Social Class In Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley

In the novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, he writes about the many different social classes within the story and their different class struggles. The social classes in the story Brave New World share a strong similarity to the social classes that Karl Marx believes in. The social classes in Brave New World are the Alphas, Betas, Gammas, and Epsilons. However there is a difference in how many social classes there are compared to Marx’s beliefs. For example the social classes that Marx believes in are the Aristocracy, the Bourgeoisie, and the Proletariat. The social classes that Marx believes in and the classes in Brave New World are very similar as far as the roles that they play and their views on the world. Karl Marx was a German …show more content…
If the social classes from Marx’s theory and Brave New World were to be put into the same category, the Aristocracy would be the same as alphas. In the article Literary and Cultural Theory, written by Donald E. Hall, he explains where the Aristocracy originates from. Hall says “The aristocracy is the traditional class of nobles, those individuals who for many centuries held extraordinary power over others…” (Hall 74) this explains that how the Aristocracy was born into the wealth and power. This is very similar to the selection process in Brave New World. As for the rest of the social classes, Betas and Gammas would be anywhere in the middle class. Anyone in this class can be from a mechanic to a machine minder. The people that are in these two social classes would be the same as the Bourgeoisies. In The Communist Manifesto Marx says “The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom.” (Marx) What Marx means by this is that the bourgeoisies want to be successful like the Aristocracy, but are not willing to work like the Proletariats. As far as the Epsilons, they would be the same as the Proletariats. The people that belong in this social class are the ones with no sort of intelligence, and work in mass produced factories. In the article Karl Marx’s Theories: …show more content…
According to Marx, he believes that religion is used to control society. The form of social control in Brave New World is sex and the use of a drug called “soma”. In the society in Brave New World, nobody is in a relationship. They are conditioned to believe that love is a sin. So everyone just has sex with each other, not out of love, but for no reason at all. Karl Marx also witnessed somewhat of the same thing. He saw that people would get in a relationship with each other, not out of love, but to benefit themselves financially, or for business purposes. Marx believed that people shouldn’t be in a relationship for this reason; he believed that they should be together for love. The reason why the people in Brave New World are not in any relationships is because they do not share feelings with each other, especially because they are always under the influence of soma. Soma is used by anyone in any social class. This drug is what keeps everyone from sharing or feeling any emotions. In Brave New World, a character “Mustapha Mond” says “There’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering.” (Huxley 238) This explains how everyone in this society uses soma to avoid having feelings. Soma is used to keep social stability. According to Marx, this is the same way how religion is used to keep social