THOMAS / 'TOMAKIN', 'THE DIRECTOR'
administrator in the year 632AF of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The Director runs a futuristic baby-factory where the assembly-line production of genetic castes is streamlined and controlled, and maturing youngsters are brainwashed via neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopaedia ["sleep-learning"] into being happy with their state-allotted roles in life. The Director is an intelligent but orthodox-minded Alpha; he frowns on Bernard's individualism. His manner is charmless, self-important and didactic. The Director is disgraced after a sordid sex-scandal in his past is revealed. It transpires he is father of John the Savage, conceived after he impregnated Linda on a trip to the New Mexico Savage Reservation.
BERNARD MARX
a sleep-learning specialist at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. Bernard is a misfit. He is unusually short for an Alpha; an accident with alcohol in Bernard's blood-surrogate before his decanting has left him slightly stunted. Bernard's independence of mind stems more from his inferiority-complex and depressive nature than any depth of philosophical conviction. Unlike his fellow utopians, Bernard is often angry, resentful and jealous. At times, he is also cowardly and hypocritical. His conditioning is clearly incomplete. He doesn't enjoy communal sports, solidarity services, or promiscuous sex. He doesn't even get much joy out of soma. Bernard is in love with the highly beddable Lenina. He doesn't like her sleeping with other men, though in BNW "everyone belongs to everyone else". Bernard's triumphant return to utopian civilisation with John the Savage from the Reservation precipitates the downfall of the Director, who had been planning to exile him. Bernard's triumph is short-lived. Success goes to his head. Despite his tearful pleas, he is ultimately banished to an Island for his non-conformist behaviour.
JOHN THE SAVAGE
the illicit son of the Director and Linda. He was born and reared on the Savage Reservation ("Malpais") after Linda was unwittingly left behind by her errant lover. John the Savage is an outsider both on the Reservation - where the ignorant natives still practise marriage, natural birth, family life and religion - and the ostensibly civilised Brave New World: a totalitarian welfare-state based on principles of stability and happiness, albeit happiness of a shallow and insipid nature. The Savage has read nothing but The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. He quotes them extensively and, for the most part, aptly, though his allusion to "Brave New World" [Miranda's words in The Tempest] takes on a darker and bitterly ironic resonance as the novel unfolds.
BNW Literary Lens Essay- Marxist Since the primitive civilizations of Mesopotamia and the classical kingdoms of Greece and Rome, people have always been divided. Up to the status quo, society has naturally categorized people into various ranks and statuses. With the Marxist literary lens, readers can explore this social phenomenon by analyzing depictions of class structure in literature. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, readers are introduced to a dystopian society with a distinctive caste system.
Frequently Bernard sets himself off from the rest of the Alphas because he believes he is very different than the rest of them. It is rumored that he accidentally got alcohol while he was being born causing his stunted growth. Because of this, he is constantly extremely frustrated with his craving to fit in with the rest of the Alphas and not be considered different. His most distressing experiences come when he has to give orders to members of lower castes (pg 64). Having the physique of the average Gamma, he frequently finds himself having hard times getting the lower caste members to listen to him. His physical inadequacy caused woman to laugh at him if he made a proposal to “have” her, men would joke to one another, and constant mockery caused him to feel like an outsider. Another interesting oddity in Bernard is his dislike of soma. When meeting with Benito Hoover, he was offered a gramme of soma, to which he quickly turned and walked away (pg...
Bernard is a misfit who is constantly mocked by his peers for his physical defects, which is the primary cause of his dislike of the World State’s society. He is an Alpha male, and yet his physical flaws and insecurities lead him to feel lonely and self-conscious. In a world of tall, handsome, and broad-shouldered Alphas, Bernard is short, slender, and ugly, and prejudice in favor of size is universal. “The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects (Huxley 56).” From this quote it becomes evident that Bernard is angry at the world for not accepting him and claims to be an individual. But in reality, he accepts this prejudice and he supports it because he knows that if he had a better physique, he would not be a subject of mockery of the society. He himself is prejudiced against people based on their...
The outcome of what happened to Bernard forced him to see that mistakes were one reason a Utopian Society could not exist. The Character Bernard Marx is an example of human imperfection, not because he was referred to as deformed, but because the person who created him messed up. Individuals were decanted according to specification. Any deviation was evidently the result of some mistake, a mistake made by a human. These technological developments weren’t advanced enough to create such a perfect society. Bernard was an example of this undesired reality. He was deemed an outcast due to his imperfection. Being an outcast, however, allowed him to see the world differently. He was able to realize how everything was being manipulated and he was able to discern that it was wrong.
Bernard Marx was alienated in the Brave New World because of his general appearance. As an Alpha Plus, Bernard was unusually short and ugly. Suggested by Fanny, Bernard's condition resulted from an error when he was still in a bottle, the workers "thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood surrogate." Bernard did not fit in the structured order of the Brave New World and was therefore shunned by others. The error resulted in Bernard developing outside the barriers of his caste level. His ugliness and short stature led Bernard to become a perpetual outsider, alienated by society. As an outsider, Bernard was cynical of the order and structure of the Brave New World. He eschewed Electric Golf, and other social amusements in favor of loneliness and solidarity activities, such as, thinking. Bernard attempted to find a way "to be happy in some other way," in his own way, not the established way.
There were quite a few changes made from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World to turn it into a “made for TV” movie. The first major change most people noticed was Bernard Marx’s attitude. In the book he was very shy and timid toward the opposite sex, he was also very cynical about their utopian lifestyle. In the movie Bernard was a regular Casanova. He had no shyness towards anyone. A second major deviation the movie made form the book was when Bernard exposed the existing director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Bernard himself was moved up to this position. In the book the author doesn’t even mention who takes over the position. The biggest change between the two was Lenina, Bernard’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and has the baby. The screenwriters must have made this up because the author doesn’t even mention it. The differences between the book and the movie both helped it and hurt it.
civilization versus savagery; the clashing of instinct with ideal: the ideal to live by the rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group, is set against the basic instinct to fulfill one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will. In the beginning of the book, soon after they crash-land on the island, Ralph and Piggy begin to- as it says in the book- “do as the adults would do”, that is, call
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World portrays a society in which science has clearly taken over. This was an idea of what the future could hold for humankind. Is it true that Huxley’s prediction may be correct? Although there are many examples of Huxley’s theories in our society, there is reason to believe that his predictions will not hold true for the future of society.
Although Bernard likes Lenina, he hates the fact that she can’t think for herself. Lenina and Bernard decide to go to the savage reservation in New Mexico. It's here where Bernard meets other people like him: John “The Savage” and Linda. Linda was a former of The World State and also Bernard’s boss’s “Girlfriend,” but got stranded during a trip to the reservation. Although frowned upon at the World State, Linda gave natural birth to John. This is why John is able to think freely. John lacked the uniform development that every other child in the world goes through. Seeing these two, Bernard returns them to the World State.
Bernard Marx an Alpha plus specialist in sleep teaching is an example of a character that changes in the brave new word. He changes from a character that symbolized individuality to a character that just wanted to desperately belong to the society. At the beginning of the novel he seemed to be very different from the society, he acts like a rebel trying to battle against the order of things. He seemed to be an “individual” in the first few chapters. For example On his first date with Lenina with lenina he says ” I’d rather be myself. ‘Myself and nasty .Not somebody else, however jolly”(77). He wanted to be something else different from the rest of the society. However we see that his root concern is to be socially acceptable and not really about becoming an individual. In chapter 6 Bernard shows signs of undergoing a change in his character. When the Director summoned Bernard to his office for being unorthodox, Bernard goes on to brag to his friend Helmholtz Watson on his victory over the director when he says” I simply told him to go to the bottomless past and marched out of the room and that was that “(85). We get the sense that Bernard’s victory wasn’t so much about personal integrity as it was social acceptance. Finally, his character undergoes a c...
Savagery is the condition of being primitive, uncivilized or the quality of being fierce or cruel (Google). It is something that comes easy to everyone at certain times in our life. People will learn it is harder to be good than bad. Being bad comes natural to everyone; people like the thrill of taking a chance. People are trained to be civil and polite from the time one grows up and it is not that hard because of the society everyone lives in. What would happen if the people’s democracy fell and everybody is left with nothing? How would the citizens react? Would they act like they were trained to do ever since they were born, or would they disregard all of it and do as they please because there is no definite authority figure to tell them how to live. In William Golding's, The Lord of the Flies, he brilliantly tells a story of life and death and everything in between. His use of symbolism with the conch, beast, and lord of the flies is phenomenal. It is a story that makes you think. Every person, when faced with reality, may act civil now, but in a survival situation, human nature takes over in the end.
Bernard was an outcast in society. Society thought something went wrong when he was born. He was miserable, he did not do any of the things other men did. He slept with any girls except for Lenina which is considered weird in society. As time went on, Bernard discovered John at the reservation. When Bernard brought John in from the Reservation; the director was fired. Bernard instantly became popular and arrogant. He was happy and in love with the idea of being the center of attention. For example, Bernard went to his friend Helmholtz and had a conversation about Bernard discussing how many women he is sleeping with. Helmholtz did not reply. “‘ You’re envious,’ he said….. Bernard went off in a huff. Never, he told himself, never would he speak to Helmholtz again” (pg 157). Popularity was the most important thing to Bernard. It is one of his weakness because he does not notice the society's flaws. His judgement is clouded because he found his place in
...ovel, Lord of the Flies explores this idea of a civilized human’s ability to become a savage, when put in the right circumstance. In the beginning of the book, Golding’s main protagonists, Ralph, Piggy and Jack are symbols of civilization, order and hope. Once they are stranded on a desert island and left to their own devices, fear, the pursuit of power and human corruption turns the three boys into savages. Golding’s novel clearly depicts how without the structure of civilization, it is human nature for a person to revert back to its innate savagery. The novel shows how different people react differently to the influences of civilization and savagery. Savagery is a much more essential to a human than civilization. The young boys who were stranded on the island showed how easily one can go from a proper boy to a absolute savage guided only by fear and desire.
Technology, which has brought mankind from the Stone Age to the 21st century, can also ruin the life of peoples. In the novel Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley shows us what technology can do if we exercise it too much. From the novel we can see that humans can lose humanity if we rely on technology too much. In the novel, the author sets the world in the future where everything is being controlled by technology. This world seems to be a very perfectly working utopian society that does not have any disease, war, problems, crisis but it is also a sad society with no feelings, emotions or human characteristics. This is a very scary society because everything is being controlled even before someone is born, in test tube, where they determine of which class they are going to fall under, how they are going to look like and beyond. Therefore, the society of Brave New World is being controlled by society form the very start by using technology which affects how the people behave in this inhumane, unrealistic, society.