Previous
Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Malthus:
Brave New World includes frequent references to the prominent scientist Malthus, whose treatises on population control were some of the first to speculate on the dangers of unchecked population growth. Malthus's work is foundational to eugenics, a scientific discipline that evolved around the turn of the 20th century. Eugenicists frequently concerned themselves with the genetic "health" of the population, arguing that culling supposedly inferior people from the gene pool would prevent them from passing on their undesirable genes to the next generation. Today, eugenics is widely considered to be fundamentally discriminatory and unethical. But Brave New World is a eugenic dystopian novel, speculating on what society might look like if scientists developed and implemented high-level gene-editing technology for the purposes of permanently altering the human species.
Malthus, like Ford, is a prominent figure in the cultural lore of Brave New World's eugenic totalitarian regime. In Chapter 5, Huxley alludes to something called a "Malthusian drill," likely a means of birth and population control:
And yet, bottled as she was, and in spite of that second gramme of soma, Lenina did not forget to take all the contraceptive precautions prescribed by the regulations. Years of intensive hypnopædia and, from twelve to seventeen, Malthusian drill three times a week had made the taking of these precautions almost as automatic and inevitable as blinking.
Similarly, Lenina and other women wear something called a "Malthusian belt," which contains their state-issued contraceptives. Fanny mentions this belt in Chapter 3:
‘Perfect!’ cried Fanny enthusiastically. She could never resist Lenina’s charm for long. ‘And what a perfectly sweet Malthusian belt!’
Under this totalitarian regime, oppression of natural human birth is a necessity: after all, the environmental control required to completely engineer every aspect of a human's development cannot be exercised in utero. Natural birth is a threat to total eugenic control.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Religious Leaders:
In Chapter 3, while the Director is speaking to his students, a World Controller named Mustapha Mond arrives. The students become incredibly excited, as does the Director. All of them flock to Mond, ready to hang on his every word. During this scene, Huxley uses allusion to depict Mond's nearly god-like power:
His fordship Mustapha Mond! The eyes of the saluting students almost popped out of their heads. Mustapha Mond! The Resident Controller for Western Europe! One of the Ten World Controllers. One of the Ten … and he sat down on the bench with the D.H.C., he was going to stay, to stay, yes, and actually talk to them … straight from the horse’s mouth. Straight from the mouth of Ford himself.
In the last line of this passage, Huxley alludes to Henry Ford, famous innovator of the American production line assembly system for cars. Ford himself did not create anything new, necessarily—rather, he pioneered the systems of uniform mass production that dominate in this consumption-centric dystopia. In such a society, Ford has effectively become a stand-in for God, as evidenced by the fact that characters will exclaim "Oh Ford!" instead of "Oh God!" if they are upset or surprised. The students in this scene place Mond on a kind of pedestal, equating his position in the social hierarchy to that of Ford. Much like a god, Mond has total control over the people under his dominion, down to the cellular level.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Malthus:
Brave New World includes frequent references to the prominent scientist Malthus, whose treatises on population control were some of the first to speculate on the dangers of unchecked population growth. Malthus's work is foundational to eugenics, a scientific discipline that evolved around the turn of the 20th century. Eugenicists frequently concerned themselves with the genetic "health" of the population, arguing that culling supposedly inferior people from the gene pool would prevent them from passing on their undesirable genes to the next generation. Today, eugenics is widely considered to be fundamentally discriminatory and unethical. But Brave New World is a eugenic dystopian novel, speculating on what society might look like if scientists developed and implemented high-level gene-editing technology for the purposes of permanently altering the human species.
Malthus, like Ford, is a prominent figure in the cultural lore of Brave New World's eugenic totalitarian regime. In Chapter 5, Huxley alludes to something called a "Malthusian drill," likely a means of birth and population control:
And yet, bottled as she was, and in spite of that second gramme of soma, Lenina did not forget to take all the contraceptive precautions prescribed by the regulations. Years of intensive hypnopædia and, from twelve to seventeen, Malthusian drill three times a week had made the taking of these precautions almost as automatic and inevitable as blinking.
Similarly, Lenina and other women wear something called a "Malthusian belt," which contains their state-issued contraceptives. Fanny mentions this belt in Chapter 3:
‘Perfect!’ cried Fanny enthusiastically. She could never resist Lenina’s charm for long. ‘And what a perfectly sweet Malthusian belt!’
Under this totalitarian regime, oppression of natural human birth is a necessity: after all, the environmental control required to completely engineer every aspect of a human's development cannot be exercised in utero. Natural birth is a threat to total eugenic control.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—The Horror:
Brave New World subtly references Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. In an oft-referenced passage from Heart of Darkness, Kurtz (an ivory trader living among indigenous African people) lies on his deathbed and utters his final words: "He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—“The horror! The horror!’." Chapter 13 of Brave New World alludes to this key moment in Heart of Darkness:
And suddenly her arms were round his neck; he felt her lips soft against his own. So deliciously soft, so warm and electric that inevitably he found himself thinking of the embraces in Three Weeks in a Helicopter. Ooh! ooh! the stereoscopic blonde and aah! the more than real blackamoor. Horror, horror, horror … he tried to disengage himself; but Lenina tightened her embrace.
Heart of Darkness is set along the Congo River in Africa during European colonization, and the book both reinforces and questions the racist attitude (commonly held at the time) that non-white societies are "savage" in comparison to European society. While Heart of Darkness complicates the supposed divide between civilization and savagery by suggesting that that European civilization isn't actually all that civilized—as the book's title suggests, it actually has a dark and morally empty "heart." This idea is demonstrated through the character of Kurtz. Over the course of the novella, Kurtz is shown to have been corrupted by his time in the Congo, and his descent into "savagery" culminates in his death. But the book implies that his demise is rooted in the hollowness of his Western ideals and the destructiveness of European colonialism, which corrupts colonizers just as it harms the colonized.
The above passage from Brave New World is partially reinforcing the central message of Heart of Darkness (that Western civilization is hollow and hypocritical), but it's also subverting the novella's racist portrayal of African people. Instead, the above passage portrays supposedly "civilized" European behavior as barbaric or unnatural and the presumed "savage" behavior of indigenous people as truly human. Lenina's advances and flagrant disregard for John's emotions are framed as horrific and violating, despite originating from a supposed "civilized" perspective. The closer John gets to "civilization" in this "brave new world," the greater the horror he experiences. Perhaps most importantly, this passage critiques Conrad's—as well as Western society's—racist and primitivist assumptions about indigenous people.
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Brave New World:
The novel's title, "Brave New World," is an allusion to The Tempest by Shakespeare. The phrase "brave new world" is spoken by the character Miranda: "O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people in't!"
At the beginning of The Tempest, the audience learn that Miranda has spent most of her life cut off from civilization, on an island with only three other people: her father, an enslaved man named Caliban, and a spirit named Ariel. She is not aware of the wider world. By the end of the play, however, she finds herself married to Ferdinand, a sailor shipwrecked on their island. The above quotation from The Tempest is from the play's final act, following Miranda's marriage. She uses the phrase "brave new world" unironically, as she is genuinely excited to experience what the world has to offer beyond her island. Huxley's use of the phrase, though, is ironic: the dystopian "brave new world" he envisions in this novel is harrowing rather than exciting.
Chapter 15 of the book alludes to The Tempest directly, formalizing this connection between the novel's title and Miranda:
"Now, suddenly, they trumpeted a call to arms. ‘O brave new world!’ Miranda was proclaiming the possibility of loveliness, the possibility of transforming even the nightmare into something fine and noble. ‘O brave new world!’ It was a challenge, a command."
Importantly, the character of John in Brave New World is deeply interested in Shakespeare. In fact, Shakespeare's written works serve as a kind of guiding force for the young man, helping him contextualize and describe the world around him. Given his experiences in this horrific "brave new world," he interprets the passage differently than perhaps intended: as a call to change this dystopian world rather than an expression of excitement or appreciation of it.
Related Themes:
