Aldous Huxley wrote the book Brave New World in 1931 when the Great Depression was just starting to arise. As the Great Depression was making its way into America, divorce rates increased and birthrates decreased (“U.S. History in Context – Document”). Huxley recognized this trend and believed at this rate, eventually family units would no longer exist and portrays this in his book. Aldous Huxley portrays a world in which family is no longer a factor in society due to the cultural changes and unfortunately, this trend seems to be making an appearance in today’s American society.
Analysis:
Huxley has created a dystopian society where promiscuity is commonplace and expected, so no one has a long-term relationship. Lenina …show more content…
In a study done by Pew Research Center, they found that about 40% fewer young American’s today have gotten married than young American’s three generations ago ("American Family: An Endangered and Disappearing Species"). One reason for this is that “78% of all women report that a prospective partner having a “steady job” would be “very important” to them in choosing a spouse or partner” ("American Family: An Endangered and Disappearing Species"). People are becoming picky about what they want when it comes to a relationship, therefore, people are not as likely to get married in today’s society. They’re not as worried about love as they are that their partner has a good job that can help support them. Today’s people need to reevaluate what they are looking for in a partner to increase the amount of marriages in today’s …show more content…
“Four decades ago, an American woman typically delivered her first baby at age 21. By 2000, she was 24.9. Today, she is 26.3.” The longer a women waits to have children, the less fertile she is (Https://www.facebook.com/danielle.paquette.58). This trend of waiting longer to have children is causing the chance of having children to decline because of infertility. The increase in infertility has added to the decrease of families in the United States. Getting married at a younger age could cause an increase in family units again due to fertility. Children are expensive and many couples are avoiding this expense by not having children. Couples are avoiding starting a family because they simply cannot afford to have and support children. In fact, “the average middle-class couple will spend $241,080 to raise a child to age 18” (ANGIER). When young couples are faced with numbers as high as that, it scares them away from having children. A lack of American families is partially due to the astonishing price of one