To further increase the birthrate of Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, Podsnap’s Technique causes all the eggs in the ovary to mature simultaneously, allowing the hatchery to get full use of the ovary in two years’ time. Members of lower castes are not unique but are instead created using the Bokanovsky process which enables a single egg to spawn (at the point of the story being told) up to 96 children and one ovary to produce thousands of children. Each ‘Alpha’ or ‘Beta’ is the product of one unique fertilized egg developing into one unique fetus. Fetuses chosen to become members of the highest caste, ‘Alpha’, are allowed to develop naturally while maturing to term in “decanting bottles”, while fetuses chosen to become members of the lower castes (‘Beta’, ‘Gamma’, ‘Delta’, ‘Epsilon’) are subjected to in situ chemical interference to cause arrested development in intelligence or physical growth.

Natural reproduction has been done away with and children are created, ‘decanted’ and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres, where they are divided into five castes (which are further split into ‘Plus’ and ‘Minus’ members) and designed to fulfill predetermined positions within the social and economic strata of the World State. The vast majority of the population is unified under The World State, an eternally peaceful, stable global society in which goods and resources are plentiful (because the population is permanently limited to no more than two billion people) and everyone is happy. The novel opens in London in 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian Calendar). Thematically-organised quotes from the book :īelow is Wikipedia’s description of the society (called “the World State”) in which the novel – published in 1932- is set. Science – genetic control at birth, & the use of drugs to keep people practically stupefied into conformity

Totalitarian control by means of consumerism and the promotion of hedonism You might just end up wanting to read the whole book ! Enjoy !Īlienation & the denial of the Individual Watch all the short videos about Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” here :

Shmoop a brave new world