Class, Race, and Physical Bodies

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, physical bodies directly correlate to class.
Physical bodies of abnormal growth often mark difference from society and indicate
lower class standing. Race also plays a role in physical bodies and class. The issue of
race in Brave New World exists on a continuum in which lower class standing correlates
to darker skin tone: conversely, the higher the caste, the whiter the individual.Lastly,
comparisons between insects/animals and characters in the book provide insightful
commentary into the nature of class relations in Brave New World.The lower-caste
people of the book are given alcohol during the embryonic stage so as to stunt their
proper growth and development. While the use of drugs in Brave New World is
overwhelmingly dominated by the golden recreational drug, soma, alcohol is viewed in
the society as poison. Lower caste embryos are “dosed almost to death with alcohol,”
during development (Huxley 7). The standard result is “a stunted Epsilon hood” (146).
Bernard Marx, an Alpha Plus, is lower in stature than his colleagues of the same class.
He is physically defect and at numerous times in the text this defect is attributed to
“alcohol in his blood-surrogate,” (64). Bernard is seen as an outsider in his own caste,
presumably a result of his mishandled embryo. While Bernard and Lenina are visiting
the Savage Reservation, they find a woman of Beta-Minus status who was lost on the
Reservation many years before. When they meet Linda, she “simply reeked of that
beastly stuff that was put into Delta and Epsilon bottles” and “positively stank of
alcohol,”(119). So when a Beta-Minus like Linda stays with the Savages for too long she
is reduced to the level of a Delta or Epsilon when back in the brave new world.Another
description of Linda reveals that her“nails were black,” (119) further enhancing her
transformation and downgrade in class as a result of living amongst the
Savages.Perhaps this adverse nature of alcohol in the brave new world is Huxley’s
comment on alcohol usage in the society of Huxley’s time.The majority of the Savage
Reservation population has dark skin. Lenina and Bernard meet an elder and “his face
was profoundly wrinkled and black, like a mask of obsidian,” (110). Similarly, the
majority of the lower caste members of society in the brave new world are black. For
example, the hangars for the helicopters were staffed “by a single Bokanovsky Group”
in which “the men were twins, identically small, black and hideous,” (64). At the
beginning of the book, Mr. Foster says, “‘You should see the way a negro ovary
responds to pituitary! It’s quite astonishing, when you’re used to working with European
material,’” (9).Mr. Foster was discussing the Bokanovsky Process during this time, so it
is inferred that only Bokanovskified eggs are of “negro”descent, thus the reason they
are the first choices for Deltas and Epsilons.Since both the lower-caste members of the
brave new world and the Savages are black, this shows how they are relatively close in
class standing.The race of the Savages is further underscored through the comparisons
between Savages and animals. For example, when John is relaying his memories on
the Reservation to Bernard, he remembers that Popé was “like a black snake trying to
strangle her [Linda],” (132).The “black” is in reference to Popéskin color, and snakes
are, at least in Western culture, the animal archetype of evil. Later, during an exchange
between Bernard and the Director back at the Hatchery in London, the Director repliesto
Bernard, “‘Yes-s,’ [...] lingering, a serpent, on the ‘s,’”(148). This encounter foreshadows
the Director’s imminent meeting with Linda, whom he had left at the Reservation so long
ago, and equalizes the Director and Popé.Another instance of comparisons between
black people and animals occurs when Lenina and John attend the feely. The premise
of the feely is that a concussion destroyed a “gigantic negro’s” conditioning. As a result,
he developed “an exclusive and maniacal passion” for a “Beta blonde,” (168). After a
“sensational kidnapping,” the Beta blonde was “ravished away into the sky” and kept
there for three weeks until “three handsome young Alphas succeeded in rescuing her,”
(168). The negro was shipped off to an Adult Re-conditioning Centre. This “feely”
sounds strangely comparable to the plot of the film King Kong, which came out right
around the time Huxley published Brave New World. If this assertion is valid, then
essentially Huxley likens an abnormally huge black gorilla to a black man.Just as race is
compared to animals in Brave New World, similarities between Deltas and Epsilons and
insects can be drawn from the text. On numerous occasions, the Bokanovskified twins
are compared to insects, which highlight both their unity and insignificance. One
example of this is when Lenina and Henry hovered in their helicopter over London:“the
approaches to the monorail station were black with ant-like pullulation of lower-caste
activity,” (73). This description equates the lower-caste with ants, which are numerous
and inconsequential. Moreover, this scene literally places Lenina and Henry above the
lower caste members to match their figuratively elevated position on the hierarchical
ladder of the society.References to bees are abundant in Brave New World as well. A
description of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center is “Buzz, buzz! The
hive was humming, busily, joyfully,” (147).Itcan be deduced that the brave new world is
just like a beehive: there is a Queen, the World Controller, there are drones, the
upper-caste members of the society that cannot contribute to feeding the community but
are in charge of reproduction, and finally, the workers, which provide food and stability
for the rest of the hive while still inconsequential and easilyreplaced.At the foot of
Linda’s deathbed, John becomes overwhelmed with a series of “eight-year-old male
twins” in khaki(201). Soon, “the ward was maggoty with them,” (201).Another reference
to the Deltas later states: “Like maggots they had swarmed defilingly over the mystery
of Linda’s death. Maggots again, but larger, full grown, they now crawled across his
grief and repentance,” (209).This comparison of maggots and Delta children explains a
few things. The first is the situation: maggots usually appear in dead animals, and the
jargon is befitting for the situation because Linda is on her deathbed. Furthermore,
maggots are typically viewed as a grotesque nuisance, which perfectly suits John’s
state of mind at the time.Maggots are also the larva of flies, hence the reason the Delta
children are referred to as maggots instead of flies.