Analysis Of Aldous Huxley s Brave New World - 2114 Words

In its essence, the caste system is defined as a system of social stratification, sorting individuals into a number of endogamous castes, each with predestined customs and obligations. The juxtaposition of the traditional caste system and stability in a contemporary society is unorthodox and seemingly nonsensical at first glance. However, in observing the caste system in its application today, one would argue in terms of stability at least, that it operates at a much higher degree of effectiveness than the common Western social structure. The fictional World State portrayed in Aldous Huxley s Brave New World serves as a testament to the potential efficacy of such a mandated caste system in postmodern society. The caste system serves†¦show more content†¦Historian H.T Buckle brings forward such a principle in his paper â€Å"A History of Civilization in Britain† formulated as such: â€Å"If a system provides its parts with an optimum environment, they will tend to con serve it. Thusly, for an individual to strive to conserve the social system of which he is part, the latter must provide the outlets which will enable him to fulfill those functions for which he was culturally and genetically designed.†(Buckle, Vol. 1) Huxley’s World State does just this, as each caste comes gilded with its own responsibilities: As the Epsilon caste is tasked with menial labor and the Alpha caste is tasked with social development and government. Each caste member contributes to these tasks productively as he is surrounded by others doing the same; as made evident in the novel excerpt: â€Å"Everyone belongs to everyone else.†(Huxley, 3.138) a hypnopaedic utterance recited by portrayed scientist Henry Foster in an effort to encourage his colleague (Lenina Crowne) in her promiscuity. The feeling of self-worth brought about by community in a caste is an indispensable variable when regarding the stability of said caste. When his self-worth depreciat es, the individual becomes dissatisfied with his circumstance, seeking an alternate one; this hinders the system (World State) as it breeds rebellious thoughts. In Brave New World, such a phenomenon is observed in analyzing the novel s