Brave New World- Question #6 Why do we still read this book?

Brave New World is still read today because it depicts a controversial society that could either be described as a dystopia or utopia depending on the reader; the citizens are all happy, but does that really mean anything if it means they must sacrifice their individuality and free will as the price?

Readers can get several messages from this book.  The main message is telling us not to let anyone take control of our lives.  In this book the citizens of the World State are under the complete control of the government; they have no opinions of their own, and their morals and values are all determined by what kind of hypnopaedic phrases are fed into their brains by night (Huxley 20), but we have the power to exercise our own free will and believe in whatever we want to.  

Another reason this book is considered timeless is because it is easy to identify with the main character John.  Readers feel sorry for him because he is the most human character in this novel and he is being forced to live in a society where human nature has been removed from its citizens through conditioning and hypnopaedia.  His circumstances are even more piteous because even in the Reservation where the people aren't conditioned to have all human emotions destroyed he still doesn't fit in because of his white skin (Huxley 79).


Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Electronic.