The Dirt that Lies Beneath

Pastel pink, polished with a hint of white at the tip is the essence of a perfectly kempt individual. It is the very pastel pink that coats the rough cuticles, weak texture, and grime underneath the nail. Like the nails superficial perfection and hidden filth Brave New World proves that even when complete human stability is accomplished dirt still builds up where we least expect it.

In Brave New world everything appears to be perfectly stable but Huxley shows the reader the dangerous undercurrent that such a society has. In this particular civilization the individuals are deprived of morals, emotions, and dignity. Yet they don’t regret not having them nor do they crave them, on the contrary they live inhumanly happy. Happiness however is not achieved on their own terms; they are predisposed to be happy since their cellular existence. The government takes away the citizens right to do things on his or her own terms, "…what would it be like if I could, if I were free – not enslaved by my conditioning." "But, Bernard, you're saying the most awful things." "Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?" The citizens are chemically made to be part of a certain social class and genetically altered to be ok with it. The ugliness comes out when Huxley depicts the promiscuousness of the women and lack of sexual control. He portrays the citizen’s addiction to the commonly accepted drug, soma and the lack of desire to achieve greatness. The characters are deprived of the very aspects that make us human.

Huxley is not the only author of the time that shows lack of human qualities in a work of literature; F. Scott Fitzgerald has a similar comment on society with his novel The Great Gatsby. Women in Fitzgerald’s novel lack dignity and morals. They are perfectly kempt and are physically up to perfection but their rotten attachment to money makes there inside as filthy as the underside of their manicured fingernails. They are brought up to be, “beautiful little fools.”

In Brave New World not only are the citizens deprived of human qualities like the ability to love and be loved but also are constrained to consumerism. They depend on the material world. They are dependent on drugs, sex, and novelty. This is not far from our 21^st century existence. As humans we are predisposed to crave these things as well. We may not have soma but we have other things like alcohol and cigarettes that create just as dependent citizens. It makes the reader question whether humans can ever really be innately happy. It is these things that society provides that drive their happiness. Society makes them dependent on their own happiness.

The method of government control over the masses in Brave New World makes the society dependent and inhuman. This is the very making of the dirt that lies under a polished and superficially superior world. Just like the polished nail, perfection is used to hide ugliness.