Untouchables and the Epsilons

The Untouchables and the Epsilons have one major similarity, and that is the fact that both of them occupy the lowest level of their particular caste system. The title "Untouchable" refers to around 150 million Indians at the very bottom of Indian society (Mendelsohn 1). Epsilons are the lowest of the five castes in Brave New World, and not only are they modified before their birth to be Epsilons they are also preprogrammed to love jobs and lives that Epsilons are expected to do. “Dalit” is an Indian word used to describe the Untouchables, this word is from the Marathi language of western India, and is derived from Sanskrit. In an 1831 dictionary the word was defined as “ground” or “broken or reduced to pieces generally” (Mendelsohn 3-4). This word was originally used to oppress the lower castes and the denotation came to be the same as its connotation. Epsilons like the Untouchables are at the very bottom or ground level of their respective caste system. Untouchables were seen as dirty to the higher castes, much like how the Alphas, Betas and the other castes looked down upon the Epsilons. The one major difference was that Untouchables desired to not be Untouchables, yet due to methods used during the decanting process, Epsilons would never hope to be better than Epsilons. This is truly saddening because it takes away from their goals of attainment and makes them happy with a life that was engineered for them.