I would say that this book is thought-provoking, but that would be redundant considering that every book I've read on the list has been. I would be surprised if I came across a book on the list that wasn't. It is a list of the best books, after all.
I do have a special interest in dystopian novels like this. It fascinates me how many different ways our future can suck. Now I don't exactly think that we should be expecting this "brave new world," but reading about it gives me motivation to hold on to the things that these futuristic governments prohibit and abolish. I had the same feeling when I read Nineteen Eighty-Four. I felt the need to have more appreciation for privacy and, as well as with Brave New World, my free will. But this one introduced a new perspective.
In the opening chapters, some students are given a tour through the Department of Hatcheries and Conditioning, in which human eggs were fertilized synthetically. In result, no child had a family. The Director stumped the students with questions about what families, mothers, and fathers were. The word "mother" was taboo and obscene. (Warning: If any of you have any sort of manly respect for me, you might want to stop reading.) I can't help but have personal resentment for this lifestyle because I want so much to have my own family. A family in that walking-through-the-white-picket-fence-with-welcoming-hugs-and-kisses-from-your-children kind of way. (Secretly, I want to have all girls, too.) But enough about me. Back to the book.
I actually don't have a whole lot more to say about it. I am typing this literally immediately after I finished it and I'm still a little pensive about it. I'm sure the last chapter has a little of symbolic importance, but I'm still trying to figure that part out. It didn't end on a happy note, that's for sure, and if I didn't know any better, I would think that it kind of denounces individualism and glorifies a conformist government. I know that that isn't the message of the book, so I'm trying to think through it to find its true meaning. I would postpone this report, but I'm too anxious to start another book. Farewell, my friends, and don't become Communists.
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