Parenting In Brave New World

In the Brave New World society where stability came before freedom, the right to acquire knowledge was sacrificed in order to maintain the contentment and balance of the community. In particular, the citizens’ knowledge of the past, especially regarding parenting, was strictly limited to only what the World Controllers deemed as acceptable and society-safe. As a result, the countless positive truths of parenting and the past were locked and hidden away, and the only information taught about the topics was that the past was a horrible time, and that parenting and families were absolute madness. This caused the Brave New World society to demean the past and the concept of parenting and family. How and why this topic was demeaned will be …show more content…
Even more extremely, the mere words of mother and father were considered obscenities. The term mother, “with its connotation and moral obliquity of child bearing [was] merely gross, a scatological rather than a pornographic impropriety.” This word was made highly explicit because pregnancy and childbearing was associated with animals and savages, and because the society of Brave New World prided itself in being extremely civilized and modern, they were highly against this barbaric experience. This is evident through the story of Linda, the Brave New World citizen who accidentally conceived and became a mother. According to her son, she had a tremendously difficult time accepting the fact that she had become a mother, and had repeatedly told him that “I’m not your mother! I won’t be your mother!” and that she had “turned into a savage” by “having young ones like an animal”. Because the Brave New World society could not accept the fact that humans could enter the world through any tube other than the test tube, the idea of a family, parents, and children were foreign and subsequently viewed as absolutely appalling. In addition, parenting was even further degraded by …show more content…
Brave New World citizens were educated to believe that the past “world of fathers—was therefore full of misery; full of mothers—therefore every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity”. With such horrifying information associated with family life, it was no wonder that Brave New World citizens had no respect for the past world. Even more extremely, the term mother, “with its connotation and moral obliquity of child bearing” was considered highly explicit because society labeled pregnancy and birthing as savage and animal-like. Furthermore, the lack of experiences relating to the past and parenting was also a large affecting factor in the abhorrence towards these two subjects. As no one in the Brave New World society ever conceived and became parents, they had no understanding of the joy and love that a family brought. Additionally, because citizens could not comprehend that humans could enter the world through any tube other than the test tube, the idea of giving birth and becoming parents were foreign and subsequently viewed as appalling. Because of these factors, the ideas of the past, pregnancy, and parenting were extremely disregarded and