Page 1 of 5
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 130
‘Brave New World’ – A Science Fiction
Meenakshi
M.A. & NET (English)
Assistant Professor (Guest)
B.P.S.I.H.L, B.P.S.M.V., Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat (HR.)
Abstract: Science fiction is a kind of fiction which comes into existence in the 19th
century. Earlier, people used to believe that God and the other religious things are the
agents which bring good and bad incidents in their lives. They thought that if they do
something wrong, God will punish them in hell but everything changes after Charles
Darwin published his book, ‘Origin of the Species’ in 1859. In this book, Darwin refused
all these religious claims and explained everything in a scientific manner.
Keywords: Fiction, Species, Literary, Social, Invention, Mankind, Science.
Introduction: Now people become aware of the fact that there is no heaven or hell and
they can make their life comfortable by creating new things with the help of science.
New discoveries and inventions started taking place. These inventions and discoveries
not only changed the social life of mankind but it also changes the perspective of the
writers of the literary world. A new kind of fiction called science fiction or sci-fi comes as
a result of these new thoughts in the literary world. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
is often considered a precursor of science fiction but the basing of fictional worlds on
explicit and coherently developed scientific principles did not occur until late in the 19th
century in such writings as H.G. Wells, ‘The War of the Worlds” and Jules Verne’s
“Journey to the Centre of the Earth”. (M.H. Abrams, P. 275)
Page 2 of 5
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 131
It is not easy to define science fiction because it includes a variety of subgenres
such a space travel, time travel and genetic enhancement. Some writers try to give a
complete definition of it but nobody have been successful in his attempt. A closer
definition to the science fiction can be of Issac Asimov who said, “Science fiction can be
defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to
changes in science and technology.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Alclous Huxley’s Brave New World are the
examples of science fiction. Huxley’s Brave New World was published in 1932. According
to M.H. Abrams, science fiction is applied to those narratives in which an explicit
attempt is made to render plausible the fictional world by reference to known or
imagined scientific principles, or to a projected advanced in technology or to a drastic
change in the organization of society”. (M.H. Abrams, p. 132) Huxley's novel is a science
fiction because it talks about a world created entirely through test tube babies in order
to create a perfectly organized society, a society where babies are decanted and not
born. It is a society where children are not brought up by parents but kept in the state
conditioning centers. The technology of test tube baby is boon for the couples who are
unable to bear children but the way it can be misused to create designer babies can be
disastrous as shown in the novel.
In this novel, an attempt is made to create a society where there is no struggle,
no sorrow and sadness. For this the babies are conditioned in such a way that they will
be suitable for the purpose for which they are created. Babies are produced in a
mechanical way.
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