The Roaring Twenties and Brave New World.

As a bit of a history buff, I cannot believe it took me this long to realize this. I've been reading this book since April and it just barely dawned on me. I'm sure Kevin Cabusora has thought about this.

The Roaring Twenties and their impact on Brave New World. I'll try to keep this as short as simple, but even then this might be rather long.

Also, this is based purely on my knowledge of History. I'll try to analyze what effect the 20s had on Huxley's novel.

Let's begin with the flapper. The flapper was a term used in the 20's to refer to young women who challenged the morals of the Victorian Age. They wore short skirts, cut their hair, listened to jazz, wore excessive makeup, but most importantly treated sex in a casual manner. This was the most shocking part of it all to their elders. Sex outside of marriage was unacceptable. Women also began using contraceptives, which were being popularized by Margaret Sanger, the American leader of the birth-control movement. In short, they rejected the values of the 19th century.

These scandalous sexual behaviors must have shocked Huxley, a member of a well established family with its members in fields such medicine, art, and science. And of course, he wasted no time in incorporating these preposterous behaviors into his novel.

In the 20s, Americans started to question the Bible as a source for answer to fundamental questions and severed affiliation with the Church. they began distancing themselves form God. Huxley eliminated God in his book altogether.


Another big part was that Scientists began to experiment with embryos. They believed they could manipulate the fetus thereby influencing its behaviors and development. Huxley amplified this in his novel to the point where they can can spawn 96 children from one egg.

Another fad in the 20s was sleep teaching. What better way to teach yourself while sleeping? While it was later proved that it isn't very effective, it was very popular at the time. Again, Huxley saw yet another ingredient for his novel.

In the 1920s, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin came into power in Italy and Russia respectively. These were totalitarian governments, similar to the ones in Brave New World.

One of the most pervasive themes in Brave New World is consumerism. With goods flooding the market like waves on a beach, advertising agencies ceased merely informing the public about prices and products. They hired psychologists to study how to best appeal to people. Slogans like "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" lured Americans away for candy and towards cigarettes (Lucky was a brand of cigarettes). Luxury items were portrayed as necessities. These slogans are seen in Brave New World. "A gramme is better than a damn." Often, they seem to rhyme. The slogans of the 20s rhymed as well, so as to catch the people's attention.

Another aspect of this was mass producing. Goods were intentionally designed so that they would be rendered obsolete by newer models within a few months. This forced consumers to buy the newer goods. The cycle repeated itself across all manner of products. This is seen in the command economy of the world state. To make sure everyone is employed, they must keep production of goods at a steady rate. To do this, the condition their citizen's with the phrase "Ending is better than mending." Thereby keeping the Command Economy of the world state functioning.

I will refrain form going on any further. I think this is enough. If anyone spots any error in the accuracy of what I have said, please point them out. Everything here was pulled from my own knowledge so there is a good chance I might have made a mistake.