Discuss and evaluate the cultural background to the novel as described in the first three chapters. What do you find to be the most and least attractive features of the society that Huxley imagines?

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Brave New World

Coursework Task

Discuss and evaluate the cultural background to the novel as described in the first three chapters. What do you find to be the most and least attractive features of the society that Huxley imagines?

Chapter 1

Chapter one paints for us a picture of a world where humans are not brought up in families, nor are they brought up or cared for by a family for that matter. Babies are not born, but created. The lives of characteristics of these humans are controlled by pre-destination. It seems in this chapter that no one has any other feelings other than wanting to control the human beings they are bringing into the world.

We are presented with “Bokanovsky’s process”. This is the process of a bokanovskified egg budding, proliferating, and dividing. The buds from these eggs each grow into an embryo, and then to a full sized adult. The eggs can be divided up to ninety six buds, in contrast to a single bud in the past. The apparent advantage to this is social stability. The Director explains, “Bokanovsky’s process is one of the major instruments of social stability” This can allow ninety six identical twins all working the same job. This may be seen as attractive for the reason that there is total equality in the way that people look and the jobs they do. This process may also be seen as attractive for the reason that having identical individuals working identical jobs makes it easier for everyone to be controlled on a whole. Individuals react in different ways. Therefore if they are all the identical it can be said that they are all likely to react in the same manner. However, it may be seen as unattractive in the way that there is no sense whatsoever of individualism. Nobody is given the opportunity to think for themselves or allowed to be different in any way.

Chapter one also explains to us the caste system. This is a system by which humans are divided into the different social groups: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delter, and Epsilon.) The different groups contain humans of different levels of intelligence. This system is said to determine a good social order of things so that everyone has their own place which is suited to their levels of intelligence. The humans in the different castes are born with different intelligence because of the way that they are conditioned before birth. The director explains in chapter one, “The lower the caste, the shorter the oxygen.” The caste system allows humans each to work together in their groups in jobs that suit them. It allows the more intelligent people to work in more demanding jobs while the lower castes work suitably in their less demanding jobs.

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Social pre-destination is a method undertaken in chapter one of brave new world. This is the process by which embryo’s are adapted before birth in order to make them suited to their job as a human being. This means that they will be adapted to what their job is. One example of this is explained in chapter one when the future steel workers and miners and acetate silk spinners are conditioned to thrive on heat during their conditioning. They are made to develop a horror of cold through the form of hard x-rays. ...

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