Scarcity of Individuality

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An individual is defined as "a single person, animal, or thing of any kind; a thing or being incapable of separation or division, without losing its identity; especially, a human being; a person" (Lexico). In Huxley's Brave New World, the blissful masses are led by the fundamental principle of "Community, Identity and Stability" (Huxley 3). The sad truth is that identity itself has been sacrificed in order to preserve happiness, community, and stability. Members of this seemingly utopian society lack identity; they cannot be individuals. The world that Huxley has fashioned is one of castes, ubiquitous sexuality, mindless drug use, sleep hypnosis (hypnopaedia), and conditioning. All of these combine to discourage any possible individuality. In Brave New World, people are not born. Instead, they are created through Bokanovsky's Process, "a series of arrests of development" by which millions of eggs bud and form a nearly endless supply of human embryos (Huxley 6). Before a person is even contrived, workers at the Conditioning Centre determine his appearance, his level and function in society, and even his intelligence. Incidentally, bokanovskification is "one of the major instruments of social stability" (Huxley 7). With the very creation of humans reduced to the mere semblance of a production assembly line, there can be no individuality; people are not even given the choice of what they want to be. The caste system provides a stable foundation for this new society. Instead of creating a struggle between the lower and upper classes, the lower castes (Epsilons, Deltas and Gammas) are conditioned to be so unintelligent so as to be content with where they are and what they do. On the other hand, the upper castes (Betas and Alphas) are intelligent enough to be able to understand, and, in theory, overthrow the whole system. Unfortunately, in the creation of this new

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