Brave New World Essays - Social Science Fiction, Utopian Novels

Brave New World Essays - Social Science Fiction, Utopian Novels Brave New World The ideas presented in Huxleys Brave New World are expressed as fundamental principles of utopia, which could be achieved by classism. However, living in a so-called utopia, comes with a price. In this society, every beings destiny is planned out while they are still in their bottles. Depending on their caste, each person has his or her clearly defined role. Community, Identity and Stability is the motto and prime goal of Huxleys utopia. This goal can only be achieved by having a society divided into five caste social groups, because in such a society it is easier to maintain overall control of the people. Classism is the key to achieving the three goals of utopia, because it helps the world controllers have control and power over the people. Every society needs individuals with different talents and capabilities to perform different functions. The class system makes it easier for the world controllers to categorize the people they create. That way, the society isnt lacking any talents. Mr. Foster said, Im working on a wonderful Delta-Minus ovary at this moment. (6) Due to classism, the creators know what kind of people are necessary to fulfill the particular needs of the time. They even have control over how people in each caste think. The director was talking about Deltas when he said, Theyll grow up with what psychologists used to call and instinctive hatred of books and flowers. (18) Classism is a way of organizing and keeping track of people so that the world controllers are in charge of achieving utopia. The new world maintains community by enforcing classism because each person belongs to a certain caste, which is their community. The lives of the people are organized in a way so that a person is almost never alone. The World States motto emphasizes the importance of the group and the subsequent unimportance of the individual. Community stresses the importance attached to the individual as a contributor to society. Everyone works for everyone else. We cant do without anyone. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldnt do without Epsilons. (66) This way, the Alpha community is no more important that the Epsilon community. Reference is made to the contribution the individual makes even after death. Now they recover over ninety-eight percent of it [Phosphorus]. More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse. Fine to think that we can go on being socially useful even after death. Making plants grow (65) The body is cremated and the phosphorus is obtained equally from every class, thus making each caste equally important. Therefore, a class system provides an organized way of insuring that everyone belongs and is useful to a community in this perfect world. Identity is in large part the result of having the ability to create different castes due to genetic engineering. A particular character is often spoken of as a Beta or an Alpha, as a means of identification. Peoples castes can also be identified by their job. Alphas invariably rule and Epsilons invariably toil. Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines, the director s voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm. (5) From this quote it can be concluded that the director has intelligence and must be an Alpha, while the workers must be either Deltas, Gammas, Epsilons or Morons. If the quote mentioned what kind of uniforms the workers were wearing, one could determine exactly what caste they belonged to. Eight-month-old babies all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky group, it was evident) and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki. (17) Castes are also distinguished by their uniforms. Although there are different ways of identifying people in the society, the true identity is determined by the class they belonged to. Stability means minimizing conflict and classism ensures that people in each caste are conditioned the same, because that way they could understand each other and conflict would be avoided. Since the individuals (according to their caste) had been conditioned physically and psychologically to perform specific tasks, they functioned happily in that capacity. Im so glad I am a Beta. Alpha children work much harder than we do because theyre so frightfully clever. I am really awfully glad Im Beta because I dont work as hard. (24) Conditioning definitely programs people of each caste to be in