These chapters show us that in this society human beings are degraded and reduced to an animal-like state. Individuality is not considered important or even allowed to flourish, and humans have lost all dignity and respect.
Please list at least 2 examples from these chapters that support these ideas.
Secondly, would you please ask at least one question you have as you read these chapters. (Even more would be appreciated if you have more!)
Finally, would you attempt to answer at least one of your classmates' questions, and answer even more if you are able to do so.
In Chapter 2, when the nurses expose the babies to flowers, books, images, and alarm bells, what is the Director trying to accomplish?
ReplyDelete~Shayla Shojaat
In Chapter 2 I found an example of how the concept of individuality is not important. Towards the end of the chapter, we are introduced to Elementary Class Consciousness. While each Beta child is asleep, there is a voice projected from beneath their pillow that is speaking to them about all the cons of the Alpha, Delta, Gamma, and Epsilon children. Each different child group wears a different color, showing how in order they have to be. Only being able to wear one specific color doesn't allow you to be your own individual. Instead, you are identified by the color you wear. For example, that child is wearing Khaki, they are a Beta. The voice is played 120 times a week for thirty months before they move up a lesson. This socializing force is called hypnopaedia. Another example can be found in Chapter 1 when Mr. Foster says, "We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings..., as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries." Instead of Directors of Hatcheries, he wanted to say future World controllers. I feel that this statement shows that they do not give the growing humans a choice in what they want to do with their life or what they may want to do in the future. Also, by Mr. Foster wanting to say future World controllers, we see how he wants to control the world through the newest generations of humans.
ReplyDeleteIn these chapters, proof of anti-individuality is shown even before the babies are "born". The Director explains the amount of oxygen given to each class which limits the growth of the brain, so every person in every class will be exactly the same intelligence-wise. There is no opportunity for them to advance beyond what they are expected to be. This system of choosing for the child is a huge disrespect because they don't have an option of what type of person they want to be. All the Director cares about are the numbers, and that degrades every human he controls in the system.
ReplyDeleteMy question for chapters 1-3: Since Christianity is apparently not around anymore (p. 35 & 52) and no other affiliation to another "god" is mentioned, is there any religion or greater power the people believe in?
--Emelia Otting
In chapter 1, we see two examples of anti-individuality. Mr. Foster talks about how different types of animals mature at different ages. He gives the example that horses mature at age six, and elephants mature at age ten. He brings up the question, what if we could control what age humans mature at? Mr. Foster says that it would be an "enormous saving to the Community." He points out that if humans were full-grown and completely mature at a younger age than the average right now (around 20), they would be much more useful. Not only does this show how humans are being degraded to an animal-like state, but it also takes the childhood experience and individuality away from all human beings. The second example from this chapter comes when Mr. Foster talks about how before the babies are even "born", they are predestined to different things. The "babies" were put in cold tunnels so that by the time they were born, they had a fear of cold. This would contribute to them going somewhere warm, and then wanting to work as miners in the tropics, or something similar. As the Director says, "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." This completely takes away from the concept of individuality for all humans.
ReplyDeleteMy question for these chapters: In the very beginning, when the Director says, "Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines", does he mean 96 humans who are exactly the same? Or 48 different humans who each have an identical twin?
-Amy
In the first chapter I found proof of how humans are reduced to an animal-like state. When Mr. Foster was explaining the need for a technique for shortening the period of maturation, he compared the physical and intellectual development of humans to animals. For example, he talks about what a benefit to the community it would be if human physical development in Epsilons could be as quick as a cow's.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 2, in the infant nurseries, the babies are presented with flowers and books, but are then shocked, forming a deep hatred for those things at a young age. This shows how humans have lost all dignity, respect, and any chance of individuality. They aren't given a chance to form their own likes, dislikes, or personalities. They develop and grow in certain ways, depending on what career they have been predestined to.
My question: In Chapter 2, was it necessary to have alarm bells in addition to the electric shock? Wouldn't shocking them have more than enough effect?
-Lindsey Miyazaki
Examples from these chapters that support the ideas of rejecting individuality and unimportant humans include the usage of ranks for humans. Humans get a rank starting with Alpha Plus (of which I assume is the highest) to Epsilon. With these ranks, the Alpha Plus humans are smart, bodily capable, and were given a nice amount of oxygen during their..."processing". Going down the ranks, Epsilon humans are generally "dumb", like slaves and were deprived of oxygen during their processing on the racks. The lack of oxygen affects the growth of the infant, and particularly the brain.
ReplyDeleteA second example is how they relate themselves to one another. They say, "Every one belongs to every one else." People 'date' one person then eventually move on to another person. Like Lenina and Henry; Fanny says that seeing each other for four months is obsurd, and that Lenina should start seeing someone else.
In chapter two, during the shocking of the infants; Wouldn't the shock and the alarm bells do some physical damage to the infants? Were the infants...really young?
@Shayla: The director was trying to form within the infants, a deep hatred for those things at a young age. So that when they grew up, they would have an innate feeling of, "I hate that", or something to that affect, and avoid it.
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ReplyDeleteIndividuality is unimportant and taken away. One example of this is when the children are napping, they are told what caste is good or bad. For example, it says alpha children wear grey and they work much harder and so they should be glad for being a Beta because they don't have to work so hard.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of individuality being taken away would be when the boy playing in the garden becomes uncomfortable with the "playing" and is taken away to be evaluated because it isn't normal to be uncomfortable. He isn't normal because he is thinking differently than he should be.
Has individuality been taken away from their apperance as well?
An example is when the Hatchery only allows 30% of female embryos to develop normally. The Hatchery steals their sterility by injecting the rest with male sex horomones. At a very early stage, the government is robbing females for who they could be.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to my other example, how the embryos are marked with what they are to become in the future (sewage workers, Directors of Hatcheries, etc.). The government manipulates their futures by eliminating possibilities and potentials the embryos will have. The Director says "...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". The government only cares about what needs to be done for them, not about the individuality of the people.
@Lindsey: I think that the sirens and explosions were important because of repitition. The babies are taught to not desire happiness or knowledge from scary things like explosions and sirens. Once that is over, Physical pain comes. The shocking is a follow-up to make sure the babies will know for their entire lives that bad things will happen if they strive for knowledge or happiness, thus creating a people with no individuality.
ReplyDelete@Emelia: There may be the possibility of a Henry Ford religion. For example, the time period is now 632 a.f. (which, when I looked it up, meant "after Ford"). Another example would be when the Director said on page 25, "The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model was put on the market", and then he and the students "reverently made a sign of the T" on their stomachs. Like the sign of the cross, the "T" was made. Then the author capitalized "Our Ford".
ReplyDeleteWhich leads to my question. What do you think might have happened that (I assume) most of the world's religions became forbidden?
ReplyDelete@Abby: Yes, individuality has been taken away from their appearance because they are all identical, having split from the same egg, and thus having the same DNA.
ReplyDelete@Lindsey: After this incident, the Director says that "two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly." He's saying that they repeat this lesson so many times so the babies have it imbedded in their minds that the flowers and books are scary, so they'll stay away from them. So I think they shocked the babies as well as having the alarm bells so the babies really understand that they're bad, and they'll be sure to stay away from them.
ReplyDeleteOne example of how humans have lost all dignity and respect is how they "breed" the embryos to excel in certain traits over others. An example was how they bred some of the embryos to love being upside down and to not get dizzy easily. It was mention by the director that nobody cares whether or not the people are happy doing what they are bred to do, they will always be forced to do that thing. A second example of how they lost respect for humans and treat them like animals is how they take away peoples ability to reproduce. They inject all females with male hormones that will make them sterile. This process basicall guarantees that things can never go back to the way they used to be when a mom and a dad would have a child. The government now will always have control.
ReplyDeleteMy question is who exactly is this "horse" they have mentioned a few times? Is it Ford? the director? his followers?
@Lindsey: As I read on, I don't think happiness is necessarily unwanted, just highly monitored, by the way the wacked out games are described in Chapter 3. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteLast comment, I swear. Question: ... WHAT are the little kids doing????
ReplyDeleteIn the second chapter, I found several examples of how indiviuality has been almost completely removed from everyday life in this period of time. From page 20: 'They hurried out of the room and returned in minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, all on its four-wired nitted shelves, with eight month old babies, all exactky alike and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki.' I'm not sure about anyone else, but it seems to me like the dumb-waiters have more individuality than the kids!
ReplyDelete@Amy: On page seven directly before the quote with your question states, "The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg." From my perspective, I see this as ninety-six identical human beings. I am a little unsure myself but maybe what is stated above may help us understand that the 96 humans are exactly the same. I may be completely wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is sort of like Shayla's question at the beginning of the blog. In chapter 2, The Director and the nurses expose the babies to a series of explosions and alarm bells which send electric shocks through the floor and make the infants twitch. My question is what is the Director trying to accomplish by doing this? And, to add onto that, why is he using this seemingly violent method to acheive his goal?
ReplyDelete@Sarah: I'm assuming that the horse that is referred to in these chapters is the Director. Are you questioning about the phrase, 'straight from the horse's mouth'? I can't quite figure out why the author is referring to him as a horse, but I think the horse is the director. Whenever the phrase is used, the students are writing things down exactly as the director says them aloud, or straight from his (the horse's) mouth
ReplyDeleteMy two examples would be that the children are segregated into groups even before they are brought into the world, and also that relationships between two people are frowned upon. My question is that does anyone else see the irony in the fact that in the book, cheating on someone and sleeping around is encouraged, whereas in present day it is highly discouraged? Also to answer "getekippe"'s question, I think that the director is trying to instill an automatically provoked emotion into the children when exposed to certain things, such as the flowers. The more violent, the more effective.
ReplyDelete- Jon
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ReplyDeleteAn example of individuality no longer being considered important is in chapter two. The Director is asking the students if they know what Polish is and a student responds to him saying that French and German are a dead language. These statements have led me to believe that everyone now speaks the same language and there is no diversity. Another example showing that the human race is no longer allowed to flourish is when the Director shows the students the nursery. He shows them that the infants are punished whenever they crawl towards books. They are not allowed to learn knew ideas and expand the mind by reading, showing that humans have lost the ability to flourish.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, How does the Hatchery decide which embryos are separated into which class?
-Dani
@Chris
ReplyDeleteI agree completely.
@chris to answer your Q, they were playing in a circle a game that required less materials than 2 sticks or a ball. I don't know why.
ReplyDelete2 examples that show that individuality is not important are the embryos are given their roles in society and forced to be in a certain caste. Also, the fact that they have some embryos that go through budding and make 96 humans that are the exact same. My question is why are all of the boys going on the tour through the factory, and learning about all of this stuff?
ReplyDeleteErik
My two examples would be when the two girls are talking and the book said that there were a lot only a ten thousand names for the two thousand million people, and the fact that when the girls were talking, they were talking about which class people were from and if that class is good enough to sleep with
ReplyDeleteMy question is how to people get to be the people in the Hatchery? Are they just a different caste which happened to get that job?
Jon Wisnieski I think that your point is that the people in the book have a completly different point of view from modern day. I have a feeling that the Savage Resorvation will be people with todays views, which are looked down apon.
One example of how they treated people as animals was when they would show the 8 month old kids the flowers and the books. Then when the little kids would go and start playing with the books or the flowers, they would release a loud eerie noise that would scare the little kids. Then, even worse they would shock them using the strip that they were sitting on. They said that this was to get them to associate the flowers and books with bad things and pain. This seems almost like something you would do to a dog if they did something bad, like squirt them with a water bottle if they were barking at someone or something.
ReplyDeleteThen, another example was when the men were talking about the women and who they were "going out" with every night. And how it wasn't always the same person every night. And then the women were talking about how one wouldn't be able to "go out" for a week and how they were worried she wouldn't be able to for 3 months. One was also supprised how the other had been "going out" with the same guy for about 4 months and hadn't gone with another man for those whole 4 months.
Another example is how they were supprised that people would wait till they were around 20 years old to "go out". And how there were little 8 year old children "going out" already. I just found that weird.
What do they beleive in? They aren't Christian and they don't mention anything about another religion. But they are always talking about Ford and using his name as if he is a god.
Do the children grow up in the facilities or do they go stay with "grown ups"?
ReplyDeleteMy two examples are when the babies were shocked because they reached for the flowers and when the children were put into categories and taught to hate the other grouping of children.
ReplyDeleteAm I supposed to explain them any further?
I think that I'm done.
2 exaples are from the 2nd chapter, when the director taught the babies to hate books and flowers by pressing a lever that made the babies experience a violent explosions and an electric shock like how an invisible fence for dogs gives them a shock if they go pass it. Another example is how the children are brought up in State Conditioning Centres instead of their parents like how dogs are brought up by their owners and not their biological parents.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when the kids grow up? Do they work? or do the director pick what they do?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe world portrayed here is designed to maximize efficiency. People don't need individuality or dignity, as such things would, of course, be counter-productive. This mindset is evidenced in the conditioning of infants, where associating books and flowers with pain and discomfort is rooted in the idea that reading would waste the 'Community's' time and that a fondness for nature would lead to dissatisfaction with urban lifestyle. It is therefore prudent that those destined for lives of labor are made to prefer work over books and cities over open country. We also see a dip in human value when we are shown the assembly line that life has become. Speedier and more massive means of reproduction are deemed impressive while words such as 'father,' 'mother,' or 'family' are now taboo.
ReplyDeleteOne question I had: How does removing ethics and personal boundaries from society benefit anything? And how would people ever accept it in the first place?
ReplyDeleteThroughout the first three chapters it is completely evident that humans are treated more like animals rather than humans. On page 9, it seems like they aren't even living things. They treat them more like materials that could be easily be replaced (which in this case may be true)..."It's quite astonishing, when you're used to working with European material."
ReplyDeleteThere are several occasions where the government is practically making robots. "We also predestine and condition..."(p 13). On page 15, they speak of how fantastic it would be to change the rate of maturing for humans. On page 25 and 26, they are forcing children to "learn" things. They are able to repeat pieces of information over and over again.
Also, the government practically controls life. They can control the intelligence levels of humans and their futures...practically everything.
How long do we think this "practice" has been going on for? If it has been going on for quite some time, do you think that any of the people that work at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre or any of the students there were produced by this "practice"?
Would they do any special treatments or testing in the Neo-PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING Room similar to that of Ivan Pavlov's testing?
@ Lindsey: I think that they used multiple ways to scare the children to provide enough trauma for later in life. If someone were to come across flowers or books they would remember not only the emotional and terrifying pain, but also the physical pain. When they came across the object it might remind them of the pain that they couldn't explain as a small child, frightening them and making them not want to encounter the object(s) again. Also, if the alarm bells were a scary enough sound, it could cause that person to think of the creepy sound when seeing the object.
~Emily Pollpeter
How Can the society in this world think that the best way for the human race to continue to grow is to produce humans in a factory? And also how is conditioning the human eggs to be smart or stupid helpful at all? I wonder how this Brave New World came into the authors head, and how a world could progress to a state like this.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that when they are so young they are exposed to things that today would be looked at as inappropriate for a child of that age?
ReplyDeleteDo the people die and if they do how do they die?
I wonder if we have developed into anything like this, discriminating against people who are in different classes. Brain washing people into thinking things about others because of who we are. Do we do that today?
Two prime examples of the dehumanization of the population in Brave New World lie in the referencing by Mr. Foster to the harvesting of offspring from ovaries like a competition to raise the most pigs on a farm (We'll beat them yet!") and the D.H.C.'s assertion that the best method of maturation in the lower castes of human beings is that of an elephant or a horse.
ReplyDeleteTo attempt to answer any questions about religion:
The society created by Huxley in Brave New World has no god but the State. Not just god, the State is mother and father as well. The State determines where they go, what they do, their intelligence, their friends and anything you can think of. Cradle to grave.
My question is: How did the whole situation here come into place?
I'm of the opinion that the characters in the book have some sort of religion or at least a spirituality in which they have deified and merged many of the innovators of the late 19th and early 20th century into one omnipotent being. This is evidenced by characters swearing "By Ford" instead of using expletives such as "Jesus Christ" and "Oh my God". The director uses a hand gesture in the shape of a "T" while talking about Henry Ford with a similar religious reverence similar to Christians making the sign of the cross. It is also mentioned (I think in chapter three)that Sigmund Freud is said to be another name of the "Great Ford".
ReplyDeleteAn example of the World State's anti-individualistic feelings is the Bokanovske Process through which all embryos of sub-Beta classes are replicated up to 96 times to creat scores of geneticaly identical humans. Another example is a general feeling thoughout the society is that differences are seen as a repulsive disability. Franny, for instance, is repelled by Marx for his slightly below average hight and imediatly atributes it to a mistake made in the development of his embryo.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first three chapters I could see that there were clearly some violations of human rights in the application of the genetic knowledge in this dystopean society, but I could see how some of the technology could be used for good, so my question was whether Huxley is trying to make the point that such technology can be evil when it is a perversion of a society's immorality or just bad in general.
@Geoff: Some time in the novel's past the Nine Year's War occured, destroying much of humanity. The survivers embraced the socioty of the Brave New World in order to survive. The world controlers first used violence but later turned to subler yet more effective means of squashing resistance to their social reforms.
After Reading the first three chapters of Brave New World I was horrified at the lack of human dignity shown to the people in this world. You have the caste system that is set in place at birth which has Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Who you are is based on what part of the world needs what.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of the lack of human dignity is how they treat the embryos. They purposely cut off oxygen to the brain to make them stunted.
What do you think was meant at the end of the chapter when the Controller said "Suffer little children."?