After the enormous success of his most celebrated novel, A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley has remained a master of the dystopian novel. Composed in an innovative format, Huxley’s Ape and Essence takes the form of a movie script written by the enigmatic character, William Tallis.
Science Fiction and Surrealism
Huxley’s novel begins with extensive surrealist imagery of man as an ape. Huxley wastes no time making his readers aware of his observations of mankind. Huxley depicts man as an ignorant, belligerent, and ultimately destructive apelike creature. Concerned only with war and technology, mankind has become so removed from reality that it has been reduced to a group of unintelligent animals. In Huxley’s creative tale, mankind spirals violently towards a World War III which results in the near destruction of mankind.
Plot Synopsis
The story moves forward a hundred years after extreme nuclear warfare has ravaged most of the planet. However, because of New Zealand’s isolated location it was spared from the destruction. Consequently, a team of scientists voyage from New Zealand to the affected region in hopes of conducting research there. After the protagonist, Botanist Dr. Poole, is kidnapped by a group of savage inhabitants who are digging up a grave in search of clothes, he quickly witnesses what has been the result of many years of radiation and nuclear fallout. As a result, a strange and illiterate society has come to prominence.
Themes in Ape and Essence
Throughout the novel, Huxley focses on a specific theme: society seems to have regressed to absolute barbarism. Books are used as fuel, deformed babies (which are common after the radiation) are sacrificed to Belial (Satan). Women are considered the “vessels of Unholiness” and consequently become the scapegoat for all of society’s evil. This engaging tale races towards its climax at Belial’s Day, which commemorates the annual sacrificing of deformed babies to Belial, as well as an annual orgy amongst the remaining members of society. During the same scene Dr. Poole and the Arch Vicar engage in an immensely powerful dialogue of philosophy and morality reminiscent of the memorable conversation between John, the Savage, and Mustapha Mond in A Brave New World.
Novel Structure
The book’s format is slightly different than a conventional novel. Because Huxley writes most of the novel as if it were a film script, he allows himself to create a masterful work of art through the deliberate juxtaposition of narrative and camera direction, which he ntersperses with the story’s already engaging plotline. Huxley also mixes his mediums skillfully, interjecting haunting vignettes at intermittent points throughout the novel.
 |
