Brave New World- Diction Question
In a Brave New World, the Utopian society is categorized into five distinct labels (in order of importance),
1. Alpha
2. Beta
3. Gamma
4. Delta
5. Epsilons
Why do you think the author (Aldous Huxley) utilized labels to classify the population? And why these specific labels?
1. Alpha
2. Beta
3. Gamma
4. Delta
5. Epsilons
Why do you think the author (Aldous Huxley) utilized labels to classify the population? And why these specific labels?
 |
| It is a Brave New World |
In this novel, the Utopian Society is categorized into five groups: alpha, beta, gamma, delta and the epsilons. I think the author utilizes labels to classify population was to distinguish the importance's of each type of character depending on which category they fall in. These specific names are brought from the Greek Alphabet, which serve as a source of technical symbols and labels in many domains of mathematics, science and other fields. The Alpha popultion would be considered the highest category and they were put up highest against the rest."...if any of the eggs remained unfertilized, it was again immersed, and, if necessary, yet again; how the fertilized ova went back to the incubators; where the Alphas and Betas remained until definitely bottled; while the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons were brought out again, after only thirty-six hours, to undergo Bokanovksy's Process" (Huxley 6). The Alphas and Betas were the highest priority whereas the Epsilons, Deltas and Gammas were only brought out thirty-six hours later to undergo the process. I think the author utilizes these specific labels in this specific importance's is due to the order of the Greek Alphabet. The Greek Alphabet is used highly in the subject of science and many of scientific processes/explanations come from the Greeks, primary language. The population is arranged into the alphabetical order of the Greek Alphabet.
ReplyDeleteAlex,
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with your reasoning. I agree with the fact that the population is purposefully arranged into alphabetical order of the Greek Alphabet. The first five letters of the Greek Alphabet are alpha, beta, gamma, delta and epsilons. I think that Aldous Huxley utilized labels to give the readers, a more efficient, less confusing way to tell which parts of the population are more highly regarded than the others. “Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. Millions of identical twins. The principle of mass production at last applied to biology” (Huxley 7). In this quote seven pages into the novel, Huxley demonstrates that Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are used as a similar form of slavery and abuse. This can lead us to infer that Alphas and Betas are simply higher classed than the others. To conclude, Aldous Huxley utilized these specific Greek letters as a matter of convenience, and also to represent the utopian society.