While Huxley presents the “iceberg” model satirically in the novel, he appears to hold to the idea that neither this model nor Helvetius’ thoughts (as demonstrated in the “Cyprus Experiment”) constitute ideal ways to proceed. However, he feels that the future will incorporate the “iceberg” model into its educational practices. He writes, in Burns’ “Preface,”
[children] would be allowed to develop only so far as was compatible with the advantage of the race. Any signs of outstanding individuality would be ruthlessly suppressed, or at any rate canalized in radically useful channels. Every art or compulsion and suggestion would be used to enforce the ethics of total self-abnegation. The systemic breeding of useful individuals and the systematic suppression of he useless would form a natural complement to this system of more than Spartan education. Special sub-species would be bred (and having been bred, specially educated) for the purpose, for example, of working in hot climates, at high altitudes, in the dark, under great atmospheric pressure; while other varieties would be produced by selection to perform specialized intellectual functions. (qtd. in Meckier, 8)
This creation of “[s]pecial sub-species” would lead to what Huxley refers to as a “termite-ideal.” With this ideal in mind, we can examine how Huxley’s use of insect imagery correlates to the overt loss of individuality presented in Brave New World.
Throughout the novel, the “self-abnegation” of the individuals in the society becomes apparent. Within a two page section, when Henry and Lenina fly on their “date,” Huxley refers to the different speeds of the helicopter as insect sounds: hornet, wasp, mosquito, bumble-bee, cockchafer, and stag-beetle (66). Along with the speeds of the helicopter, Huxley also produces insect imagery when Lenina and Henry see the “Red Rocket.” It “suddenly dropped [from a cloud as] a small scarlet insect, buzzing as it fell” (66). As they fly along, Lenina observes that the “green [in Central London park] was maggoty with fore-shortened life” (67). These references, while apparently superficial, help to reinforce the “termite-ideal” that Huxley presented in his “Preface.” By setting up the imagery of insects with insignificant items such as the helicopter, rocket, and grass, Huxley ends the two page aerial trip with a view of the shift change at the Television Corporation’s factory. Here, Lenina and Henry observe workers “[l]like aphides and ants” (67) changing shifts. At this point, the imagery transfers from the society’s tools to the individuals that participate within it. Huxley continues to draw upon this insect imagery near the end of Lenina and Henry’s date. He says, as the two fly home, “[t]he approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant-like pullulation of lower-caste activity” (76). This aerial view adds even more to the imagery being presented. With an elevated, almost god-like view, Henry and Lenina see an image of the society working as a single organism, and they do not feel bothered by the “self-abnegation” of the individual at all. Instead, they condone its actions and peer upon it from on high.
On the other hand, John, as he visits Linda on her deathbed, encounters a group of eight-year-old twins. As the group continues to file in towards Lind’s bed, “the ward was maggoty with them. They swarmed between the beds [. . . ]” (183). Again, Huxley employs “maggoty” and “swarmed” in describing a group of individuals within the society. They act as one, think as one, and suppress “any signs of outstanding individuality.” They, in effect, act as ants or termites working for the betterment of the colony. After Linda dies, and John makes his way out of the hospital, he encounters 162 Deltas waiting in a soma distribution line. Here, he notices “the nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness” (189-90). This reminds him of the twins who appeared as “maggots” as they “swarmed” around Linda’s deathbed. However, the Deltas looked like “[m]aggots again, but larger, full grown, they now crawled across his grief and his repentance” (190). Again, John sees the complete lack of individuality that this educational system supports.
The end of the novel returns to the insect imagery. Here, as John becomes pestered by onlookers and inquirers, he sees “the arrival overhead of a great swarm of helicopters” (226). As the aerial machines get closer, they appear as “locusts” or “giant grasshoppers” descending upon him. Interestingly enough, the views that John sees, when the insect imagery appears, counters Lenina and Henry’s view. Instead of viewing the events from above, as a type of social superiority, John views the actions from ground level, looking up at descending insects and interacting with them on the ground. What importance, exactly, does this difference in views have? At this point, I do not have an answer.
Huxley, throughout Brave New World, satirizes the movement of the educational system towards “self-abnegation.” With his use of insect imagery, both overtly referring to insects and using verbs and adjectives that we relate to insects, Huxley shows us that if things move forward the way they appear to be going that the “termite-ideal” will be reached. The attainment of this ideal, as we can see in the novel, does not provide much hope for the future.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.
Meckier, Jerome. "A Neglected Huxley "Preface": His Earliest Synopsis of Brave New World." Twentieth-
Century Literature 25.1 (1979): 1-20.
