Social Classes In Brave New World

Throughout the entire world there are issues with our societies brought upon by the lack of clear thinking and/or compassion. Many of these issues may not be problems necessarily but just topics discussed when the word “issue” is brought up. One can clearly compare our society to the society described in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. In this novel the society Huxley has created is meant to be a utopia, made up of a hierarchy known as the caste system. Social classes in both societies create issues due to the fact that everyone has always had different standings in society.

Social class is a “tag” to define your status in a community. One of the main requirements you must have to be in the Upper class, is to have wealth and power. That is basically it, and obviously the absence of those characteristics could mean you are in a Middle or even in the Lower class. Sports are an activity that people do for pleasure that requires physical activity and sometimes has rules for the players to follow in order to play the game. It is most commonly played outdoors. It can improve your cardio, health, and physical condition. For example, it can prevent things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or even mental illnesses like depression.

America is a complex and diverse web of individuals marked by social stratification, a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, 2011, p.204). The film People Like Us: Social Class in America discusses the class system, social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement, which the American people use to define others (Macionis, 2011, p.206). It explores the many variables that contribute to the determination of a person’s class; such as, ancestry, education, and money. Ancestry will be a main focus because it has such a strong influence on the class system of today. The film provided an informative and entertaining

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, human beings have been engineered and conditioned to have detailed traits and castes in society; however, the birthing methods of the world state seem virtually full proof, some characters in the novel deviate from this standard. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson both alpha plus males; share a dislike for the world state. Bernard abhors it because of his physical defect, Helmholtz because of his psychological surplus.

The futuristic dystopian novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley is about a government and how they control the citizens using conditioning, class structure, and the use of the drug soma. Conditioning plays a big role because it helps teach children what their role in society is. It constantly teaches the children what is right and wrong whether they are awake or sleeping. Class structure also plays a role in how they control the citizens and how they live their life. Some classes are more oppressed than others, like the Epsilons and Deltas who are used for manual labor because they have little to no intelligence. To add, the governments use soma to control the citizens because it increases serotonin in the brain and it helps escape from reality.

There are five social classes, Alphas are ranked the highest then the Epsilons are ranked the lowest. The Alphas are certain to become the most successful and outstanding. They worked in the same place since birth, and wrote false advertising phrases. They enjoyed all their advantages in their pursuits of life. The Epsilons, were very unfortunate, and were used to feeling less important than everyone else. Their job field included the friendly workers; such as coal miners, elevator operators, and steel workers. Every person from each different working field appreciated the work and found themselves indeed happy with their daily tasks. The key for happiness of the people in Brave New World was to try "creating people like their unavoidable destiny" (Huxley 37). “By brainwashing the people they saw happiness in their own attempts” (Huxley 34). John, who was naturally born, was astonished when he arrived to their community. He couldn’t comprehend how people could live under total control and not be aware of the fact that they never knew true happiness. He questioned how those individuals were so content doing the most simplistic tasks. They worked the jobs that the community assigned them. No questions asked, being under control, therefore they couldn’t discover happiness in their society.

Huxley is an author who has focused on writing about issues which have both philosophical and ethical significance to the society. It is in most of his works that he writes about those differences between individual and society which lead to development of conflicts. It is in The Brave New World where he focuses on a fictional future where everything will be granted at free will. In this book, individuality has been eliminated with the aim of eradicating those differences that bring about societal conflicts. This has been done in order to ensure that there is stability among the members of the society. The book brings it out clearly that the future presented will be much better compared to the past that has been. Mustapha Mond is the character who asserts this issue and I disagree with him since this is not the truth. The future may be made to look better through the introduction of new ways of doing things but in real senses there is development of more problems which makes life harder.

Marxism theorizes that an individual is a reflection of his social class or at least a limitation of his class, and idea huxley was able to portray through his depiction of various social classes and their distinct interaction. The article Literacy and Cultural Theory by Donald Hall states “Most of us (perhaps all but the very

John, the savage, is the only human in Brave New World. He despises the “civilized” world for its inhumanity and lack of morals. John loved his mother and even though she wasn't a very good one. He is the perfect balance of “civilized” and “savage”. After doing something that he heavily regrets, John subjects himself to his own discipline for his guilt.

Feeling left out in a society is a rare feeling, especially if every person’s life is completely planned out from birth. The novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, is about a society set in the future, where technology is advanced enough to genetically create humans, instead of a natural birth. In the community, there are caste levels that are separated into Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, in that order, and they are identified by height and color of their outfit. Before decantation, the members of society are altered genetically to make them smart and tall, but less intelligent and shorter the lower the level is. Additionally, every human’s life is identical within their caste, as they all have the same job.

The society, cultural norms, and outcasts of Huxley’s Brave New World reveal the true backbone to the stability of the community. The society’s organization depends on the susceptibility of its people to feel not as an individual, but as a whole community, identical and belonging to others. The society is appealing to its citizens, who always experience an induced happiness and therefore have no choice but to feel content. However, the society strips its people of anything raw, true, or lively. Experience is nonexistent and life is a dull and repetitious cycle. There are several authority figures. These figures include Mustapha Mond: the World Controller, Helmholtz: the message writer, Tomakin: the director, and Bernard the psychologist. There are

This adage creates the social hierarchy, and conditions the people to be happy with that. It’s also probably safe to assume that there are similar adages for the other social classes, which define all of the members of their society. This is made apparent from the conversation Lenina has with Henry; “‘I’m glad I’m not an Epsilon,’ said Lenina with conviction. ‘And if you were an Epsilon,’ said Henry, ‘your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren’t a Beta or Alpha.’” (85) Because the Class Consciousness adages condition the citizens of this futuristic dystopia to ‘be aware’ of who they are and how they fit in with their society, it allows the World Controllers to maintain the community, identity and stability of the

In Huxley’s Brave New World, the education system is used to control the population and make people do what they are supposed to do from the beginning. “People believe in God because they are conditioned to believe in God.” (Huxley) They know this, so they condition people in to believe their caste system is great. They create caste systems from when they are born and treat everyone from the same caste the same, education wise and in conditioning. Each caste has a completely different educational system because they are completely different. This makes it so you learn what you need to know and nothing else. You won’t want to learn anymore, and you wouldn’t explore options since they put you where you need to be from the start.

Brave New World has a vastly different society compared with today’s society. Every person in their society is conditioned to behave and act in a certain way. In the beginning of the book the Director explains to the group of boys that everyone is predestined to be someone “We are also predestined and conditioned. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future…” (Chapter 1, Pg. 13). As the Director was saying they are all predestined and conditioned to be a certain people that are put into caste systems such as Alpha or Beta. In our society today no one is placed into categories and no one is conditioned the way the people are in Brave New World. However, we can still be conditioned

As long as it has been in existence, society has always been fractured into social classes, the very rich and the very poor. I see within our society the chasm growing by the year. The proletariat, boxed into cramped houses, while the bourgeoisie reside in mansions that jut up towards the sky touching the clouds. The rich, who control mostly everything in todays age, capitalize on those less fortunate than themselves and bask in the ignorance of the lower class. It is painful for myself to see the common worker, the average person, being taken advantage of and not even knowing his rights against such things.