Thomas Malthus was England’s first professional economist who created the population theory, which says that food supply could never continue to grow as human population grows. Because population increases geometrically, population has a great power on earth (Hodgson 742). When human population increases a lot, “government intervention [becomes] necessary” (Chapman 81). In The Wanting Seed, the government intervenes with new laws and strict measures to try and improve this problem. For example, in China, the State punishes women who disobey birth-control laws (Burgess 72). In the novel, because everyone wants to be a good citizen and survive, they go along with whatever lifestyle and laws the government promotes.
Human Overpopulation
Consequences:
Because women have the right to know when and how many children to have, abortive measures encourage this right (Chapman 87). In contrast to this right, in The Wanting Seed, pregnant women have to take some reproductive measures such as abortion and contraceptives to not contribute to the population growth. Because of the overpopulation, procreation is viewed in a different way; it is not viewed as beneficial, but instead viewed as harmful to society because it means more people and fewer food supplies. Overpopulation is also making people less moral and ethical because, in the novel, a person’s death seems to be beneficial for the country. When Dr. Acheson told her that “[people] care about human life… [people] care about not letting the earth get overrun” he is letting her know that losing a human life is not as important as food and survival (Burgess 5).
According to Hulmes, cannibalism is the term used to describe the act of eating “human flesh” (qtd. in Lindenbaum 477). In the novel, because of all the desperation that some characters face, they begin to think about human consumption. The types of cannibalism presented in the novel can be the survival cannibalism and the exocannibalism. Survival cannibalism, eating human flesh to survive when there is not enough food supply, is presented when some parents cut their child and “ate him” (Burgess 123; Lindenbaum 477). The act of consuming humans in The Wanting Seed can also be seen as an “act of aggression,” exocannibalism, because characters are maybe practicing cannibalism to rebel against the government (Lindenbaum 478).
In The Wanting Seed, some characters go along with sexuality trends. At the beginning, some characters act as homosexuals to not lose their jobs like Derek, who acts in the “wings” while in public to not let anyone know that he is heterosexual and to help his career as a government official (Burgess 46). As the novel progresses, there is a transition in this trend; people start glorifying free love and having fertility rituals such as heterosexual orgies (Burgess 131).
Reproductive Measures
Cannibalism
Sexuality Trends
Themes
Thesis Statement
In this dystopian novel, Burgess uses the problem of human overpopulation to drive the entire story by creating an association with Malthus’ population theory and eugenics regarding population growth, which affects the characters’ morals when taking measures via cannibalism and reproductive restrictions to try and solve this problem.
Malthus' Population Theory
Eugenics
Eugenics is a term associated with “bad science” and control over people. In the novel, the characters’ survival depends on the balance of population and food supply, and because of that, the Population Police has to take some measures to prevent population growth (Burgess 53-54). In a conflict perspective, eugenics causes problems in a society because of the control that the government has, and the characters do not have enough freedom to reproduce (Chapman 93). Despite all the problems that the method of population control causes to the characters, the term “eugenics’’ can be seen as beneficial because its purpose is to help society prevent suffering (Koch 316).