Brave New World 1

A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words, Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, Community, Identity, Stability.

With these lines, Aldous Huxley introduces his fictional work Brave New World. Immediately, different thoughts are invoked, mainly those of confusion and uneasyness. Why is there a Hatchery in a World State building? And even worse, what kind of hatchery is it? I start thinking about possible reasons for why this might be the case, but to little success. After continuing to read, it dawns upon me that these facilities are being used to breed humans, and that this process of breeding will be described thoroughly.

As I suspected, this was correct. The first part of the book follows students being given a tour inside the center, with the Director explaining the hatchery and the conditioning centre and its purpose: to breed humans and predetermine their function in society. This is done by altering their conditions during incubation period by, for example, restricting oxygen access, among other things. The reason for this is to create castes: namely the Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, all in ranking order, where the superior Alphas would be bred without interaction during the incubation period and the Epsilons would have several limitations in regards to physical and mental function. Those who belong to the lower castes would only live to serve the higher

‘And that,’ put in the Director sententiously, ‘that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.’

In other words, the Alphas control the society and allows for no freedom for the lower caste. They are however manipulative towards every member of their society in order to ensure stability. During sleep, sentences are repeated to them up to several hundred times a night. This way, their mind embeds these words not only as the truth, but as utterly undisputable facts.

Following the description of this facility’s function, the main character Bernard Marx joins the fray and plays a more central role. Although he is an Alpha he has some physical defects. He behaves differently and his height is lower than that of the average Alpha. As a result, he feels like an outsider to the other Alpha males; for instance he does not get to look down on those of the lower castes when spekaing to them, something which exacerbates his self-doubt. This in turn makes for a vicious cycle where he, feeling like an insecure outsider, acts like one, which increases the prejudice against him. Coupled with his physical defects, the contempt and hostility which he arouses is aggrevated, and he is ultimately insecure and isolated in the Alpha society.

I believe that Bernard is not suited for the society in which he lives. Something that was heavily emphasized in the beginning of the book was that the World State had constructed a society that had left all things related to desire behind. Bernard, however, had not. He was resentful and jealous towards other Alphas and desired things he could not obtain, and this makes for a rather interesting character development possibility.

Regarding the title, it is apparent to me that Brave New World takes a jab at the possibility of a future where humans are controlled in every way. In this society, women are not even allowed to conceive. Instead, they are bred in regulated facilities where every human's destiny is already laid out for them. As of now I have not found any direct proof of this theory in the book. As for the brave part, it could very well relate to a happening within the book during which somebody has the courage to stand against society, hoping for change.