Religion in Brave New World Literary Analysis Essay Sample

“God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness“ (234). Can something be a religion if a government forces its people to believe in it? The idea of religion is to give people hope and an incentive to live life, but if people know nothing about the actual roles they are living, that idea becomes diminished. Religion has always been powerful enough to brainwash an entire civilization, and throughout history, that has been the case. People become so accustomed to what they believe in, which causes them to tune out other ideas that are not their own. In Brave New World, the reader learns about the drastically unique beliefs of Brave New World London and the ¨savage¨ Malpais.  People have no free choice in a system such as The World State, where individuality is simply incompatible with happiness. Religion is supposed to be for personal choice, with freedom at hand; however, neither religion believes that. 

In Brave New World, Huxley writes religion in a mockery of society’s appearance if everyone was under control by the ones in charge. The duality of the two different societies is contrasted many times throughout the book, but they only come in contact halfway through. In the dystopian London that is focused on throughout the novel, we find out that there is no true religion, only what the World State allows. Everyone belongs to everyone else; no one should keep to themselves. They have a “solidarity service,” which simply is an orgy between the higher caste people. This ritual institutes that everyone must belong to everyone else and shows the faux idea of religion that is taking place. With a lack of a deity figure, the government takes that role. Instead of a “God” to believe in, the people look towards Henry Ford, who created the assembly line idea and is the perfect role for this society to follow. Saying things such as “oh, Ford!” though he is not a god, only what they have in which to believe. This government teaches to dissociate from nature and one’s natural being to become emotionless, drugging their entire population with “Soma.” Later on, when Mustapha Mond is discussing with John, Mond explains the significance of soma. 

“In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is” (238). Mond mentions that soma can neutralize humans’ most significant problem and make us emotionless. 

Consequently, people become treated like slaves, just following their roles.

Nevertheless, we meet the Native Americans in Malpais; their ideas are seemingly the antithesis of what the reader knows at this point in the novel. The Native American’s beliefs revolve around a human’s natural self, becoming innate. When Lenina, a foreigner, arrived at Malpais, she noticed the ongoing Native American ritual. 

Suddenly it was as though the whole air had come alive and were pulsing, pulsing with the indefatigable movement of blood. Up there, in Malpais, the drums were being beaten. Their feet fell in with the rhythm of that mysterious heart; they quickened their pace. Their path led them to the foot of the precipice. The sides of the great mesa ship towered over them, three hundred feet to the gunwale. (108)

The disgust that follows the sight of this ritual by Lenina further proves the disparity between the two worlds.