Literature is both shaped by and shapes our culture. For this reason, it is an effective representation of the culture of an era. You can tell how much people were affected by the events of the time by how it comes across in their writings. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a perfect example. The work was aimed at people living in a post-World War I world. We live in a time between World War I and World War II when the world is still shocked by how quickly the science of war has advanced. People also continue to be dismayed by the mass death of a world war caused by such technology and therefore yearn for a more stable world. Because of this desire, they attempt to create a more stable environment for themselves. Most people had lost faith in the institutions they knew because those institutions were the cause of the war. This is why the League of Nations was founded in 1919, just 13 years before Brave New World was published in 1932. Like Brave New World, the themes of the literature of the time were dark; they were usually alone. The era was one of people fighting for something against a world that had lost its absolute values. There is no happy ending thanks to good fortune or a hero or heroine coming to the rescue; we are what we make of ourselves. Another recurring theme is aversion to war. This stems from certain historical aspects of the time. Ethics in the modern period were very situational and there was no absolute set of moral standards valid in all situations. Moral expectations are different in times of war and in times of peace. The massive loss of life during the First World War in Britain brought the theme of destruction through technology into many works of the period. All of these themes are present in Aldous Huxley's work...... middle of article ......http http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/people/aldoushuxley.htmhttp://www .huxley.net/index.htmlhttp://www.huxley.net/ah/aldoushuxley-biography.htmlhttp://go.galegroup.com /ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420004194&v=2.1&u=flor14265&it= r&p=LitRC&sw=wClareson, Thomas D. "The Classic: Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'." Extrapolation 3.1 (December 1961): 33-40. Rep. in contemporary literary criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Flight. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1973. Information Resource Center. Internet. May 10. 2011. Firchow, Peter Edgerly. “The End of Utopia: A Study of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” The End of Utopia: A Study of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Bucknell University Press, 1984. Rpt. in contemporary literary criticism. Ed. James P. Draper and Jennifer Allison Brostrom. Flight. 79. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Information Resource Center. Internet. May 10. 2011.