Character Development up to page 56

In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, all of the babies are conditioned to be a certain way, to like certain things, and to be in a certain caste. In this world so far, we have not met anyone who was raised by parents - the students have no notions of what families, mothers, fathers and siblings are. They are created in a lab and are taught in their sleep, play outside with each other sexually from a very, very young age, and are conditioned from conception by different substances and once a baby often shocked using electricity. The Director, who is the most informed is even a product of this fertility center. He is an alpha (the highest caste). At first, It didn't appear he was created using the machinery, but then he reacts just like all of the other alphas. The controller appears to have not been created in the center. He has a certain aggressiveness, that does not really seem to fit in with this system. He (the controller) even says to the students "our ancestors were so stupid and short-sighted that when the first reformers came along and offered to deliver them from those horrible emotions, they wouldn't have anything to do with them" (45). He strongly believes in the cause of how this universe was started, and more importantly understand it. He seems to understand it more than the Director. The students, the workers, Lenina, Fanny, and Henry Foster all seem to be just paper cut outs of the system: people with no troubling emotions, with only the responsibility of doing their work and pleasing themselves. They have no responsibility or emotions for anyone else. This society is an oddly selfish society and yet utterly cohesive because no desires are unknown and each one is provided for, and everyone belongs to each other.
The only character who seems to not completely understand the system yet still resent it at the same time is Bernard Marx. He keeps to himself and is deemed odd by the other members of the society. While most behaviors have changed, the most petty ones have stayed the same. Henry Foster and his friend bully Bernard Marx, and Fanny tells Lenina that "they say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle-- thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood surrogate. That's why he's so stunted" (46). Bernard Marx is different from the others in the way that he seems to want to be on his own, and he doesn't "belong to everyone else", and he hates Henry Foster and does not like the way he talks about Lenina. He does not seem to fit the mold that everyone else fits, and he will have to be watched as the book continues.

From the first 57 pages of A Brave New World, there are numerous connections with the Handmaids Tale, as well as Children of Men. In all three, the main conflict or issue is fertility and the role of parents in a child's upbringing. The book begins in a fertility factory, where they have developed extremely efficient artificial insemination processes. The factory can produce 96 humans from one egg, and close to 15,000 humans from one ovary. The whole process is completely mechanical, and no human interaction is involved. There are no parents, no families, and no real emotional connections between people. The role of parents and families is very similar in the Handmaids Tale, where the mother has no connection to her child, and the role of parents is very minimal. Having said that, there are more physical interactions in the process of making the baby in the Handmaids Tale; however, after the birth the role of the mother is very minimal. The key similarity, however, is the concept of pro creation, and how in each of these futures it is the crucial difference. In Children of Men there is rampant infertility, and this threw the society into chaos. In the Handmaids Tale, the role of parenting and the process of pro creating is completely warped, and it resulted in an oppressive society. I am interested to read more into A Brave New World, and see how this surreal fertility process influences the citizens of this twisted society.

4/24/13
I found Huxley's style in chapter 3 to be very unique and interesting. Rather than following a traditional format, he weaves together multiple conversations and storylines and tells them simultaneously. While it was slightly confusing at first, the separate narratives were varying enough to be easily distinguished. Huxley starts by introducing the three separate story lines (Lenina talking to Fanny, Foster talking with Bernard Marx and the Assistant Predestinator, and the World Controller Mustapha Mond lecturing his group of students), and then slowly integrates them by splicing in paragraphs. The sections of each text get shorter and shorter, creating a build of intensity as more about the society is revealed, until it reaches a sort of climax as the key component of this society's stability is exposed: the drug soma. Soma keeps the people relaxed and casual sex keeps them happy, so no one is troubled enough to fight against their oppressive and controlling government.
Lea G.