, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, which are the lowest. When the kids are hatched they are immediately sent to a conditioning center where they are taught about their class, as well as the prejudices against the others, soma, which is like a drug, sex, and they are taught about their god, Ford. A couple of the main characters Bernard and Lenina decide to take a vacation to an Indian Reservation where all the “savages,” or people who are not civilized according to the controllers standards, live. When they go they meet a woman, Linda, who is fat and ugly which is completely unlike the civilized people of the brave new world. Bernard found out that Linda used to live in the new world, but became pregnant and was forced to leave because the shame she placed on herself. Then Bernard discovered that the Director of Hatcheries, the person that is in charge of making the babies, was the man who got Linda pregnant. Because Bernard wanted to grow in popularity he told the rest of the new world about the Director and Linda and forced him to lose his high position in society. Also, while they were on the reservation Lenina and Bernard met Linda’s son John who became known as the savage. They brought Linda and John back to the new world and the savage became the new celebrity throughout the area. Linda, on the other hand, sank into a deep depression and went on a “soma holiday” rather than living her life. While Linda is in the hospital on her soma holiday, John and Lenina fall in love. After a date John tells her how much he loves her and in response she takes her clothes off. John becomes disgusted with her as well as the society’s sexual openness and he rejects her. In his rage he blows off an appearance that he is supposed to make with Bernard and goes to visit his mother, but then she dies of a soma overdose. From here John gets so sickened by this brave new world that he tries to destroy boxes of soma, and causes a riot. He is sent to Mustapha Mond who is the head controller and after meeting with him John decides to leave. John flees from this terrible reality and when reporters look for him they find that he had hung himself.

History of Censorship

Brave New World has an extensive history of censorship in the United States as well as the rest of the world. This novel has provoked many people to protest the content of the material because it is immoral or obscene. Almost immediately after publication the novel was banned in 1932 by the Board of Censors of Ireland due to “sexual promiscuity”, which although the World State promotes it, there are no detailed scenes of sex. In 1965, an English teacher in Maryland was fired after assigning Brave New World to his students. In 1979, a high school principal in Virginia demanded a history teacher to cancel an assignment that required the assessment of Brave New World. The teacher refused and consequently, his contract was terminated. In 1980, the novel, which was used in a Missouri school was challenged and removed from the curriculum, and in 1988 parents of students at an Oklahoma high school insisted the novel was dismissed as a required reading due to “language and moral content.” In 1993, parents of a California school district challenged the novel because its content focused on negative ventures. The school board reviewed the challenge and the novel was placed on the retained list. Most recently, in 2000, the novel was removed (not banned) from a high school library after a parent complained the content showed contempt for marriage and family values. All in all, “people who seek to ban the novel believe that Brave New World is depressing, fatalistic and negative, and that it encourages students to adopt a lifestyle of drugs, sex and conformity, reinforcing helpless feelings that they can do nothing to make an impact on the world” (Karolides p. 424). Most of these challenges are frankly quite ignorant. The challengers are overlooking Huxley’s essential argument. This novel is a satire; therefore he is not promoting the controversial issues, rather the denouncing them and warning civilization against these evils and the terrible outcomes that may surface if the human race becomes too engrossed in technology.

Reasons for Banning

People have found many reasons to challenge Brave New World. Sex and Abortion, drug use and the suppression by the government are among the most common.

Sex & Abortion- The characters in this story show no reverence for what we believe is a sacred act between husband and wife. They participate in orgies which are very much discouraged in our culture.

The chance of becoming pregnant often prevents young adults from participating in sexual activity because the consequences will affect their lives forever – especially at a time when they cannot handle the responsibility.

The women in the story wear contraceptive belts – eradicating the chance of becoming pregnant, therefore the entire civilization engages in rampant, promiscuous sexual acts.

Many people believe this book should be banned because it makes light of the consequences of sex and disrespects the miracle of conception.

Drug use – Drugs in the novel sparked intense controversy, as the drug trafficking and use continues to spread, tearing families apart and ruining the lives of addicts all over the world. The challengers are worried that portraying people “experience an illusion of well-being without unpleasant consequences” (Bloom p. 34) simply by ingesting soma will convince readers to abuse drugs to obtain similar results. Soma may encourage students to smoke marijuana, which has many similar effects as the soma – an induced state of alienation from the self and modified human consciousness without the side effect of a hangover. There is absolutely no intimate affection present in the World State; therefore as soon as the characters feel the slightest hint of depression or genuine feeling, they immediately take a soma to become numb to this pain. “In the great re-casting of values that had taken place, happiness was given precedent over truth” (Bloom p.35). Their happiness is a false pretense. Yet, it is unhealthy and inhumane to go through life entirely painlessly.

Government- Lastly, it is obvious from the start of the novel that there is absolutely no freedom of any sort in the World State. All aspects of life and society are perfectly controlled. “Inhabitants are created and conditioned to fit into specific social slots.” (Karolides p. 423) This predestination is the direct conflict with the idea of the American Dream – that any person, not matter what class or social status they are born into, can work their way to the top and become successful. This is absolutely impossible in the World State. Moreover, people are conditioned from infanthood to believe certain ideals – every night they sleep to a recorded voice telling them what to believe over and over again. Throughout the novel, characters intrinsically recite these same exact phrases years, even decades after the conditioning has ended. This proves that the citizens are not even given the freedom of their personal thoughts – the entirety of the person is controlled by the World State. “Nothing intellectual was ever conceived, not even the most escapist dream. . . no emotion, no part of inner life ever existed that did not ultimately intend something external or degenerate into truth.” (Bloom p.47) Every mind is controlled to believe the first and foremost responsibility and importance of life is to promote the economy and well-being of the World State. No one even has the capacity to love another person, or enjoy a hobby because their entire lives are focused on their loyal duties of the World State.

About the Author

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July, 6 1894, in England. He developed his love for writing and interest in technology through his family, including his grandfather who was a writer and an advocate supporter of the theory of evolution and his brother who became a leading biologist.

After Huxley graduated from school, he became a journalist. This journalism career gave him the opportunity to write two volumes of poetry as well as his first few novels, Chrome Yellow, Antic Hay and Those Barren Leaves, which brought him great fame.

In 1930, after Huxley wrote and published many short stories and essays, he wrote one of his most celebrated volumes in his career, Brave New World.

Huxley, then, moved to California and became associated with Buddhist and Hindu groups, and experimented with hallucinogenic drugs. At this time, he wrote The Doors of Perception and Brave New World Revisited, which continues to be very pessimistic about the future society, particularly in overpopulation and totalitarianism.

Late in his life, Huxley received the American Academy of Letters Award and was given the title of a Companion of Literature of the British Royal Society of Literature. He died of tongue cancer on November 22, 1963.

Professional Opinion

Below is an interview held with Dr. Samantha Jones. She has a Ph. D. in British Literature and is currently teaching British Literature to high school students in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Why do you believe this book could be considered for banning or censorship?

Although Dr. Jones understands the reasoning behind why people want

the Brave New World to be banned especially with the constant scenes of orgasms, sexual activity, and drug usage, she does not support its need for banning or censorship. She believes that it is a mature book that must be read by mature audiences because of the controversial topics. With this in mind, she thinks that the book should be read by those no older than the age of sixteen.

Does this book portray promiscuous sex and drugs as a positive part if life?

Dr. Jones agrees that promiscuous sex and drugs are viewed positively in the New World, but, “Because the whole story is a satire, you must understand that the society is portrayed negatively.” Dr. Jones goes on further to say that the Brave New World is the “ultimate imperfect society” or a dystopia. In her opinion, Huxley illustrates an extreme utopia in order to prove a point.

Do you think the book is pro-communist?

Dr. Jones answers “No, because part of the problem [in the New World society] is that some of the characters are individualistic and live their lives in opposition to Huxley’s perfect society. For example, Bernard and Tom, two of the most important characters in the book, live their lives going against the New World society and having thoughts and opinions completely of their own. Dr. Jones says that Huxley could not have been in favor of communism in his book if his two most important characters are completely noncommunist.

Popular Quotes from the Novel

“Community, Identity, Stability” -Chapter 1

"That is the secret of happiness and virtue— liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny." –Chapter 1

"Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational." –Chapter 2

“Everyone belongs to everyone else.” –Chapter 3

“History is bunk” –Chapter 3

“Orgy-Porgy, Ford and fun

Kiss the girls and make them One.

Boys at one with girls at peace;

Orgy-Porgy gives release.” –Chapter 5

“Christianity without tears- that’s what soma is.” –Chapter 17

"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." –Chapter 17