The topic I chose to conduct the isearch on is a process called bokanovskification. In the book I am currently reading, the author, Aldous Huxley, presents an idea of mass reproduction in order to create bokanovsky groups made to perform menial labors. The fact that the Brave New World society accepted this idea, and also applied this system according to the hierarchical castes, represents a possibility of important symbolisms that hold deep meanings within the book Brave New World.

The first thing that I want to talk about is the significance of the bokanovskification and the importance of the meanings behind it. The idea of cloning multiple genetically identical human beings is not just a matter of creating many workers easily, but also a matter of some moral issues, such as human rights and the sense of individuality and freedom. Nature, through human eyes, comes in various kinds of randomness, and compared to artificial things, it seems much more unpredictable and fitful. By rejecting to submit to the nature and the randomness, and artificially conditioning and cloning workers for the community, the Brave New World system has obtained Stability (One of their world’s mottos). Looking at a quote on page 4 “Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.” we can see how the society cares more for the effectiveness of sustaining the community as a whole than the lives of the individuals; as if they were no more important than the non-livings, as if they were mere machines. Bokanovskification is a big part of the setting of the Brave New World society and the concept behind the system. By simply explaining the Bokanovsky’s process, the author was able to describe the fundamental idealism of the society; show them how it values stability and sustainability of the community much more than the sense of individuality and the importance of ‘living’.

The next thing I want to talk about is how the Bokanovskification was used in the society and how effective it was. Bokanovskification was an easy method of not only creating many workers, but also keeping them under control. It is a part of human instinct to seek a sense of belonging. And in order to achieve this, people create similarities, and bond to form a variety of groups. However, it is still the friction between these different groups and ideas that bring forth our creativities and new ideas. By putting everyone in one big group where everyone looks the same and is conditioned to think the same, the castes where bokanovskification was used became easier for the government to control. It’s as if the government is able to use the manpower of 96 human beings while, in the sense of intelligence, the government only needs to worry about putting one person under control. When people are forced to stay in a community where everyone wants to be the same, and needs to be the same, they tend to stay within the lines. Even if a few people cross those lines, they will soon be abandoned or brought back by the rest of the group. This kind of controlled system can be seen in our current era as well. For example, the way the military makes everyone wear the same clothes, eat the same food, and do the same work, allows them to easily control people to their will; for it is what they are essentially trying to do in the military. An event on page 187 describes this phenomenon very well. What John has said about freedom was still worth considering and thinking about even from the Deltas’ point of view. If there was no bokanovskification used on them, it might have brought a different result. However, in a community where people are not only intellectually similar, but also physically the same, it is extremely hard for one to think differently and even harder to have the courage to act that way.

Another thing that I have analyzed about bokanovskification in the book, is a problem that ought to have occurred, and how the Brave New World society used a hierarchical system to solve this problem and even go further to create a well structured society. The problem is that while bokanovskification is able to bring stability and easier control, it also contains some demerits. The major disadvantage of asexual reproduction compared to sexual reproduction is that it can’t evolve. Because everything is genetically identical, and contains no variation, it does not have the space to evolve and adapt to the new environment. The same problem occurs in bokanovskification. Where everyone is the same, and no interactions between new ideas and concepts exist, there is no possibility for the society to grow, improve, and evolve. This may not be a huge problem until the society meets an issue big enough to shake and endanger it. A substance that is solid hard will break when hit by a harder substance, but a substance that is flexible enough will never break, but continue in a slightly different form. This is the danger the bokanovskification could have brought to the Brave New World society; no flexibility and no room for improvements. However, the interesting part about the Brave New World society is that it has overcome this obstacle and has succeeded in extracting only the good parts of the bokanovskification by applying a hierarchical system. In the Brave New World society, there are five different castes that take on five different roles. From the bottom there are Epsilons, Deltas, Gammas, Betas, and Alphas. The way Brave New World society applied bokanovskification according to the hierarchical system is that it only used bokanovskification on the lower castes like Epsilons, Deltas, and Gammas, where usually menial labors are done. For the Alphas and Betas, who do more intellectual jobs, bokanovskification is not used. This way the bokanovskification is able to not only provide easier control of the castes who do harder jobs than the upper castes and thus have higher possibilities for complaints and rebellions, but also provide the ability to print out many laborers faster and cheaper. Meanwhile, in Alphas and Betas where intellectual work is done, bokanovskification is not used, to let them easily interact ideas and thoughts, and allow them to provide the society with the variations and improvements that bokanovskification lacks.

Through this method, the Brave New World society was able to become a society that is now not only able to have massive amounts of menial laborers with easier control, but also with enough room for improvement and adaptation to the new environment.