How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Yes, a little too able; they were right. A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect. Too little bone and brawn had isolated Bernard from his fellow men, and the sense of this apartness, being, by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation. That which had made Helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and all alone was too much ability. What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals. (4.2.15)
The mirrored characters of Helmholtz and Bernard make it clear that identity has as much to do with how others perceive an individual as with how that individual perceives himself.
Quote #11
"I suppose Epsilons don't really mind being Epsilons," she said aloud.
"Of course they don't. How can they? They don't know what it's like being anything else. We'd mind, of course. But then we've been differently conditioned. Besides, we start with a different heredity."
"I'm glad I'm not an Epsilon," said Lenina, with conviction.
"And if you were an Epsilon," said Henry, "your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren't a Beta or an Alpha." (5.1.9-12)
What's interesting about this conversation is that Henry is completely conscious of the manipulations used to craft identity in the World State—and yet he still isn't bothered by them.
Quote #12
"What a marvellous switchback!" Lenina laughed delightedly.
But Henry's tone was almost, for a moment, melancholy. "Do you know what that switchback was?" he said. "It was some human being finally and definitely disappearing. Going up in a squirt of hot gas. It would be curious to know who it was—a man or a woman, an Alpha or an Epsilon.…" He sighed. (5.1.13-4)
Not only has individual identity been destroyed, but so has the very notion of what it means to be a human. This society has been dehumanized to the point where dead bodies are akin to a thrilling bump in the road. The interesting part of this passage is that Henry is momentarily bothered by this fact. Lenina, of course, isn't. Dissatisfaction and individuality are solely the realm of the males in the novel.