Aldous Huxley s Brave New World - 3277 Words

Brave New World is a cautionary tale about the crushing effects of an authoritarian regime on human individuality. In this satire, Aldous Huxley offers a critique of totalitarianism by creating a single World State government and society. Although the World State’s motto is â€Å"community, identity, and stability,† ironically, the concept of individual identity is all but lost to the citizens of the World State (Huxley). The government controls virtually every aspect of human activity -- from creation to death. In exchange for comfort, happiness, and stability, the people in Huxley’s world give up their free will and sense of self. To make his point, Huxley employs powerful symbols of a mechanical, mind-numbing world where individual identity†¦show more content†¦Bokanovskification, the process used to manufacture identical â€Å"parts† to fit into this machine, employs â€Å"the whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bok anovskified egg† (Huxley). The world of the hatcheries is a metaphor for the way totalitarian governments operate to control every aspect of their citizens lives, from beginning to end. The Bokanovsky method of conception dehumanizes people from the moment of birth. Huxley s assembly line imagery shows that individual babies are no more distinct or important than mechanical products. Babies are not born; they are produced. There is no creation of life by a sexual act or an expression of love. There is no individual experience of pregnancy and birth. There is no modern concept of a mother or father or family whatsoever, so humans are stripped of a true personal identity. Without a family, each person lacks unique childhood stories. Without a family, each person belongs to the State. Through the hatcheries, the government is the creator and parent of every child. The few individuals who exercise control over the people are men playing at being God (Kass). As the leaders of the government, they decide what people s social rank will be before they are even born. With the idea that there can be â€Å"no stability without social stability,† the World Controllers create a very strict social order (Huxley). This religious image of the controllers as gods is connected to