People living in contemporary world are mostly concerned about money and possessing things. We no longer care for values, feelings and beauty. The book 'Brave New World' by Huxley seems to be an appropriate one to be read by people at schools. The world, which Huxley describes there is much similar to ours. His book was pure fiction, but the author predicted what may happen very well. As I was reading this book, I realized this 'new world' reflects the world I live in. In the book, young people are told that they shouldn't read books, because it is unnecessary and even dangerous. In reality, when we are children, we really want to learn to read. However, as we grow up, we stop reading books and there are many teenagers, who can't read well. The characters in the books learn how to be erotic when they are very young. Although we are not taught the same thing at schools, we watch many movies and TV programs, in which eroticism is exposed. Characters from the novel seem to have no feelings and passions. But we know that they have to take special drugs to get rid of them. These drugs make them insensitive and insensible. Thanks to them, they don't care for others and feel quite happy in their lives. In my opinion, we experience similar things. People in the Governments seem to take care of us, but in reality they deprive us of many chances for better lives. If we are not aware of it, we may feel relatively happy and even trust the Government.
In Huxley's book there are 5 groups of people- alphas, betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons. The real world divides its society in a similar way- there are poor people, different from the rich, some professions create their own social groups (advocates, doctors, businessmen…). However, in reality the social hierarchy is quite flexible - you are given the choice and (in theory) you can be, who you want. In Huxley's New World, when someone is born with some qualities, he/she has no chance to change it. If you are poor and stupid, you will remain alike till you die. In the novel, sex is considered pure entertainment. It has nothing to do with love or reproduction. For me, such situation seems very rare in reality. Only those, who sell their bodies for money can have sex with another person without any feelings.
We live in strange times. The society is getting more and more degenerated. By the governments, we are treated like machines. The capitalistic market makes us simply consumers. Individuality of a man is no longer in value. In the 'Brave New World' Huxley described the situation of children, whose favorite games are full of eroticism, although they have no access to any erotic materials and they are not told anything about sex. In the real world, all children may enter Internet and find there anything they want. It seems impossible to stop them from downloading inappropriate material. Nevertheless, Huxley's vision of childhood is not really so bad. Children from his world are given everything they want or need. They are fed with the best food and they have the best medical care. They have no idea, what hunger or diseases are.
All in all, the world, which Huxley created has many advantages. All single women have chance to have a child. There are special medicaments, which might stop people from fighting against each other.
Is Brave New World similar to ours? E may call the society described in the book as 'utopian'. People living there have no problems and are happy. People are totally controlled, but they have nothing against that. When we look closer at them, we may discover, that they are not much different form us. Although we wouldn't call our world 'perfect', there are many similarities between the two worlds. We share the same problem of abusing drugs. Both societies- the real one and the one from the book- are concentrated on consuming and people have growing difficulties with making strong relationships between each other.
Our world is becoming more and more similar to the one described by Huxley. What terrible things must happen to make us realize that we cannot become God?
