Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Pat writes:
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley is set in 632 A.F. (After Ford).  At this point in society, children are no longer born the way we know they are now; they are mass-produced through a long process.  There are also five different social castes, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Epsilon. Alpha and Beta are the highest and best treated, Delta, Gamma and Epsilon are lower in the caste.  Before birth, each fetus is destined to a particular caste.  Delta, Gamma and Epsilon eggs will go through the Bokanovsky process.  This shocks the eggs, causing them to separate to make up to 96 identical fetuses.  Later, the embryos are bottled and left on a conveyer belt for 267 days, the natural human gestation period.  On the last day, they are “decanted” or born.  On another level of the story, there is a bit of drama going on between some of the characters.  One instance is two women, Lenina and Fanny, are discussing how it is not normal for Lenina to be seeing one boy for the four months that she has been seeing her boyfriend Henry.  Lenina agrees to look for other men.  In an attempt to follow through with her word, she goes out and makes a date with Bernard Marx to go to a savage reservation.