"Oh, Ford!" he said in another tone, "I've gone and woken the children." -pg 29
At this point in the novel I started to notice the emphasis and different uses of "Ford". Previously, there lots of references to a 'Ford society' On page 23 I noticed how time was marked by when Ford started to produce his car, the Model T. And in the quote above, the characters even use his name like we today use the word "God", which displays a level of reverence and admiration. What I know about Henry Ford and the Model T is not much. I know he was the pioneer of the assembly line and the was famous for his consistency and speed at assembly production. Due to his work, almost every American family owned a Model T car by the end of ten years. Henry Ford wasn't a great business man because he never saw the point of improving on his product. After every family owned a Model T, Ford didn't try to sell families newer, better cars because he saw that as unproductive and wasteful. That is the trait that perhaps most inspired the policies of the Hatcheries: uniformity and a strong distaste for ineffective methods.
At the Hatcheries, children that have been decanted are continually conditioned by -for example- electrical shocks and loud siren blares that discourage them from items- such as nature and children books- that they are not expected to like as an adult. The most important use of these methods are for the economy. Again, I was impressed and disturbed by these manipulative ideas. I would have never in a million years thought of safeguarding the industrial economy by training human beings to serve it. Since the methods of the Hatcheries are so consistent and like Ford's beliefs, I am wondering whether the economy has an ability to grow, or will it remain stagnant? Maybe later in the book, this unchanging trait of economy may be it's downfall?
No comments:
Post a Comment