The World State, in effect, whispers into the ear of each of its sleeping young citizens to ensure compliance with the social order. Hypnopaedia, Huxley makes clear, uses words at the vulnerable time during sleep to produce unquestioning loyalty or aversion in people. The power of words - and responses to particular words - form an important theme in Brave New World.

Again, the dystopian practice supports social stability but destroys personal identity and independence. Even those - like Bernard Marx - who are conscious of the techniques of hypnopaedia cannot fully escape its power. Throughout the novel, characters spout the sentiments of their hynopaedic training almost unconsciously and behave according to the precepts of the sleep-teaching. The lesson in class consciousness gives each child a social identity but cuts off the possibility of forming friendships outside of caste or even forming opinions of one's own. Less violent, but nonetheless powerful, hypnopaedia emerges as the source of underlying assumptions and prejudices in the dystopia. Note again Huxley's use of natural imagery as the complement to technology, when the sun beams warmly on the flowers, almost as if offering aid in the conditioning. The reality of the conditioning represents its own legitimate argument against the theory of social, political, and economic stability. The image of happy babies crawling toward colorful books and beautiful blooms is filled with conventional sentimentality, but Huxley's reversal with the alarms and electric shock sharpens the reader's response. The price of stability emerges most memorably in the scene in which Delta children - predestined for rote factory work - receive their conditioning to dislike the books and flowers. In the explanation of hypnopaedia and infantile conditioning, Huxley makes clear that the elimination of choice increases economic and social stability but diminishes the potential for human growth. In this chapter, Huxley continues his presentation of dystopian social stability with a close look at the theory and practice of early conditioning. and students look in on a sleep-teaching session on Elementary Class Consciousness. also recounts an anecdote about little Reuben Rabinovitch to discuss 'sleep-teaching or hypnopaedia' - the 'greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.' By way of an example, the D.H.C. To illustrate his point, he explains how a dislike of nature can be transformed into a love of country sports - and that involves the consumption of a nearly endless variety of manufactured consumer goods. This experience, notes the D.H.C., will 'unalterably' condition the reflexes of the babies so that they will develop an 'instinctive hatred' of books and nature.Īccording to the D.H.C., such social conditioning ultimately maximizes economic consumption among the population. oversees a demonstration of 'Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning.' Nurses expose a group of babies to books and flowers and then add a violent explosion, alarm bells, shrieking sirens, and finally an electric shock.

Here he lectures the new students on the importance of social conditioning as ' moral education.'

continues his tour of the Centre in the Infant Nursery.

Brave new world chapter 4 summary