Drugs, promiscuous sex, birth control, and total happiness are the core values of the World State in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In today’s society things like drug use and reckless sex are often seen as taboo, but in World State, these activities are glorified and even considered normal. Aldous Huxley attempts to address to readers the harsh realities and cruel ways of our society in an exaggerated form. His purpose in doing so is to open the eyes of society to what the world might come to if things like technology and humanity get out of hand. In the World State, the motto that people are conditioned to live by is “Community, Identity, and Stability”, all three of which are ironically twisted to encourage members of the society …show more content…
Through this process, ninety-six copies are made using the same embryo. This results in people in the New World being exactly the same or almost identical to others from the same caste. Ideally, stability is attempted to minimize conflict and differences between the individualizes in the World State. Bernard thinks less of himself and believes that he is treated different than the other Alphas because of his height and “the mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects”( Huxley 65). Bernard Marx treats the three lower castes unfairly because he feels inferior to other Alphas and wants to assert his …show more content…
The process they go through to achieve this, is the Bokanovsky Process. In this process, they take one egg, and bud them together to produce ninety-six identical embryos. But this process is a prime example of a lack of identity in the World State. Everyone looks like each other in this society and no one really has a true identity of who they are. "I suppose Epsilons don't really mind being Epsilons," she said aloud. "Of course they don't. How can they? They don't know what it's like being anything else. We'd mind, of course. But then we've been differently conditioned. Besides, we start with a different heredity." "I'm glad I'm not an Epsilon," said Lenina, with conviction. "And if you were an Epsilon," said Henry, "your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren't a Beta or an Alpha” (Huxley 168). In this quote, Henry Foster is explaining to Lenina that people in their own society are conditioned to love themselves, and hate to be other castes of society. Lenina is oblivious to this, because she is also conditioned to believe what everyone else believes. This is a prime example of the lack of identity, because everyone in this society is brainwashed to think a certain way about their place in society. The people in these castes think they have a real thought of who they are, and the sad reality is that they really do
Often individuals choose to conform to society, rather than pursue personal desires because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than create a new one. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, this conflict is explored. Huxley starts the story by introducing Bernard Marx, the protagonist of the story, who is unhappy with himself, because of the way he interacts with other members of society. As the story progresses, the author suggests that, like soma, individuals can be kept content with giving them small pleasure over short periods of time. Thus, it is suggested in the book that if individuals would conform to their society’s norms, their lives would become much
People are made to love their jobs and abide by the caste system. They are encouraged to take Soma in order to prevent negative feelings and stress. The citizens are compliant with their government because of the moral conditioning. Conditioning makes them effective at their job and makes them content with the rules set forth for them. Children start taking “Elementary Class Consciousness” and “Elementary Sex” classes starting from a very young age. Children are conditioned based on their caste. The lower caste babies are subjected to “Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning”, which conditions them to fear flowers and books. If the lower classes were to want these things, they would soon want everything that the Alphas and Betas have. The Director of the Hatcheries says “ Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind” (29). The citizens are basically robots being controlled by the world state. They are not allowed to question the ideology that is forced upon them. The magnitude of power the world controllers possess reinforced my attitude regarding the dangerous outcome it can lead to. I believe that there should be a limit to one’s power or otherwise, it can lead to instability. The definition of beauty is unique to every individual. The attempt to force everyone follow one definition of a utopian society is highly problematic
Freedom is one of the pillars on which modern society is built upon. Our freedom, though it may give sadness, also gives purpose and quoting Walter Wangerin Junior: “The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow”. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World demonstrates a society deprived of its freedom through societal conditioning. The first instance of conditioning is the consumerist ideology and this ideology causes the loss of high arts and culture. The second instance of conditioning is found within the forced dependence of recreational drugs, causing the population to constantly pursue a shallow and temporary happiness. The third instance of conditioning is found within the caste system and prevents any individuality
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World describes a supposedly utopian society, however, citizens sacrifice basic freedoms to obtain an artificial happiness. This “artificial happiness” is one achieved by consuming material objects, meaningless sex, or soma, a pleasure-inducing drug. This parallels modern America in a multitude of ways, including our “pill-popping”, consumer driven society, in which obtaining an infinite supply of finite objects is deemed as success. In both societies, citizens turn to drugs, sex, and other distractions from the harsh realities of life including pain, death, and old age. Despite their numerous similarities, Brave New World and America also have several key differences. For example, the extremity of government control in Brave New World is not found in modern America. However, one could argue that social pressure is equally influential in choosing material objects, sex, and drugs over mental pursuits. This social pressure takes the form of advice, media, and the constant stress of remaining “ equal” to one’s peers. Modern American society parallels that of Brave New World with a consumer driven culture and nonsensical moral conditioning, causing a flawed value system.
The Brave New World portrays the perfect society, where citizens of “Utopia” live a life without depression, and any socioeconomic problems. In the New World, every portion of life is controlled. Only when a person is able to dig deeper inside of himself will he find that this world is nothing close to perfect. Drugs, sex, and mind games control this world and solve any problems that may arise, such as overpopulation, and caste tension. The usage of such tactics causes a loss of individuality.
Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley is a bizarre, infertile novel, and starts out in a futuristic society known as “the World State” with a group of young students receiving a tour of the “London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” from The Director. This novel is strange by having its system running in different casts like, Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons. Another way this is bizarre, is the whole world is taking soma to send them into “lunar eternity”, to escape from reality. This is anomalous because the Bokanovsky and Podsnap processes authorizes the hatchery to create practically identical human embryos.
However, when people are developed on an assembly line, it removes the uniqueness of being a human. Every embryo is developed to fit a certain criteria and perform specific tasks for the higher classes. Since World State is developing everyone through a test tube it removes mothers and natural birth out of the equations. There is a distinct bond between a parent and their child, not only does this help the child grow into a mature adult but it also helps them develop the necessary skills required to work and interact with other people. Furthermore, World State separates each person into a class, Alpha through Epsilon. This segregation prevents people from developing attachments and the attachments themselves are thoroughly discouraged, as Beckham mentioned: “A world in which the traditional family -in fact, any family at all- has been vilified and rendered taboo” (Beckham 68). World States has taken the human development process even further by conditioning each class to act in a specific manner. By doing so, they are removing the family and free will aspects out of people. Starting from an early age, people are taught to like certain aspects of life and to dislike others. This prevents people from getting curious about the other classes and being content with their own lives, as Mr. Foster says “We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as
The World State from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World desires a citizenry that is obedient, useful, and satisfied. This requires meticulous manipulation through conditioning, soma, and relationships to grow a population that accepts not only this falsified happiness but also a lack of freedom with gladness.
The society portrayed in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World depicts a civilization and world which seem abstract in reference to the world we live in. Although the vivid contrast between Huxley’s world and ours may seem bizarre, there are large similarities between the “new world” and our world today which tie these two separate depictions of society together. Brave New World has a society in which it’s sustained through various instruments to uphold social stability, such as the mass production of humans and pre-determination of an individual’s fate. Despite the rather odd-sounding methods which the other world implements, there are several concepts which connect the other world to ours, which can aid us in understanding certain aspects of our
Every individual has a different point of view as to how they view society. In the dystopian novel, “Brave New Word”, by Aldous Huxley, Bernard Marx, and John want individuality but struggle to find freedom and individuality in a society where the government restricts individuality. The totalitarian government controls individuals through technology, reduce the sense of individuality, and categorize citizens in different social classes. Bernard Marx works for the world state and is categorized as an alpha, but his physical appearance is different from the other alphas. As a result, he wants others to accept him, but others fail to accept him and gets sent away from the society. John visits the world state society and questions why others avoid
In to the future, there are no families, no mothers, and no reproduction. The government produces masses of people in single test tubes, and conditions them to conform to an assigned caste. Alphas are the highest social class, while Deltas are the scum of all classes. The system of rearing a society of clones,
In our present day lives, every person is distinguished with different personalities and are unique, however, in the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, it illustrates a generation where humans are specifically organized and self-restrained. There are many types of ways that characters experience an alienating or enriching type of displacement in their lives, such as Bernard Marx. In this community, there are five different castes, known as: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons - the Alphas being the most highest and the Epsilons considered low in standards. He is categorized as an Alpha, and Huxley demonstrates how he encounters such exile.
Both Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell, are considered cautionary tales due to a targeted aim to warn the reader of future danger. The threat of a totalitarian society is what Huxley and Orwell try to prevent from rooting itself into the heart of today’s society. Brave New World and 1984 contain key parts that are used to establish a totalitarian society in order to portray the dangers of becoming one. Both Brave New World and 1984 societies manipulate family units, especially children, love, and sexual drive in order to maintain a totalitarian society. However, Orwell and Huxley portray the disruption of family and sexual relations in opposite manners.
Throughout the story, the characters are presented in different social classes. In this World State, society isn 't broken down into race, sex, or wealth, it deals with the intelligence level of a human being. Character by character is presented with a strong detachment from reality and the lack of free will they are given. In the World State society can only exist if everyone conforms and in order to get everyone to appeal to their ideology, the Director, and everyone uses a genetic fallacy to trick the people of the New World that the reason everything functions normally and that nobody is out of place because they made them that way. "Alphas and Betas remain, in incubators, until definitely bottled, while the Gammas,
In the World State, the conditioning of humans is a way for the government to control the identity of each and every person in the society. Since the government is in charge of the births of everyone, it has the ability to control the number of people in each caste, as well as the population as a whole. The conditioning allows everyone to be content with the caste that they are in; lower castes members do not desire to be in a higher caste. The director of a birthing facility in the World State reveals, “All conditioning aims at […] making people like their inescapable social destiny” (Huxley 16). This is where the sacrificing of truth is shown; the people of the World State are happy and unaware of the truth that they could be living a better life.