Categorization In Brave New World

Throughout many of the texts this semester, categorization of people is present throughout. Categorizing others, according to Donna Haraway, is “domination of ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘sexuality’, and ‘class’” (Haraway 2003: 321). While for organizations sake, categories and labels seem to be very helpful, authors Donna Haraway and Philip K. Dick challenge this norm. They contest that such practices of categorization are archaic and harmful to the victims, and we need to break past these traditions. To prove this, I will first argue that humankind naturally falls into habits of labeling others and forming preconceived ideas of their characters. I will further argue that we are confused and afraid of entities that exist beyond categorization. This …show more content…
Generally, this habit is beneficial as it leads to better organization. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the meticulous labeling of every man, woman, and child gets attributed as “one of the major instruments for social stability” (Huxley 2006: 7). The society not only benefits, but relies on the groups constructed through Bokanovsky’s Process. The entire world’s production is only possible through “standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, [and] uniform Epsilons” (Huxley 2006: 7). Their labels force them to conform to the roles they have been given. In a totalitarian society, this is an ingenious tool, but it has no place in the free world. Yet this practice of grouping people into categories extends far beyond a science fictional world of the future. Most examples of labeling are born out of ignorance and prejudice. In William Faulkner’s Light in August, when Joe Brown struggles to pin the murder of Miss Burden on Joe Christmas, he desperately exclaims that Christmas has African-American blood. With this, the sheriff resolves that Joe Christmas really did commit the murder. “I always thought there was something funny about that fellow” (Faulkner 1985: 99), he says to himself, trying to readjust his image of this man, whom he had previously labeled as white. Both the sheriff and the townspeople naturally fall into the habit of letting labels and categories define Joe Christmas. They judge him using their prejudice against …show more content…
Spiegelman’s MAUS shows off the horrors of one of the most infamous conflicts with roots in categorization: the Holocaust. This systematic extermination was fueled with blind hate towards a specific group. Spiegelman’s art shows off the absurdity of trying to assign a role to a human being. One of the most surreal scenes in the comic is when one of the prisoners tries to convince the guards that he was German, and for one brief panel, Art redraws him as a cat as if his identity was unclear. Vladek pondered, “Who knows. It was German prisoners also….But for the Germans this guy was Jewish” (Spiegelman 2011: 210). The Nazis used race as a tool to imprison whomever they wanted. According to Donna Haraway, “Consciousness of exclusion through naming is acute. Identities seem contradictory, partial, and strategic” (Haraway 2003: 319). The Nazis could strategically use race as a flexible way to encompass their targets. How can you eliminate and exclude millions of people within only a few years? Put a label on them, and associate hate and animosity with that group. It is similarly destructive in Light in August. Joe Christmas lived his life being haunted by his heritage. He allowed it to define himself and form negative behaviors based on the negative connotations of his blood. Even in his head “his blood began again, talking and talking” (Faulkner 1985: 116) as if the persona he has been labeled with