Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel. John, a savage, has never been able to fit in society. Moving through two contradicting societies, John is unable to adapt to the major differences of the civilized society due to the different ways upon how it is conducted. Living with the savages, John feels isolated from the savages as they exclude him from most of their norms. John wanted to join the ceremonies that the savages held but they didn’t let him as he states, “But they wouldn’t let me. They disliked me for my complexion. It’s always been like that. Always” (Huxley 111). John has never been able to join any of the savage’s ceremonies that the savages have arranged. This is mainly due to his complexity as he isn’t actually a savage but only considered one since he was born at the reservation. Due to his lack of participation, John feels isolated from the savages. John has always been very interested upon civilization and when he was told he had the opportunity upon going to the World State, a civilized place. He was very excited, but after visiting it, it did not meet his expectations. Bernard, an Alpha-Plus, writes to Mustapha Mond, a World Controller, about his observations of the savage stating that, “The Savage…shows surprisingly little astonishment at, or awe of, civilized inventions”(146). At the World State, a lot of people have been showing John what civilizations ... ... middle of paper ... ...he normal civilized lifestyle. Bernard becomes, “…reconciled by his success, he yet refuses to forego the privilege of criticizing this order”(145). Since Bernard is receiving immense respect, he has forgotten all his rebellious beliefs about the society or his “order”, he starts to enjoy a lifestyle that everyone else in the World State enjoys. Sadly, Bernard loses his reputation shortly after as John would not meet the guests at Bernard’s party. Bernard saddened by his reputation in society, becomes his old self again. As Bernard lost his reputation, “The reputation of success had evaporated; he was soberly his old self again…”(163). His reputation was very temporal as Bernard acts as himself again and becomes solitary again. Ridiculed for his abnormalities, Bernard became a totally new person while enjoying his moment of fame which did not last very long.

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