As soon as I started reading Brave New World I found it to be interesting the way people were being produced, the carefulness it took, as well as the organization held within the facility. As I got further into the book I don’t like it at all, I think its rather boring, more so because I find the story strange.
What I got out of chapter 4 was that it was ok to be debauched in this world, as Lenina is, “She was a popular girl, at one time or another, had spent a night with almost all of them (pg 62).” In today’s world being promiscuous is somewhat frowned upon depending on how one views women.
What I also found rather strange was that once you were born you ere “trained” for the life you were going to live. As early as eight months, babies start getting trained, from what they should and shouldn’t like, as well as what color they should wear to distinguish them from the others. “They’ll grow up with what the psychologist used to call an “instinctive” hatred of books and flowers. They’ll be safe from books and botany all their lives (pg 30).”
This book or shall I say world has discrimination and superiority, which I think is bad. People don’t have a choice in who they would want to become because that is chosen for them when making them. Also, there is not much individuality, but rather uniformity in a sense, more so between each kind of person rather then the whole society. The fact that each kind of person has to wear a certain color to be distinguished is unfair, everyone in the society knows what “kind” of person you are. In knowing what “kind” person one is, someone who is a different kind automatically feels superior to you, especially Epsilons.
As far as Soma goes, I think it’s pointless because people in this society seem to not have much to worry about so why take Soma to be “happy”, when they already seem to be happy. The reason as to why I say they seem to already be happy is because they are “trained” to like they way they will be living for the rest of their lives, so one should already know what to expect out of life, and therefore shouldn’t be a “problem” needed to be solved by using Soma.
There seems to be a lot of emphasis on Bernard’s character, although I think he’s portrayed to be a bit of an outcast in this society. Throughout the story people have different speculations as to what exactly is weird about him. Some people think he was made differently, or that he lacked an “ingredient” while they were making him. What I find sad about Bernard is that not only does everyone in the society think he’s weird, he himself finds himself weird, and he himself knows something is wrong with him, he is also very aware that everyone around him thinks he’s weird. I think maybe he seems like the outcast of this world because he’s going to do something very important later on in the story.
