Chapter 17

Summary

John remains with Mond and says that the sacrifices of art and science are too big a price to pay for contentment. 

Mond goes on to say that they have also sacrificed God.  John knows little about religion and is only really familiar with the Indian’s superstition. 

Mond says that the citizens of the Brave New World have no need for God. They are always content and secure so they don’t need consolation or forgiveness from anybody.

Religion is all about self-denial, chastity, and nobility. These things are not present in this society. They have a different form of Christianity – one without tears.

John grows defiant and will have nothing to do with this artificial Utopia.  He wishes to keep the right to be unhappy.

John goes on to say that he has the right to old age, disease, poverty, fear and pain. He claims them all.

Mond responds, “You’re welcome.”

Interpretation

We now reach full understanding of the philosophy behind Huxley’s Brave New World. In Utopia there is no need for art, science and religion.  These three represent man’s spiritual endeavors. There is no spirit in the Brave New World. There is no soul.  These three elements mark man’s superiority over the beasts. The Utopian society has taken away all that is human, and what are left are just biological units working together in a vicious circle of production and consumption. 

This is the warning that Huxley is giving to mankind. 

John’s argument is that there cannot be true pleasure and fulfillment without sacrifice and hard work.

Huxley was also criticizing his contemporaries in the Western world, which were becoming too materialistic and consuming far more than they needed.  He was opposed to the ideology that the gross natural product must keep increasing. 

We have seen that Bernard and Helmholtz are lost.  So is John. He felt that he could always return to the reservation after his visit to Utopia.  He naively thought that he could turn back. This will not be possible.