Brave New World – Summary of Each Chapter

Brave New World Summary – A regular on the AP reading list, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a dystopian novel that asks what a society is willing to trade for stability and peace. It’s a book that hasn’t lost its relevance. Ninety-two years after its publication, its presentation of the pacifying effects of drugs, sex, and media seems prescient. Whether you’re getting ready to read it for a class, or you’ve seen one of the made-for-TV films, this summary will give you the main points so that you can really appreciate Huxley’s chilling indictment of utopianism.  

A quick overview: Firstly, the book presents a world in which individuals are produced and conditioned according to caste (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon). Alphas are athletic, intelligent, and conditioned for independence and leadership, while Episons are referred to as “semi-morons’ and are used for menial labor. The book focuses on four main characters, Bernard Marx, his sometimes sexual partner Lenina, Helmholtz, and John (“the Savage”).     

Brave New World Summary

Brave New World Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter one introduces the Central London Hatchery, one of the facilities where the World State produces its citizens. The Central London Hatchery is an embryonic assembly line, where embryos are fertilized and “predestined” according to the needs of the World State. Chapter one also introduces the different castes of citizens – Alphas and Betas, who are intelligent and destined for leadership and responsibility – Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, whose embryos are “predestined” in the hatchery for a life of manual labor. 

Brave New World Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter two shows the social conditioning at the hatchery and explains the economic reasons behind them. For example, Deltas and Epsilons are conditioned to hate books and nature while loving outdoor sports. This combination guarantees that they will consume transport and sports equipment, which will contribute to the economy. Chapter two also introduces “hypnopaedia” – “sleep-teaching” – which the state uses to condition moral responses in their citizens. 

Brave New World Chapter 3 Summary

Still on tour around the conditioning center, the sexual explorations of young children are compared with the prudishness of the past. Chapter three introduces three main characters – his fordship, Mustapha Mond, the world controller for western Europe, Lenina Crowne, whose relative monogamy is out of the ordinary, and Bernard Marx, who, while an Alpha-plus, is short and spends most of his time alone (gasp!). Mustapha’s lectures about the past (world war, Christianity, the elimination of family and culture, forced consumption) are interspersed with Lenina’s thoughts about possibly going out with Bernard and Bernard’s angry thoughts about the treatment of women in the World State. We’re also introduced to soma – a drug that counteracts every negative feeling – and the “Savage Reservation.”

Brave New World Chapter 4 Summary

On her way to a round of obstacle golf with Henry Foster, Lenina, meets Bernard in the elevator and agrees to spend a week with him in July. Bernard gets into his helicopter and goes over to the office of his friend, Helmholtz Watson, a fellow Alpha-plus (though he, unlike Bernard, looks the part) whose myriad successes – job, sports, women – have left him feeling empty. A writer by trade, Helmholtz has grown tired of writing ditties for advertisements and sleep learning. The two go to Bernard’s house and talk about their growing dissatisfaction with the emptiness of the World State. 

Chapter 5

As she and Henry return from a round of Obstacle Golf, Lenina thinks about the sleep-learning that has conditioned her. While flying past the crematorium, they spout such platitudes and “Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons,”and “Everybody’s happy now.” Lenina and Henry take soma, attend a concert, take more soma, then go to his house and have sex. 

Meanwhile, Bernard attends a “Solidarity Service,” a religious-like service when twelve people sing, take soma, and then have group sex. At the end of the orgy, rather than feeling more connected, Bernard feels even more alienated. 

Chapter 6

Though Bernard is reluctant to spend time with other people, Lenina convinces him to attend a sporting event. On the way back, Bernard hovers the helicopter above an angry sea. Bernard declares all sorts of heresies about his desire to be an individual. Lenina is terrified and spouts endless hypno-pablum. Bernard seems to give up – he starts laughing and fondles Lenina’s breast. They return to Bernard’s apartment where they take soma and have sex. When they meet up the next day, Lenina is puzzled that Bernard seems sadder than ever. 

In section two of chapter six, Bernard takes his travel permit to be signed by the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. Upon seeing that Bernard is going to the New Mexico reservation, the Director absent-mindedly tells a story about how he visited the same reservation 25 years previous with the woman he was seeing at the time. There had been a violent storm and the woman had been lost and never found. Realizing that he has shared too much, the Director becomes angry and threatens to send Bernard to Iceland if he doesn’t start behaving. 

Bernard and Lenina arrive at the reservation in section three. They visit the warden, who tells them all about the natives. While listening to the warden, Bernard realizes he’s left his eau-de-Cologne tap open – which will cost him a fortune if left on. He phones Helmholtz, who promises to turn it off. Helmholtz also tells Bernard that the Director is going to follow through with his threat to send him to Iceland. Bernard is terrified – Lenina convinces him to take some soma. He dozes off and wakes when they land in the reservation. 

Brave New World Chapter 7 Summary

Having arrived at the reservation, Bernard and Lenina witness a harvest ceremony in Malpais. A boy of 18 is whipped until collapse in honor of Jesus and Pookong. Lenina is shocked and disgusted at the violence. When the ceremony is complete, they are joined by a pale youth who speaks English. He explains that his mother, Linda, came from “the Other Place” before he was born and that his father’s name was Tomakin. At this point, Bernard suspects that this young man is the son of the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. 

The young man, John, takes Bernard and Lenina to his mother, Linda. Linda, a Beta who worked in the Fertilizing Room in the Hatchery and Conditioning Center, explains her situation to Lenina. She tells how different the mores of the reservation are compared to “civilization.” Linda’s promiscuity – “everyone belongs to everyone else” – caused her and John to be ostracized from the community. 

Chapter 8

Bernard asks John to tell him everything that he remembers growing up on the reservation. John tells about men coming to his mother for sex and the woman whipping her for her promiscuity. When John was about 12, Linda found him an ancient copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. John reads and reads to deal with his being ostracized from the community. Moved, Bernard offers to take John and Linda back to London with him. (It’s clear that Bernard is going to use them to humiliate the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning and get his position back.) John asks if Bernard and Lenina are married and, when he finds out they are not, declares “O brave new world that has such people in it.”  

Chapter 9

Bernard gets permission from Mustapha Mond to bring Linda and John back to London. While Bernard is gone, John sneaks into Lenina’s room, goes through her suitcase, and watches her sleep. His thoughts go to various lines from Shakespeare. He has lustful thoughts about her, hears an approaching helicopter, and leaves her room in a panic. 

Brave New World Chapter 10 Summary

Upon his return to London, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning summons Bernard to the Fertilizing Room to be dressed down and dismissed (to Iceland) in front of his peers. The Director announces to the assembled that Bernard’s unacceptable conduct outside the workplace threatens society as a whole. When asked whether he “can…show any reason why I should not now execute the judgment,” Bernard brings in Linda and John. At first, the crowd laughs at Linda, but when she says to the Director, “You made me have a baby,” a hush falls over the crowd. When John comes in and calls the Director “my father,” the Director flees, humiliated. 

Chapter 11

John and Linda’s arrival in London makes Bernard the most popular man in town – everyone wants to come to his parties and women are eager to have sex with him. Linda retreats into a permanent soma-holiday, while John is feted and shown all the technological marvels London has to offer. Lenina too is feted on her return. One day, Bernard asks her to take John out on the town. Lenina agrees, hoping she’ll finally get to have sex with him. Lenina takes John to a “feelie” (a multisensory porn film) and expects him to come with her into her apartment. To her confusion and consternation, he refuses, returns to his room, and re-reads Othello. 

Chapter 12

Chapter twelve opens at one of Bernard’s parties – we see him begging John to come out of his room to meet his guests. John refuses – the assembled guests are outraged and begin to insult Bernard openly. Lenina too is disappointed – John’s continued rejections have only stoked her longing for him. Bernard’s fall from grace is swift – without John to parade in front of his guest, his new friends abandon him. Only John and Helmholtz remain steadfast.

Helmholtz too has been in trouble. Recently, in his class on rhyme and propaganda, Helmholtz read one of his own poems (on solitude!) to his students. They promptly report him to the principal, who threatens to fire him. Upon hearing Helmholtz’s poem, John begins to read Shakespeare to him. Helmholtz is enchanted and laments that he has no hurt or sadness to write about. 

Brave New World Chapter 13 Summary

Lenina is pining over John, who steadfastly refuses to make a move. She’s distracted at work and snippy with her friends. Lenina’s friend Fanny tells her to keep trying. Girding her loins (and taking some soma), Lenina heads over to John’s place determined to have sex with him. When she arrives, John declares his love for her but insists he must do something to be worthy of her. She mistakes his ardor for consent and undresses. Horrified (in Shakespearean), John calls her a whore and an “impudent strumpet.” Lenina hides in the bathroom, terrified of his rage. While Lenina hides in the bathroom, John receives a call that his mother is dying. He leaves immediately – Leninia creeps out and escapes. 

Chapter 14

John rushes to the hospital to see his mother. She is drugged and seems not to recognize him. While John sings to her and thinks about their time together, a batch of children come in to be death-conditioned. John tries to connect with Linda – to his horror, she calls him Popé at first (one of the men who she used to have sex with on the reservation). When she does recognize him, she thinks he’s interrupting her time with Popé in Malpais and becomes agitated. All of the sudden, Linda struggles to breathe. John runs to get a nurse, but, by the time they return, Linda is dead. 

Chapter 15

Despondent after his mother’s death, John exits the hospital just as its Delta menial workers are receiving their soma ration. Ariel’s lines ring in his ears – “O brave new world.” – and John shouts at the workers to give up soma. In a panic, the Alpha soma distributor calls Bernard, who comes (with Helmholtz) just in time to see John throwing boxes of soma out the window. Bernard is terrified, but Helmholtz jumps in and starts throwing out soma with John. The police soon arrive and blanket the whole crowd with soma-gas. Peace restored, the police take John, Bernard, and Helmholtz into custody. 

Brave New World Chapter 16 Summary

Bernard, John, and Helmholtz are taken to Mustapha Mond’s office. When questioned by John, Mustapha explains that in this society, art, science, and happiness have been sacrificed in the name of caste-based stability. He then informs Bernard and Helmholtz that they are to be sent to an island. Bernard collapses at the news – Helmholtz asks to be sent somewhere with a bad climate so that he might write better. Mond reveals that he too was on the verge of being sent to an island. As a brash, young scientist he was given the choice of exile or leadership and chose the latter. 

Chapter 17

After Helmholtz goes to check on Bernard, Mond and John have an extended philosophical conversation about God. John asserts that it’s completely natural to feel the presence of God, while Mond argues that people feel the presence of God because they’re conditioned to do so. Ultimately, against the banal stability of London, John wants “something with tears for a change,” to which Mond responds, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.” 

Chapter 18

In this, the final chapter of the book, John takes his leave of civilization, taking up residence in a lighthouse far from London. Here he intends to purify himself through work, meditation, and occasional (literal) self-flagellation. Public interest in him wanes until one day a photographer films John whipping himself. The next day, helicopters swarm the lighthouse. A woman implied to be Lenina steps off a helicopter and approaches John, who flies into a rage. John starts to whip her and the others begin to whip themselves and Lenina. This violence becomes a soma-fueled orgy. The next morning, John wakes up, remembers what happened and hangs himself. 

Brave New World Summary – Conclusion

In some ways, Huxley’s Brave New World functions as the faux-utopian counterpart of George Orwell’s 1984 (check out this summary of 1984 if you’re interested). While Orwell’s text imagines compliance through state violence, Huxley’s book imagines pacification through infantilization. Both wonder at the ethical costs of stability – what are we willing to sacrifice for a stable society?  

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