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What are the thematic ideas that are presented in Brave New World?

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What are the thematic ideas that are presented in Brave New World?

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A thematic idea is a concept relating to a human condition that is expressed in many ways throughout a literary work. These ideas can form the framework for more complex themes of a text. Here are some of the thematic ideas found so far in Brave New World.

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The concept of religion takes on a different meaning in Brave New World than it does in our society today. Instead of worshiping one or more gods, all citizens see Henry Ford as the supreme deity. Modern religions like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and others are not a direct part of the World State. Rather, aspects of these religions are taken and applied to Ford. People in the World State hold Solidarity Services with hymns and soma to celebrate the coming of the Ford, and they cut the tops off of crosses to make Ts (mimicking Ford's Model-T). When referencing Ford, citizens often make the "sign of the T" which is like the Catholic "sign of the cross". Citizens refer to Henry Ford as "his fordship" like a Christian would refer to god as "Lord" or "his lordship".

"'The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford’s first T-Model was put on the market.' (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently followed suit.)" (Huxley 19).

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The belief system in the Savage Reservation is a combination of many different religious practices found in our modern society. The World State has made efforts to consolidate all of the nonconforming savages into areas that are easy to control and contain, which has caused the merging of faiths. Ritual blood sacrifices such as the one performed in Chapter 7 are meant to bring rain and prosperous crops, as well as to placate the many deities in which the savages believe. References are made to figures of Christianity like Mary and Jesus. In fact, a crucified man is brought to the blood sacrifices to represent Jesus' presence. John claims that he has stood out in the heat so that he could feel what Jesus did on the cross. On the other hand, many of the social customs and religious stories come from the Zuni and Navajo people who were indigenous to the Southwestern US. The eagle present at the sacrifice is a symbol for Pookong.

"One of the old men of the pueblo would talk to them (...) of the great Transformer of the World, and of the long fight between Right Hand and Left Hand, between Wet and Dry; of Awonawilona, who made a great fog by thinking in the night, and then made the whole world out of the fog; of Earth Mother and Sky Father; of Ahaiyuta and Marsailema, the twins of War and Chance; of Jesus and Pookong; of Mary and Estsanatlehi, the woman who makes herself young again; of the Black Stone at Laguna and the Great Eagle and Our Lady of Acoma" (Huxley 86).

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*Time plays a huge role in the novel Brave New World, as the citizens never learn the history of what happened before Ford. Everything they know took place after Ford. They are essentially stuck in a bubble where they aren't advancing in time. For instance, aging, the citizens never have to go experience the effects of getting old as we do today.

* “'You all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford’s: History is bunk. History,' he repeated slowly, 'is bunk.' (Huxley 26).

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Death plays a major role in Brave New World. Towards the beginning of the novel, Aldous Huxley talks about how there is a crematorium. The crematorium takes the phosphorous out of the dead people and uses it as fertilizer for plants. The way that this society treats the death of their people is very different from our society. In our society - we morn, express our sadness, and host funerals for the dead. In Brave New World, they do not care about who dies, they just send their dead bodies into a machine, and they do express their feelings towards their

According to page 50, "Henry spoke with a happy pride, rejoicing wholeheartedly in the achievement, as though it had been his own. 'Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we’re dead. Making plants grow'" (Huxley 50).

This quote shows how unaffected Henry is with dying. He is conditioned to think that death does not matter and not to morn after the lost ones. Everyone in this society is taught to use their emotions and when someone dies, to not express grief.

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Henry explains, "'On their way up the chimney the gases go through four separate treatments. P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated some one. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it'" (Huxley 50).

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The savage reservation is a completely different society, and the people there live very different than those who are civilized. One example of how different the two societies are is the way that they treat death. In the civilized society, the people think death is only used to fertilize plants and they express no emotion towards the sad event. On the other hand, the savage reservation treats death as a sacrifice. They painfully whip the sacrifice until they die. This is not peaceful or happy like the civilized society makes death seem.

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Aging is a natural process that has been almost completely eliminated in Brave New World's society. Through scientific breakthroughs such as young blood transfusion and artificial hormones, many people in the World State don't have to experience the destruction old age puts on the human body. This led citizens of the World State (such as Lenina) to be shocked by people who have naturally aged. This is another example of how pretty much every stage of people's lives are monitored and controlled  in Brave New World.

Quotes:

“Gonadal hormones, transfusion of young blood, magnesium salts .” (Huxley, 38)

“All the physiological stigmata of old age have been abolished. And along with them, of course .” (Huxley, 38)

“Along with them all the old man’s mental peculiarities. Characters remain constant throughout a whole lifetime.”
(Huxley, 38)

“Work, play-at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen. Old men in the bad old days used to renounce, retire, take to religion, spend their time reading, thinking-thinking!”  (Huxley, 38)

“Now-such is progress-the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma" (Huxley, 38)