Mustapha explains to the same “group of students” (read: “plot device”) how this society came about. We receive much of this information from the Director during his tour, but the rest is delivered via Mustapha Mond, a big-deal guy who happens to be one of ten World Controllers. The other big activity in this world is taking a narcotic called soma-a drug that sends its users off into “lunar eternity,” a trippy escape from reality. Also, orgies are a required bi-weekly event. “Every one belongs to every one else,” which means when a man wants to sleep with a woman, he publicly says, “Hey, you, let’s have sex tonight,” and she says, “OK.” (Basically.) Even little kids play games with each other like hunt-the-zipper (just use your imagination). In the World State, sex is casual, regular (as in, once-a-day), and explicit. However, this arrangement is the status quo. Moving right along, we meet two more of the novel’s characters, Lenina Crowne and Henry Foster, both workers in the hatchery. And you thought having an older brother was tough. Also, the lower castes are grown in batches, so that 100 Epsilons are all exact copies of one another. In this case, they use alcohol and oxygen deprivation.

These people figured out that the best way to keep non-Alphas stupid is to give them dangerous substances while they’re still in the test tube. Alphas are smart, tall, and muscular Epsilons short, dumb, and ugly. To make the system run more smoothly, humans are divided into various castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and… drum roll…Epsilons. It’s their job to be consumers and workers, which in turn keeps the economy stable and strong. Each person exists to serve the community. The Director explains to the students the process by which humans are grown inside bottles and then conditioned (read: brainwashed) to believe certain moral “truths.” This conditioning, also known as “hypnopaedia” or “sleep-teaching,” instructs the citizens to believe in the value of society over the individual.

Brave New World begins in an uncomfortably sterile and controlled futuristic society, commonly referred to as “the World State.” We join the story as a group of young students are receiving a factory tour of the “London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” from the center’s director, whose name is… The Director.

Brave new world summary