Fathers

"My father! The laughter, which had shown signs of dying away, broke out again more loudly than ever. He put his hands over his ears and rushed out of the room." pg 152

I believe Huxley makes being a father such a joke in this book because he sees how we take advantage of our own parents. In the book, the people do not have fathers, everyone belongs to everyone else. Obviously we do have fathers, but occasionally we treat them in a similar way. We can ignore them, use them, wish they did not even exist. Huxley exaggerates the extent to which we do this, but it is true none the less. We sometimes wish we were never associated with them, and Huxley has created a world where people don't have to. However, by having the savage react the way he does, Huxley also shows us why we need parents. Where is the savage supposed to go? He has no father to go to for comfort, and his mother is soon lost in a world of soma.