A prophecy

Brave New World has been seen as a prophetic vision of both the near and the far future. As regards

to the near future, Brave New World was written before Hitler came to power in Germany (1933) and

before Stalin started the purges that caused the death of millions of people in Soviet Union. As a

matter of fact Huxley had no immediate reason to focus on terror and tyranny as the major topics of

the story. Therefore it seems to be prophetic. In 1958 Huxley himself said: 'The future dictatorship of

my imaginary world was a good deal less brutal than the future dictatorship so brilliantly portrayed

by Orwell'. But in the novel there are also many parallels between 'the new world' and the present

society, elements that are present in nowadays world like: the increased surveillance, the power of

advertising, the growing importance of the role played by technology in our lives, the development of

genetic engineering, etc. Under this point of view the novel represents still nowadays a significant

warning.

Issues of the time

The novel also contains many issues of the time in which Huxley lived, the early 20th century. The

society had been transformed by the Industrial Revolution, mass production had started making cars

and radios available to most people. The world had changed a lot since the beginning of the century

and these changes were brought about by progress on whose advantages and disadvantages he

encourages the reader to reflect on.

1984 and Brave New World

Brave New World has become one of the classical science-fiction novels along with Orwell's 1984.

1984 also describes a world of the future, and it is a terrible one, of total control and perpetual

warfare. Brave New World describes a world in which all human beings, created artificially and

conditioned, seem to be happy. Apparently a much better world than the one depicted in 1984 but as

much as 1984 a loveless and sinister place.