Brave New World

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Brave new world

Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World¸ is a novel based on the themes of technological changes in society. Hypothetical accounts of sleep-learning and reproductive technology present a futuristic approach towards the scientific developments. In the introductory chapters, Huxley sets a futuristic scene of a global state or The World State. He depicts a picture of a 2540 London, part of a global territory comprising a meager 2 billion population (Huxley 34). The World State is resourceful because of this, and people seem to be reasonably happy. There is no way the population would increase, as natural reproduction is a history then, children are being produced at discretion and raised in conditioning centres or Hatcheries as Huxley calls it. This world distributes mankind into five castes; with Alpha constituting the upper order and Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon representing the lower ones. The fetuses selected to become Alpha develop naturally in 'decanting bottles' and fetuses that are chosen to become part of lower classes are chemically treated in an in situ process so that their intelligence and physical growth are restricted. These lower graders, who lack physical and intellectual capacities relative to the Alphas, make up the larger part of society and they are excessively reproduced so that the highest creed could have control of them (Huxley 102). A hypnopaedic process is employed to educate the children that inculcate a caste specific method for shaping a child's self-image and personal and social outlook desired by the leaders.

Huxley devotes some part of the novel throwing light of how the idea of sex prevails in The World State. According to him, sex is only a means of recreation in his World State, rather than a means of producing children. The notion that one should have a family is considered obscene, although sex is widespread and is encouraged. Gone are the days of natural birth, pregnancy and marriage: these things are shied away even in casual talks. The adage 'everyone belongs to everyone else' is repeated emphasized, and sex becomes an entertainment activity right from childhood. Being alone is considered bad and a time wasting activity (Huxley 184). This is evident from how the author depicts John in the novel, putting him a celebrity outlook later in the novel. In Huxley's world society, people die when they turn sixty, content that they leave nothing behind (no family, no personal resources etc), ...
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