Not Quite There

The common people of Brave New World consider themselves to be living in a utopia. In their opinion, "everyone is happy." When they would be unhappy, they take hallucinagens that make them think that they are happy. This satisfies the part of our definition of utopia about there being no unhappiness. There is however, some unrest.



On rare ocations, people grow dissatisfied, and are not happy with what is going on. These people are sent off to islands where they are not restricted by the same bounds as the rest of the society. There is no indication in the text that they are not happy there, so they to satisfy the definition.



There is one character who is not happy with the society and is not appeased and sent to an island. He would appear to disprove the utopian status of the society upon first glance, however, he is not really a member of the society. He was raised outside of it giving him different values and beliefs, so he does not count as a member and cannot disprove it on his own. He tries to upset the balance of the society, but he fails. This further suggests that the society is a utopia.

In the end, John the Savage hangs himself because once he entered the civilization, he could not escape it. This is where the book ends. The book gives the impression upon reading it, that there there are no loose threads capable of bringing down the civilization. All of the characters who seemed to posses the ability to threaten it were dealt with. It appears as though a successful utopia has been created in the book.