Isolation in Brave New World

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Isolation in Brave New World "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely." -John "The Savage" In the Brave New World, people who are different from the normal standard are alienated and isolated from society because of their individuality. The society of the Brave New World is structured and ordered – the government attempts to control everything. Alienation in the Brave New World can be categorized into three areas, appearance, intellect, and morals. 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. In addition to alienation because of appearance, alienation can result from extreme intellect, or exceptional gifts of talent. Helmholtz Watson, an emotional engineer, was "a little too able" in his work. As Bernard was isolated from a physical defect, Helmholtz was isolated from mental excess. Despite being an "Escalato... ... middle of paper ... ...re different and attempts to either ridicule, exemplify, or ignore them. In the Brave New World, society aims to preserve the homologous nature of living. With strict rules, crowd mentality and community actives the Brave New World attempts to get rid of the individual. Hypnopedia messages such as "When the individual feels, the community reels," and "Everybody belongs to everyone else," the Brave New World attempts to diminish the value of individuality and seeks instead to promote the idea of society first. Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are the few individuals of the Brave New World. They differ from the rest of society, because they recognize their uniqueness and realize that they are apart from society. It is because of their self-realization of their individuality that they are condemned to be ostracized from society and to live outside the Brave New World.

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