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1-Page Summary of Brave New World

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The Director of the Central London Hatcheries leads a group of students on a tour. He shows how babies are produced in bottles and how each individual is conditioned to conform to the moral rules of society. The conditioning process is different for each caste, but all castes are conditioned to seek instant gratification, be sexually promiscuous, engage in economic consumption, and use soma (drugs) to escape from unpleasant circumstances.

Students and the Director are excited to see Mustapha Mond, one of the 10 World Controllers. He lectures on how they created a perfect society by eliminating all intense emotions from people’s lives. In the Hatchery changing rooms, Lenina Crowne is criticized by her friend Fanny for only dating one man. She decides she needs to date more men to be happy in this world.

Bernard is outraged when he hears that Henry Foster and another man are talking about having Lenina. Later, Bernard invites Lenina to go see the Savage Reservation with him. He then visits his friend Helmholtz Watson and the two criticize the World State. Bernard is dissatisfied because he’s small while Helmholtz feels constrained by being so exceptional at everything he does.

While Lenina goes on a date with Henry, Bernard attends the Solidarity Service. The attendees take soma and chant about their devotion to Ford Motor Company. They go into an ecstatic frenzy as they call out to “our Ford” and collapse in an orgy. Bernard is aware that he is the only one who doesn’t find it fulfilling.

The Director signs a permit to allow Bernard to visit the Savage Reservation with Lenina. He reminisces about his trip 20 years earlier, when he went on a trip and lost his female companion in a storm. The Director threatens to reassign Bernard if he doesn’t do well on this project.

In the reservation, after watching some disturbing rituals, Bernard and Lenina meet a young man named John. He quotes Shakespeare and his mother is Linda. They find out that Linda was separated from the director and that John is their son. The Director had threatened to exile Bernard if he found out about this child so Bernard plots revenge by humiliating him in public for having an affair with Linda. This leads to the Director’s resignation because of public scandal

John, “the Savage,” is a hit in London society. But he’s troubled by the World State and doesn’t like that people take soma so they can be happy. John has a friend named Bernard who becomes popular when he invites the Savage to his parties. However, John doesn’t want to go because of how much he dislikes being around other people. When Bernard confronts him about it, the guests turn on him for inviting someone who wasn’t worth their time. The truth is that Bernard invited them only because they wanted to meet with John but now they’ve lost interest in him since they didn’t get what they wanted from meeting with John.

Meanwhile, Lenina is increasingly preoccupied with John. She wonders if he likes her or not and hopes that he will ask her out on a date. After some time, John finally does so and she accepts his offer. He finds the promiscuity of World State society disgusting, however, and curses at her when she tries to seduce him. While she hides in the bathroom crying, John gets a phone call that his mother is dying back home in England.

At the hospital, Linda thought her son was her former lover. This made John angry and he interfered with the distribution of soma rations to some Deltas in the lobby. The rioting began as a result of this interference. Helmholtz and Bernard were told about what happened at the hospital by John’s friends, who warned them not to interfere. When they got there, Helmholtz joined John in his defiance while Bernard remained frozen in indecision during the rioting that followed after their arrival at Mustapha Mond’s office for questioning (who is head of society).