Nature Vs. Nurture In Brave New World

The society illustrated in the novel attempts to create stability through the manipulation of nurture with the use of genetic engineering. The idea that allows such aims is presented in Ridley’s book Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human; he states, “genes actually influence human behavior, and […] human behavior influences genes, [therefore it is] nature via nurture” (qtd. in F.B Mandal 53). This belief supports that an individual’s nature is created by their nurture. As shown in Brave New World, genetic engineering of embryos served as a way to manipulate the nurture aspect of an individual’s identity: “The lower the caste," said Mr. Foster, "the shorter the oxygen." The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton” (Huxley 14).Through the use of genetic engineering, they can abuse science to degrade embryos of their full brain potential and skeletal development as the caste lowers.

The purpose for the focus on the nurture for each embryo is to create a favorable nature for the society’s expectations. According to Voland, “It is the society (or culture, respectively) into which the children are born, with its prevailing behavioral norms, creeds, social structures, attitudes, mentalities, etc., which imprints and profiles the newborn humans”. Voland gives a clear foundation as to the path the society is taking to create a stability. The society’s knowledge of the embryos lack of understanding of their own identity allowed the society to create one for them through the environment they are placed in. Using genetic engineering to alter the nurture and, in turn, the individual’s nature is evidently exercised in the novel, as strongly as psychological