Brave New World: The Horrors of Totalitarian Government

Imagine your life controlled by someone you didn’t know, your every move watched and judged as if what you were doing was wrong. In the book “Brave New World” characters are forced to abide be the rules of the government with no control over their own lives. From early on humans are graded from the highest intellectuals to the lowest manual workers. It starts at birth where they are hatched from incubators and raised in communal nurseries. They are kept there until they are ready to enter what they consider a normal society. Although a totalitarian government provides peace and stability to citizens it also takes away their freedom and deprives them of knowing what the true meaning of humanity is.

First, the way that people are brought into the world is not so typical. Babies are born via “pods” in “hatcheries” rather than birthed from their mothers, comparable to modern day IVF. The only problem with this is that, mothers do not get to experience the bond that they would if they gave a natural birth. Depersonalize got the birthing process gives the government total control over newborns and also gives them the power to decide when and what rate reproduction occurs. The babies are then brought up in communal nurseries where they learn how to become successful individuals outside of a family setting. These newborns are then exposed to different experiments and treatments in order to kill off the weak and only let the strong survive.

Second, there is a caste system in place in this society. Certain castes are required to be cloned other wise known as Bokanovsky’s process. This cloning takes place while still in egg form in order to create identical copies of the original. Staring with Alpha’s who are superior to all. Alpha’s wear gray and maintain the highest jobs mostly working in labs. They are not required to go through the Bokanovsky’s process. Beta’s are second highest caste and they wear mulberry. Just like Alpha’s they do not have any alcohol in their blood and they are not required to go through the Bokanovsky’s process. Your average caste is known as a Gamma. Gammas are always dressed in green and they are required to go through the Bokanovsky’s process. You can also find alcohol in their blood but not as much as the lower castes.

Delta’s are forced to wear Khaki. They are given jobs that are not so great and lack more a more significant level of oxygen then the three other castes. At the bottom you will find Epsilon’s who wear black. They are deprived of 80% of their oxygen and have the most alcohol in their blood they are given the worst jobs that no one wants to do. Lastly, these individuals are given a future the moment they are born. Conditioning is the process of where an individual is prepared for their role in society. This is a subject that Huxley himself spends a great time explaining in the opening chapters. Alphas, betas, and deltas are the three castes Alphas being first and Deltas near the bottom. During the conditioning process whole castes are taught that their own fate is far superior to everyone else’s. Through reading, beta’s seem to have the upper hand out of all the cases because they are not required to do as much as alphas but, also do not have to do such dreadful things like those who are deltas. Their method of teaching is better known as Hypopaedic conditioning which in simpler terms is sleep teaching. The controllers use this method of brainwashing to teach lessons of moral consequence while they are sleeping.