Editing Brave New World (section)

==Plot==

The novel opens in the [[World government|World State]] city of [[London]] in AF (After Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in the [[Gregorian calendar]]), where citizens are engineered through [[Artificial uterus|artificial wombs]] and childhood indoctrination programmes into predetermined [[Social class|classes]] (or [[caste]]s) based on intelligence and labour. [[Embryo]]s in different bottles are treated with chemicals to suit them for their planned roles; those for the higher classes get chemicals to optimise them, and those of the lower classes are made increasingly imperfect. The classes are Alpha (planned leaders), Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon (menial labourers of limited intelligence).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last=Lohnes | first=Kate | title=Brave New World, by Huxley |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=14 April 2025 | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brave-New-World}}</ref> Each caste is indoctrinated to prefer their own class—epsilons are happy that they do not have the intellectual burden of alphas—and wears a uniform colour of clothing for easy identification.

Lenina Crowne, a hatchery worker, is popular and sexually desirable, but Bernard Marx, a psychologist, is not. He is shorter in stature than the average member of his high alpha caste, which gives him an [[inferiority complex]]. His work with [[hypnopaedia|sleep-learning]] allows him to understand, and disapprove of, his society's methods of keeping its citizens peaceful, which includes their constant consumption of a soothing, happiness-producing drug called "soma". Courting disaster, Bernard is vocal and arrogant about his criticisms, and his boss contemplates exiling him to [[Iceland]] because of his nonconformity. His only friend is Helmholtz Watson, a gifted writer who finds it difficult to use his talents creatively in their pain-free society.
Bernard takes a holiday with Lenina outside the World State to a Savage Reservation in [[New Mexico]], in which the two observe [[childbirth|natural-born]] people, disease, the ageing process, other languages, and religious lifestyles for the first time. The culture of the village folk resembles the contemporary Native American groups of the region, descendants of the [[Ancestral Puebloans|Anasazi]], including the [[Puebloan peoples]] of [[Hopi people|Hopi]] and [[Zuni people|Zuni]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meckier |first1=Jerome |date=2002 |title=Aldous Huxley's Americanization of the ''Brave New World'' Typescript |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3176042.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3176042.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=Twentieth Century American Literature |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=439|doi=10.2307/3176042|jstor=3176042}}</ref> Bernard and Lenina witness a violent public ritual and then encounter Linda, a woman originally from the World State who is living on the reservation with her son John, now a young man. She, too, visited the reservation on a holiday many years ago, but became separated from her group and was left behind. She had meanwhile become pregnant by a fellow holidaymaker (who is revealed to be Bernard's boss, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning). She did not try to return to the World State, because of her shame at her pregnancy. Despite spending his whole life in the reservation, John has never been accepted by the villagers, and his and Linda's lives have been hard and unpleasant. Linda has taught John to read, although from the only book in her possession—a scientific manual—and another book found nearby by Popé: the complete works of Shakespeare. Ostracised by the villagers, John is able to articulate his feelings only in terms of Shakespearean drama, quoting often from ''[[The Tempest]]'', ''[[King Lear]]'', ''[[Othello]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' and ''[[Hamlet]]''. Linda now wants to return to London, and John, too, wants to see this "brave new world" that his mother so often praised. Bernard sees an opportunity to thwart plans to exile him, and gets permission to take Linda and John back. On their return to London, John meets the Director and calls him his "father", a vulgarity which causes a roar of laughter. The humiliated Director resigns in shame before he can follow through with exiling Bernard.

Bernard, as "custodian" of the "savage" John who is now treated as a celebrity, is fawned on by the highest members of society and revels in attention he once scorned. Bernard's popularity is fleeting, though, and he becomes envious that John only really bonds with the literary-minded Helmholtz. Considered hideous and friendless, Linda spends all her time using soma, which she craved for so long, while John refuses to attend social events organised by Bernard, appalled by what he perceives to be an empty society. Lenina and John are physically attracted to each other, but John's view of courtship and romance, based on Shakespeare's writings, is utterly incompatible with Lenina's freewheeling attitude to sex. She tries to seduce him, but he attacks her, before suddenly being informed that his mother is on her deathbed. He rushes to Linda's bedside, causing a scandal, as this is not the "correct" attitude to death. Some children who enter the ward for "death-conditioning" come across as disrespectful to John, and he attacks one physically. He then tries to break up a distribution of soma to a lower-caste group, telling them that he is freeing them. Helmholtz and Bernard rush in to stop the ensuing riot, which the police quell by spraying soma vapour into the crowd.

Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are all brought before Mustapha Mond, the "Resident World Controller for Western Europe", who tells Bernard and Helmholtz that they are to be exiled to islands for antisocial activity. Bernard pleads for a second chance, but Helmholtz welcomes the opportunity to be a true individual, and chooses the [[Falkland Islands]] as his destination, believing that [[Climate of the Falkland Islands|their bad weather]] will inspire his writing. Mond tells Helmholtz that exile is actually a reward. The islands are full of the most interesting people in the world, individuals who did not fit into the social model of the World State. Mond outlines for John the events that led to the present society and his arguments for a caste system and social control. John rejects Mond's arguments, and Mond sums up John's views by claiming that John demands "the right to be unhappy". John asks if he may go to the islands as well, but Mond refuses, saying he wishes to see what happens to John next.

Jaded with his new life, John moves to an abandoned hilltop lighthouse, near the village of [[Puttenham, Surrey|Puttenham]], where he intends to adopt a solitary [[ascetic]] lifestyle in order to purify himself of civilisation, practising [[self-flagellation]]. This draws reporters and eventually hundreds of amazed sightseers, [[Rubbernecking|hoping to witness]] his bizarre behaviour.

For a while, it seems that John might be left alone, after the public's attention is drawn to other diversions, but a documentary-maker has secretly filmed John's self-flagellation from a distance, and when released, the documentary causes an international sensation. Helicopters arrive with more journalists. Crowds of people descend on John's retreat, demanding that he perform his whipping ritual for them. From one helicopter a young woman emerges who is implied to be Lenina. John, at the sight of a woman he both adores and loathes, whips at her in a fury and then turns the whip on himself, exciting the crowd, whose wild behaviour transforms into a soma-fuelled [[orgy]]. The next morning, John awakes on the ground and is consumed by remorse over his participation in the orgy.

That evening, a swarm of helicopters appear on the horizon, with the story of last night's orgy having been in all the newspapers. The first onlookers and reporters to arrive find that John is dead, having [[suicide by hanging|hanged himself]].