The Savage Reservation

Certain areas of the earth were considered to be too expensive and difficult to civilize, and were set aside as Savage Reservations. Marx, as an Alpha-plus psychologist, obtained special privilege to go to the Reservation and observe the Savages, and takes Crowne with him. When they first arrive, they witness a brutal ritual where the Savages whip a boy as he walks around a pit of snakes, offering his blood to their gods. After the ceremony they find the house of a woman who had once been a member of the World State, who had a son who could speak both English and the tongue of the Savages. Because of the shame of being a mother, the woman never returns to London. After talking to the boy about his life, where he was shunned by the tribe for his light complexion, Marx befriends him because of their shared status as outsiders, and takes him back to the World State for studying.

Huxley uses the Savage Reservation to contrast the World State. While the one is free and connected to nature, the other is restrained and mechanical. However, Huxley does not mean to praise the Savages. In some ways, their practices are more perverse than those of civilized society. Self-abuse and constant sacrifice are exalted in their society, and the people live in absolute squalor, with little development or happiness. Huxley uses the Reservation and the State to say that human beings are trapped “between insanity on the one hand and lunacy on the other” (vii). Returning to the past can cause us insanity, with a devotion to tradition that can prevent adaptation and lead to desolation for the people. Rushing into the future with utopian ideals can destroy our freedoms. Both major paths before humans can lead to their own forms of ruin, and we as a society must find another way into the future in order to avoid our own madness.