These chapters show us that in this society human beings are degraded and reduced to an animal-like state. Individuality is not considered important or even allowed to flourish, and humans have lost all dignity and respect.
Please list at least 2 examples from these chapters that support these ideas.
Secondly, would you please ask at least one question you have as you read these chapters. (Even more would be appreciated if you have more!)
Finally, would you attempt to answer at least one of your classmates' questions, and answer even more if you are able to do so.
A question...
ReplyDeleteOn page 38, they talk about a Pregnancy Substitute... What is a Pregnancy Substitute?
Peter Diliberti
After the Director said "Model T" he made the sign of the "T" on his stomach and all if the students did so as well. Was that like their "god" or what they "worshiped" and similar to our Sign of the Cross?
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
ReplyDelete1] On page ten Huxley talks about the 'optimum decanting rate.' What is the decanting rate?
2] Does this book segregate kids by gender? Because all of the students are boys.
3] On page thirteen there is a paragraph toward the end of the page where Mr. Foster is speaking to the students that says: "'We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future...' He was going to say "future World controllers,' but correcting himself, said 'future Directors of Hatherires,' instead." Does Mr. Foster agree with everything his society tells him? This paragraph makes it sound as though he doesn't.
The third comment is Mary Kate's, I forgot to put my name on it.
ReplyDeleteSo far this book shows how humans are being degraded and how their individuality is suppressed mainly with the conditioning that the children are subjected to. Hypnopædia allows the government to teach them anything they feel is beneficial for the stability of society. Conditioning the embryos in the beakers by subjecting them to cold or by turning them upside down is another example of how humans have had their dignity taken from them.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if no one in this book really questions the ethics of what's going on in society. Everyone accepts the caste system and promiscuity without hesitation, but to us readers it's obvious that their society is brainwashed. So my question is: Are there any aspects of our culture that we overlook that would seem just as outrageous to someone living like a thousand years ago?
And to answer David's question... I think Ford is their "god" because they say Our Ford and Ford knows. They also said something about cutting off the top of the cross to make a T so it probably is their sign of the cross or something like that.
-Elliott Lawrence
On pages 27 and 28 a Beta child is talking about how Betas don't want to play with Delta kids and how the Epsilons are the worst of them all. This shows us how much emphasis is put on social hierarchies and there is nothing about the individual.
ReplyDeleteIs there anything this extreme in our society?
Do you think something like this could ever happen?
-Vince Driscoll
To answer Vince's question, I don't believe there is anything this extreme in our society yet. However, I believe that if science were to develop as far as to completely eliminate all viviparous forms of birth, something like what is occurring in this book could happen.
ReplyDelete-Peter Diliberti
Throughout the reading, the students witnessed many things that we would find immoral and hard to understand. All of the students accepted everything that was going on and found nothing wrong with any of it. Because of this, I was wondering how the students were raised and if the students were brought up in a lab like this one.
ReplyDelete-Claire Haney
One example of them not allowing individuality is when the director takes them to the room with all the little babies and they shock them all. This shows that they want to make them all the same and make them all hate flowers and reading books.
ReplyDeleteAnother example that shows that this society doesn't promote individuality is how they produce the children. They make multiples of the same person so that they stay uniform in their own classes. They even boast how many people they can make from one egg in the beginning and how they want to make it even more then before and more then competition in other countries.
One question I have from the first chapters is Why do they try to push promiscuity in this society so much?
Claire Hagedorn
Human beings are degraded from the moment of creation because of "the unescapable social destiny" that is assigned to them, based on what is best for the community. The director says they subject embryos to different conditions, which are really just poisons, so they will enjoy whatever their work will be in life. Their dignity is taken away because of the fact that they have no choice in what their work will be in life. Their dignity is taken away by harming them so they will never have the capability to hold the knowledge to question what is going on in this community and if it's really the best thing for the individuals in the community.
ReplyDeleteMeredith Havekost
The women that we meet in this chapter seem high society and important. But near the end of the third chapter it becomes apparent that they are only gammas. My question is this:Is Gamma the highest women can be? Are there any Alpha or Beta women?
ReplyDelete-Zach Duff
To answer Claire's question regarding promiscuity:
ReplyDeleteOne of the controlling devices Mrs. Holsapple mentioned in class was consumerism. She basically said that if people are buying things, they will be distracted from the important issues facing their society. The encouragement of promiscuity in this book lies along those same lines. If people are preoccupied with whom they will be "going out," they will not be worried about their government's social engineering and suffocating control of daily life. After all, what is more effective than the prospect of sex to distract the human mind?
In this society, humans cannot be themselves. In the beginning of chapter 2 they condition them to hate certain things so that they will not "waste" their time. They are also taught in their sleep to feel jealous of those higher than them but to hate and feel superior to those below them. These examples in their society are also contradictory to their credo "Community, Identity, and Stability."
ReplyDelete-Emma Dellopoulos
About the "T".. on page 13 it says that the males' test tubes were marked with a "T". Since all of the students are males maybe the sign of the T that the Director and the students made was to show that they are males. Or maybe they are doing it as something like the sign of the cross and since the male test tubes are labeled with a "T" it shows how much they honor the male race.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they make people that had conditions like lupus? If that is something that they can control by just throwing out the specimens that show signs of lupus why would they continue on with the development of them? Wouldn't people without lupus be able to work in the darkrooms just as easily as people with lupus?
It talks about how they condition people to like what they have to do. If you were one of the people who had to teach others to like what they had to do, would you get angry that you knew that you were taught to like your job? I feel that if i were one of those people i would be mad knowing that i didn't really chose my job, instead my job was unknowingly already chosen for me. I don't think that it would effect people who weren't the teachers but the teachers must feel that they were wronged, right?
-Emily Calos
The world's people are clueless to what the controllers have done to them. They have brainwashed all of them to making them think everyone belongs to everyone else and the world seems completely fine with the situation they are put in. I wonder how the controllers were chosen for their positions. Another part I don't understand is why they want such a large population throughout the world. This would only overpopulate the world and cause a shortage in the world's resources.
ReplyDelete-Bobby LeWarne
An example of humans losing dignity and respect are when there are a bunch of naked children running around practicing erotic play. These children around 7 and 8 years old. Another example is how the condition infants. They will shock then and torment them just so they wont like books and they do it several times.
ReplyDeleteA question i have is about Fanny and Lenina. Where are they at?
-Andrew Clemen