Brave New World by Aldous Huxley can be classified into three broad parts: the exposition with the inciting event, rising action coupled with the climax, and the falling action with the resolution.
The first part consists of the author introducing us to a futuristic society. This dystopia’s thinking is backward compared to our society. Birth, family, and uniqueness are considered hindrances and even disgusting. People are put into castes before birth. Some are choked with alcohol to stunt their growth, all are forced to listen to messages filled with government messages. They are brainwashed in their sleep from before birth. No one is actually born anymore, they are all test tube babies. This is all over seen by World Controllers, one of which is Mustapha Mond who controls Western Europe.
We meet Lenina Crowne, a normal Alpha woman, who is promiscuous, blonde, and brainless. Another main character, Bernard Marx, is also introduced to us. He has been an outcast in their society because of his physical appearance and his anti-social tendencies. Although he is ostracized, Lenina believes him to be a good person and accepts his offer of a weekend on a mysterious savage reservation.
The second part starts off with the inciting event. The savage reservation is a Native American reservation. Lenina and Bernard meet John on the reservation after witnessing a brutal ceremony. Remarkably John and his mother Linda are both white, despite living on a savage reservation. Bernard connects two and two then sees how this middle-aged lady was the woman his egotistical boss left here many years ago. Bernard makes arrangements with Mustapha Mond and they travel back to London with Linda and John in tow.
The handsome young white-savage made a splash on the London social scene. Lenina and Bernard find themselves popular through association. She is interested in the savage, and he in her, but John subscribes to the old ways of Shakespeare and nobility. Lenina is put off by his reluctance to even touch her or look to closely. Meanwhile, Bernard is becoming an arrogant jerk with the attention showered upon him for knowing the savage. He ignores and belittles his only real friend, Helmholtz Watson. Watson is a fellow outcast because of his intelligence and extreme good looks. His personal wish is to write something meaningful; Watson feels that the stories, movies, and brainwashing phrases he composes are silly and not worth it.
The climax is a dramatic scene in which John, with his history of no brainwashing, tries to get rid of soma, a drug which causes feelings of euphoria and encourages mindlessness. He is aided by Helmholtz Watson while Bernard stands around being a coward. The riot they cause is soon subdued by the police and Mustapha assigns them their punishments.
The last third of the book entails John running away from civilization to live as a hermit. He is discovered by reporters and bugged until John can’t take it anymore and breaks down, whipping Lenina and going crazy. The resolution is that he decides he cannot live with his actions and hangs himself from the rafters of the lighthouse.
My favorite scene was the celebration right before John met Lenina and Bernard. The snakes and the ceremony are very interesting because it is a subtle mockery of both cultures ceremonies. The least enjoyable part in the book was any part featuring Lenina as a focus. I did not enjoy Lenina because she was whiny, stupid, and very thoroughly brainwashed. Both Bernard and John were obsessed with her at one point. Although physically pretty, she has no intelligence or creativity worth mentioning.
Overall this book is good for people who understand what an allusion is and how to identify it, but are not quite able to recognize indirect references. There are a ton of easy allusions to pick up on, perfect for someone not quite ready to pick up on the more difficult literary elements. The themes are also easy to identify and are strongly represented throughout the story. An example of this is the idea that a question causes disruption, as illustrated by John questioning the laws put forth by the World Controllers. Repeated ideas allow for readers to pick up on them and explore those concepts, with backing from the story. I would recommend this book to average students around the 10th or 9th grade level in English.
Jade - in your opening paragraph you state that the book is broken up into three parts and then go on to mention the six parts of plot. This is contradictory. Did you mean to break part 1 up with exposition, and part two with inciting event and rising action, and part three with rising action, climax, falling action and resolution?
ReplyDeleteOverall - outstanding summary, but what I liked best was the reflection piece and who you feel this book is good for. Really well done. You're writing on at a high level.