Aldous Huxley is best known for his novels Brave New World, Crome Yellow, and Antic Hay which all give a grim satiric taste when read. The publishment of Brave New World, one of the first models for dystopian science fiction, was crafted by Huxley who revealed his fears of 20th century politics, along with its advancement of technology. This fear may have been fueled from Huxley residing in Italy in the early 1930s, where Benito Mussolini led an authoritarian regime, outlawing birth control throughout the country in order to build up enough manpower (more like “childpower”) to fight in the next war whenever it may have come.
When reading about Huxley’s experiences in Italy I instantly thought of a specific passage in the beginning of the novel that reads, “The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to use transport.” The children in Brave New World have been conditioned since birth to live their unchosen controlled life, similar to the children created in Mussolini’s regime where child birth was intentionally forced upon in order to protect the country’s future. This plays hand-in-hand with the Marxist theory, which gives emphasis on the importance of community over individuality, while simultaneously polarizing the classes. After all, the World State’s motto is “Community, Identity, and Stability.”
I believe that Huxley may have also drawn out moments from his earlier childhood in England to create the nightmarish novel, such as losing his mother at the age of fourteen and then at the age of sixteen suffering an attack of keratitis, which left him temporarily blind for eighteen months. These treacherous experiences led to an eye-opening novel that allowed the world to take a look at what it could have possibly become.
“Aldous Huxley.” Ohio River – New World Encyclopedia, New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Aldous_Huxley.
“Brave New World and the Marxist Theory.” Prezi.com, prezi.com/1t9dsbguwqyd/brave-new-world-and-the-marxist-theory/.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.
“The Talented Mr. Huxley.” National Endowment for the Humanities, http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/feature/the-talented-mr-huxley.
Brave New World 