Ahead of its time when it was published in 1932, Brave New World explored a number of advanced ideas like eugenics and cloning. This novel's world is very unlike those of the other dystopian novel that I have read. The citizens treat Henry Ford as the God (in place of Christ) because he invented assembly line-style manufacturing. The government applies Ford's invention to manufacture human clones who are assigned to five different castes. Additionally, when people are overwhelmed, they turn to a drug called soma that makes them forget their troubles. Despite these attempts made by the government in order to control the way people grow and feel, one individual is unhappy and discontented. He acts on those feelings to disrupt the authorities' controls.
This book is frightening, but not like a horror novel. The government thinks that it is better to control the development of the human species as opposed to having diversity among people. The ideas of the book foreshadowed Adolf Hitler's attempt to eliminate the Jews and many other groups to further his desire for a master Aryan race, although no killing of this caliber is described in the book. The caste system in the book parallels that of India where the lower castes perform the menial jobs and the upper castes have more opportunities and wealth. The ideas of this book, when executed in the real world, can have enormous and harmful consequences for society.
Huxley writes with passionate style. Even when he describes scientific concepts and structures, he uses an imaginative voice which is refreshing and unexpected.
There is little closure at the end of this book and many plot elements are left unresolved. The story hops around frequently, making it hard to keep up, so I'm giving BNW three out of five stars.
I think this book marks the end of my dystopian-classical literature phase -- for now.
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