Propaganda Techniques Used In Brave New World

Just like toy cars can be controlled, humans can too. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World State uses a number of very effective methods to control its citizens. Three of these ways are Soma, Exile, and The Caste System. Soma is used when Lenina essentially overdoses on soma after visiting the Savage Reservation. Exile is used when Bernard is threatened to be sent to Iceland. The last method is the Caste System, which is used when Epsilons that do the dumbest or dirtiest jobs but even don’t care. A reader will soon understand how the World State uses these three methods to control its citizens.
To begin, a method that The World State uses to control their citizens is Soma. First, Soma, a method of control, is shown being exercised

when Lenina takes her own Soma holiday. Lenina and Bernard come back from a day at the Native Reservation. Lenina has witnessed a terrible lifestyle and In order to maker herself better, she decides to take six half gramme tablets of Soma which then causes her to pass out. She uses the soma to erase what she never wanted to see. Second, another example of The World State using soma to control its citizens is when Bernard uses it to escape his embarrassment caused by the Savage. The Savage has a group of people waiting to see him but instead of going out to greet them, he locks himself in his room. Bernard then has to face the group about the this which then causes disappointment that ends up starting criticism to come towards him about alcohol being poured into his tube making him flawed. After everyone is gone he takes four tablets of Soma to deal with the hurtful criticism he has just received.Third, Soma is used by the World State when it is being distributed by The Deputy Sub-Bursar. In this quotation the Deputy Sub-Bursar is distributing soma to the children that are at the hospital, participating in death conditioning. The children are becoming squirmy so the distributor threatens to stop giving out soma. “The Deltas muttered, jostled one another a little, and then they were still. The treat was effective. Deprivation of soma- appalling thought!”(210) This quotation demonstrates that want of soma influence the children’s behavior to change in order to insure that they receive soma from the Deputy Sub-Bursar.
To continue, exile is another way the World State controls its citizens.To start, the World State used exile to control its citizens when the Director forewarns him about being sent to Iceland.

The director heard of Benard and his weird behavior and he doesn’t not approve of it. He tells Bernard he has to act infantile. The director then goes on and says that if he does not do so he will be have leave to Iceland. Bernard is not behaving according to what the world wants them to behave so because of this he is threatened in order to influence him to change his behavior to accustamate to the World State's standards. Next, another example when the World States uses exile to control its citizen is when Bernard is being sent to Iceland, after talking to the controller, but refuses to go. The controller, Mustapha Mona, tells Helmholtz and Bernard that they are going to Iceland where he himself was going to be sent. At this remark, Bernard gets overwhelmed and refuses to get up from off the floor, which he was at the controllers feet begging to be not sent . Mustapha Mond then asks for three men to export him and have him receive a soma vaporization. Through giving Bendard this he is able to calm down then letting the transportation to Iceland go smoother. Finally, the method of exile, used by the World State to control its citizen is used when, now a commander, was threatened to be sent to iceland. The controller, Mustapha Mond, was telling John, Helmholtz and Bernard how

science is evil. He states what almost happened to him because of it. when Helmholtz asked what happened. “Very nearly what’s going to happen to you young men. I was on the point of being sent to an island”. (226) This demonstrates that the World State does not want its citizens to go off and learn what they want to learn but they want to control what knowledge they gain. They warned Mustapha Mond about what would happen if he continued with his experiments and that is being sent to Iceland. This stopped him because the thought of being sent is horrific.
To conclude, a third method the World State uses to control their citizens is through its caste system.

Initially, the Caste System is used by the World State to control its citizens with the Epsilon - Minus Semi - Moron in the elevator. He has a voice coming out of a speaker to tell him what to do even though the only thing he does is go up and down the building. Instead of doing this simple job that anyone can do themselves he could be something way more helpful. Since this is a Epsilon, since they are usually dumb, he doesn't care what job he gets. Furthermore, the World State used the Caste System to control its citizen when having the Alphas and Betas do the jobs that require intelligence. Since the lower castes are affected by the way they were developed in the tubes so they are dumber than the higher castes, the Alphas and Betas are the ones who do the more important jobs. These are the people that help the economy move forward more. They work in a clean environment and they live wealthy. They look down at the lower castes enjoying not being them while living this glorious lifestyle while these lower castes don’t know any different that what they have which is almost nothing good. In conclusion, the Caste System is a method that the World State used to control its citizens when Lenina and Henry are sat down talking about the Epsilons. Lenina and Henry are taking a helicopter ride and they fly over the crematory. They start talking about Epsilons and how they are

helpful to keep the economy to move forward. Lenina says that they don’t seem to mind doing what they do. Henry then answers her in this quotation. “Of course they don’t mind. 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”. (74) This shows that the citizens are placed in casts while yet in the tubes. They don’t know any better since they are dumbed by the alcohol they received. They are made to love their caste and what job they are placed in.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World State uses a number of very effective methods to control its citizens. Three of these ways they control their citizens are Soma, Exile, and The Caste System. With all these ways the World State tries to control its citizens they can basically be called slaves to their own world.