The Theme of Identity in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
We are born, we live, and we die. Every human being in the entire world owns something incredibly valuable. It lacks physical quality, but can be seen. It acts as the foundation to every decision we make every day, and we wouldn't even exist without it. This "thing" is called an identity, and you could not even begin to imagine the repercussions that an identity is able to cause. Identity is the study of "you", or "us", what you think of yourself, and what society thinks of you. There are an infinite number of subsections to an identity, some of them effect us negatively, some positively, and some people more than others. We act on it, we speak on it, and we are where we are because of it.
If you gave just the smallest amount of concentration you would realize that questions and ideas over identity would arise from almost every source of media, more importantly books. In both Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip Dick identity is a common theme throughout each. They wouldn't be masterpieces without the theme of identity. They take separate paths and end in two totally different areas; the two books focus heavily on identity, and the repercussions of being subject to that specific identity. Although both novels rely on identity, the type of identity in either book is mostly opposite. Huxley uses unconscious identity, and Dick uses conscious identity as his forefront. The two novels start to merge and become eerily similar when you discover that a few of the main characters from either book start to question society and seek for answers to define themselves.
Aldous Huxley wrote the themes and ideas of identity in Brave New World into a living and breathing hierarchy system. A system compiled of around five classes, represented by a color and a social status.. Babies are made in factories and conditioned for different occupations and hierarchies. These babies were made from clones, about 96 newborns originated from one source. This is where the "faceless" aspect of unconscious identity comes into play. Every class in this brave new world was "aware" of the class below it. Meaning they where conditioned to despise this class and love there own. But that meant they were unaware of their own identity. Excluding the Alphas, who were conditioned to think the highest of themselves. In the novel personal identity is sacrificed for the common good of society. In Brave New World the women are defined only by their sexual function. This is the extent of every female's identity in the novel. And because he surrenders to this, it is only by killing himself that John is able to maintain his identity as a human being instead of an animal.
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Animals are the basis for social stature, as is all life in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Which is a completely opposite take from Brave New World. Philip Dicks puts it clear and simple, if you have something living your worth something. If you have something fake then you are looked down upon, for a human anyway. Cricket owners are chumps, and horse owners are filthily rich, you get the picture? "Owning and maintaining a fraud had a way of gradually demoralizing one. And yet from a social standpoint it had to be done, given the absence of the real article"(1.36). Androids are a different story in this novel; they are taken for murderous beasts with an absent consciousness. When really this couldn't be farther from the truth, Rick Deckard would come to realize this at some point. This novel is all about conscious identity; everybody knows (or thinks) they know who and what they are. From this they develop a personal worth and so forth.
In my final draft I plan to elaborate more on the idea of conscious identity vs. the idea of unconscious identity, and how the characters relate in either novel. Though I don't know if I should be analyzing the text more or elaborating on a claim?
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