NovelGuide: Brave New World: Novel Summary: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Huxley’s second chapter details the incredible and sickening methods used to condition small babies. Dozens of toddlers are put in the sunlight, immersed in countless books and flowers when suddenly bells and sirens sound and electrical shocks penetrate their tiny bodies. These lower caste members, future factory workers, are made to hate books, since this would prove to be unnecessary and wasteful to their line of work. Flowers are also shunned since factory workers need to be content with their urban environments. Any yearning to visit the countryside would hurt productivity.

Next, the first reference to Ford is made. Obviously this society uses it to replace God. The Director and others seem to worship him as God. Proof that this society takes place in the future is seen when the Director says that French and German are dead languages. Even the term parent is considered backward and outdated. This is because modern science has made everyone a test-tube baby. Government is its parents.

Finally, sleep-teaching hypnosis is used to give subliminal messages to the growing children. They are conditioned to love their own caste and despise all others through the constant repetition of key words and phrases. Some Beta babies are told, "I don’t want to play with Delta Children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write..." The Director boasts that hypnopaedia, "words without reason," is "the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time."