Brave New World

The ideas presented in Huxley’s 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 being’s 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 Huxley’s “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 isn’t lacking any talents. Mr. Foster said, “I’m 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, “They’ll 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 State’s 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 can’t do without anyone. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t 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. People’s 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. “I’m so glad I am a Beta. Alpha children work much harder than we do because they’re so frightfully clever. I am really awfully glad I’m Beta because I don’t work as hard.” (24) Conditioning definitely programs people of each caste to be in the same state of mind. Since people are the same, they are less likely to argue. “ ‘Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!’ Standard men and women; in uniform batches. The whole small factory staffed with the products of a single Bokanovsky egg.” (5) The workers will all be compatible, since they are from the same caste, which would provide a happy environment and a stable society. The aim of the “perfect” World State is to have Community, Identity and Stability, and the caste system provides an ordered way of going about reaching that goal. A class system gives the controllers power over the people. It ensures that everyone belongs to a community. It guarantees an important identity for everyone. Finally, it reduces conflict among people and therefore creates a stable society. Reaching these goals should result in “happy people” and a true “utopia.” However, after reading Brave New World, one realizes that the book gives happiness and utopia a bad name!