Brave New World Individual Identity

“[C]ommunity, identity, stability” is the society’s motto in Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley, where he places great emphasis on the collective identity within society rather than that of individual identity. His writing poses some interesting questions to me as the reader like, what clear difference is there between the collective identity and mind, compared to an individual’s? How does the society deal with individuals?

“Everyone belongs to everyone else,” is a powerful statement from the novel that starts to answer both of these questions. It also shows the mindset of the people, there is no exclusive friendship or relationship for anyone. The hypnopaedic conditioning that all citizens go through make it so that there is no true identity for any individual. The ideal utopia, from the ten World Controllers perspective, is a collectivist society where even the thought of any

Bernard, who is one of the main characters in the book, is considered an oddball in his society. He is smaller than the other alphas, he dislikes sports and the casual way people have sex while he enjoys isolation. Helmholtz, a friend of Bernards, is an oddity in a completely different way. He knows he is too intelligent and tries to comprehend the world. Both Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled to the Falkland islands by the end of the book. Other cases include John the savage who was completely free from the conditioning that the rest of society went through and Mustapha Mond, one of the ten World Controllers, who had amazing intellect and leadership capabilities. John ends up killing himself because as he becomes sickened by the society and his own actions, while Mond suppresses his own talents to remain in power as one of the