Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, creates a society in which industrialization and manufactured or unreal happiness are exceedingly prevalent. This is shown through the author's use of the Hatchery, or the laboratory designed to create human beings out of test tubes, as well as the significant practice of mindless drugs and sex. Disturbingly, this novel seems worrisome even today, what with the overuse and possible legalization of certain drugs, and also the more relaxed sexual codes of current society. Huxley's vision of a truly industrialized society seems not far off, judging by the highly mechanized world we live in, and how machines are slowly taking over the jobs that were once held by humans. The alternative in Brave New World is the polar opposite of this type of society. Huxley writes of reservations for the “savages” or the humans who did not follow along with the rest of society. Bernard sees “the squalor of that little house on the outskirts of the pueblo...two famine-stricken dogs were nosing obscenely in the garbage at its door,” and simply cannot believe that anyone could live in such filth, and with such strange rituals (Huxley 118). This village is the exact opposite of the mechanized society that Bernard lives in, and would thus seem more favorable to actual human beings, yet Huxley seems to present it in an almost negative light as well. There are all the problems of current society, perhaps magnified by their poorer conditions, and these seem extremely tough on the individuals who are a part of this society. There is almost a desire for a middle ground, in which pleasure is allowed, but in moderation, and industrialization is allowed to provide for basic needs, but not be so overwhelming.
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