Pages+64-65

** Pages 64-65 **​

“To have dealings with members of the lower castes was always, for Bernard, a most distressing experience. For whatever the cause (and the current gossip about alcohol in his blood-surrogate may very likely- for accidents will happen- have been true) Bernard’s physique was hardly better than that of the average Gamma. He stood eight centimeters short of the standard Alpha height and was slender in proportion. Contact with members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of his physical inadequacy… Each time he found himself looking on the level, instead of downward, into a Delta’s face, he felt humiliated. Would the creature treat him with the respect due to his caste? The question haunted him. Not without reason. For Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons had been to some extent conditioned to associate corporeal mass with social superiority. Indeed, a faint hypnopaedic prejudice in favour of size was universal. Hence the laughter of the women to whom he made proposals, the practical joking of his equals among the men.”  Huxley points out that members of the lower caste do not respect Bernard as a member of a higher caste because of his size. He is smaller than most Alpha and Betas, therefore he does not get the respect that they do. Huxley uses a rhetorical question to emphasize Bernard’s trepidation when dealing with members of the lower caste, and his fear that they will not take him seriously. The question shows the expectation that lower castes will obey and respect the higher castes no matter what. Huxley also refers to the lower members of society as “creatures”, showing the general view that they are useless and unintelligent. The last sentence of the passage, “Hence the laughter of the women to whom he made proposals, the practical joking of his equals among the men”, uses asyndeton to emphasize the fact that lack of height and general corporeal mass calls for members of even the same caste to look down upon Bernard. This passage shows the negative side of a class system through Bernard’s lack of respect from lower classes and even members of his own class, simply because he is slightly different from the other Betas. Huxley uses Bernard to show how judgmental and prejudice class systems can be, because of something as insignificant as height.