The Purpose of a Dystopia in Brave New World

The plot of Brave New World is ultimately a critique on the master narrative of progress as it explores a world of failed perfection. Dystopias depict a history of the future, a paradise lost, and explore mistakes in history through a hyperbolised and intensified form. To society, dystopias warn individuals of possible disastrous futures, prompting them to take action. Within the plot of Brave New World, the futuristic dystopian society is conditioned to willingly comply with societal constructs through manipulation. In this future society, governments have complete dictatorial control over people, while state control and conformity replaced the freedoms of modern life. The consequence of state control are a loss of dignity, morals, values and emotions – the underlying loss of humanity. ‘you swallow two or three half gramme tablets…you can carry half of your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears – that’s what Soma is.’ This is attuned to the fact that a foundation that the society was built upon was a drug, Soma, which provided artificial happiness. ‘’The world’s stable now. People are happy, they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get…and if anything should go wrong, there’s soma.’ ’It appears that the only citizens who are able to find faults within the society are the estranged non-conformists such as Bernard and Helmholtz; the characters who posed as unique, individual or distinctive. This is shown through the words of Helmholtz as he describes Soma: ’Yes, men! Men!’’ and there was no more poison left. He picked up the cash-box and showed them its black emptiness. ‘’You’re free!’’ Brave New World reveals the cost at which progress or perfection comes at. It questions the fundamental concept of ‘progress’ itself. The form of dystopias conclusively challenges the master narrative of progress as an audience can’t believe in a failed world which strips society of its freedom.

The characters in the novel do everything to avoid coming face to face with the truth about their situations – as if they are in a trance of denial. The universal use of the drug Soma is the most persuasive example of a wilful self-delusion – a lie. The power of Soma clouds the realities of characters and replaces them in happy hallucinations and is a tool for social stability. ‘Everyone works for everyone else…We can’t do without anyone.’ The truths explored within the novel are objective truths: which is reliant on facts, and human truths: which is reliant on individuality. John’s search for truth can be seen In his love for Shakespeare, where the search for truth is paralleled with the quest for truth in Brave New World. According to Mustapha Mond, you must sacrifice truth to accomplish a happy monotonal society; ‘stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune…happiness is never grand.’ When the truth is exposed to society, people will not accept a problematic happiness. The conception of happiness is not something that can create a radically change in the world view. This is why John decides to avoid the new world and takes his life because of it. ‘You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed high art.’ Brave new world has meticulously given consumption an almost holy significance to Soma which has religious connotations, making the culture that exists around it being a conductive pathway. And hence, this challenged the master narrative of progress, as modern society seeks.