Brave New World
...d of prejudice. The people do not have the freedom to choose who or what they want to be, they have no choice but to follow the tracks preset for them. The establishment of a social caste system, where everyone belongs to a certain group and obtains certain powers, limits citizens to mingle only with those of their own caste and produces a set of prejudice between citizens. The Alpha and Beta citizens live in small houses and apartments in the suburbs surrounding the city, while the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons stay in "huge lower-caste barracks" (67) inside the city. This classification of citizens exists even in the modern world, where the well-to-do businesspeople live in higher-class suburbs while the lower class factory workers huddle in cramped downtown apartments. The social caste system, along with the conditioning of the citizens, creates prejudice among those who represent difference. Bernard Marx, an Alpha citizen, has a physical deficiency. He is short and small, "eight centimetres short of the standard Alpha height" (60), and is often neglected for his deformed figure. While Marx is sharing an elevator with two coworkers, "Henry Foster and the Assistant Director of Predestination rather pointedly turned their backs on Bernard Marx" (37). Bernard himself says that, "I am I, but wish I wasn’t" (60). This self-hatred indicates that even in the most ordered, stable society injustice still occurs in the form of discrimination. The right to choose no longer exists in an autocratic society where the distinct categorical division of citizens eliminates social freedom. Happiness, art, science and religion are all sacrificed for the “World State’s” ideals of “community, identity, and stability” (Ramamurty, 93). Shakespeare, for instance, is not recognized in their world and his plays provide many examples of precisely the kind of human relations—passionate, intense, and often tragic—that the World State is committed to eliminating. There are many references to the plays of The Tempest, Hamlet, Othello, etc. which is the soul basis of the Savage, John’s, education, thoughts and insights on life. John does not understand why Shakespeare’s plays are not taught to the people when he discusses this issue with Mustapha Mond. Mond best describesthe reason for not teaching Shakespeare to gain staibility when he says: Because our world is not the same as Othello’s world… you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re never afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. (177) God and any forms of religion have been removed from all aspects of life. Even i...