"Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks- already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly" (22).
The author demonstrates a Pavlovian process when describing the "conditioning" of the infants. Just as Pavlov trained his dogs, the nurses train the infants. The whole process seems extreme and unnecessary, but the conditioning lends itself to the theme of the society. The modern society adopts a theme of viewing everyone as a whole and destroying individualism. A group- Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Epsilons, Gammas- is conditioned to be the same. This scene also demonstrates the control the leaders have over the people, training them as infants to dictate how they will live. No one chooses his or her group, likes, dislikes, the color of his or her wardrobe, his or her career, or virtually any aspect of his or her life. No one receives the privilege of choosing; the choice is made for them. I found this scene to be inhumane and shocking, yet the observers considered this process part of their advancements in science. Since I was not able to share the feelings of the characters in this scene, I will probably find most of their actions to be unusual and unappealing. I think that the author wants the reader to find displeasure in the workings of the utopia so that the reader realized how imperfect the utopia really is.
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