Brave New World Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)

Quote #1

A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. (1.1)

This is an interesting motto, to say the least—we get the "community" and "stability" part, but identity is an odd duck, since the whole governing factor of the World State is that individual identity has gone by the wayside. The way we look at it is that identity is couched in community and stability—it exists only within those bounds.

Quote #2

Tall and rather thin but upright, the Director advanced into the room. He had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say. And anyhow the question didn't arise; in this year of stability, A. F. 632, it didn't occur to you to ask it. (1.8)

To eliminate individual identity, specific aspects of identity have been removed—in this case, age.

Quote #3

One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress. (1.12)

Of course, nothing else speaks to the lack of identity in Brave New World more than this, the Bokanovsky process. If individuals have identical genes and are raised in the same environment (think mass-conditioning as a youth), then there's not really anything to distinguish one from another.