Identity In Brave New World

In Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World, an unimaginable dystopia has been created. The World State was formed on three principles: community, identity, and stability. These three principles dictate how members of this society live and interact with one another. In modern society, there is an emphasis on the importance of motherhood, commitment, and countless other ideals that are rejected in the World State. Throughout the novel, the principle of community is shown with castes and hypnopaedic slogans, such as everybody belongs to everybody else. Identity, or rather a lack of, is shown through Bokanovsky twins, soma, conditioning, and the caste system. The final principle, stability, is shown through excessive vaccines, hypnopaedia, and Hatchery

Throughout the novel, hypnopaedia and the use of soma are shown to be the main components to the society’s lack of individual identity. Soma, a drug sponsored by the government, is used by the citizens of the World State in order to suppress any emotions which make them feel somewhat uncomfortable. The use of soma leads to a society which lacks any understanding of real emotion, an important piece to the formation of an identity. While soma by itself is destructive, the effects of hypnopaedia are comparable to a “...liquid sealing wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is one scarlet blob” (Huxley 28). Hypnopaedia is a process which is used throughout childhood to result in adults that have the exact views the World Controllers want the citizens of particular castes to have. These ideals are ingrained in the children of the World State by drowning their minds with hypnopaedic sayings on a consistent schedule. A majority of the personality of individuals in this society boils down to these hypnopaedic sayings as the citizens unconsciously believe them as truth. The citizens of the World State have little chance to develop any depth of personality due to hypnopaedia, resulting in a society that has

Huxley’s novel provides the perfect warning about what too much government can do to a society. Huxley uses strict principles to warn us of the dangers of too much government control and technology. A society cannot be formed on strict ideals, it takes many combinations and different ideas in order to create a society where nobody is forced to be a certain way. Through the state motto we see many dangers and how to potentially avoid them. Community is important but so is independence. Identity creates unique individuals and is needed in order to maintain a healthy community. By erasing somebody’s identity, their whole being is taken away and all that is left is a mindless body. Stability keeps a society from completely collapsing in on itself, but it is important that there is some leeway. Not everybody is pleased by the same things and in order to keep everybody happy there needs to be a balance. These three principles are important in every society but the World State took them so far that it ruined every member of their society. These principles were a great concept that became twisted and created a morbid place whose individuals were brainwashed with no concept of