Soul In Brave New World

Soul. A word without a true definition because it is so much more than an object. The soul is the root of life. The soul is found within the human body, a shield from evil, the essence of mankind. The desire to love, to be loved and be accepted by another group gives someone a soul.

Acceptance by others is something all souls yearn for. In Brave New World, Tommy, the young protagonist, grows up being antagonized by his peers, because of his tendencies to rage and throw tantrums. However Tommy outgrows the tantrums when a teacher, Miss Lucy, tells him “‘It may not help you much. But just you remember this. There’s at least one other person here at Hailsham who believes in other. At least one person who believes you’re a very good student’”

(Huxley 28). This captures how a soul who was different and has not been accepted by others can quickly reform once accepted. Once Tommy is accepted he becomes much more confident. He was searching for this acceptance from someone or something greater than himself. This idea to have a group accept you is rooted deep in not only this novel. In Doris Lessing’s “Group Minds”, one of the five core ideas of humans behavior is the need to be accepted. “They are always seeking groups to belong to, and if one group dissolves, they look for another”

(Lessing 5). However, the desire does not stop at thought, as it becomes a compulsion, causing people to obsess and search for this group that will accept them. Once the students move to the cottage, it is well understood. The more they read, the better they talk, and the transition to acceptance and becoming part of the group become easier. “Ruth took it further than anyone else. She was the one always pretending to have finished anything anyone happened to be reading” (Lessing 2). Her desire to belong is so strong she will change who she is in order to be accepted. Although the idea of changing in order to be accepted is not a new one. For example, the desires to be viewed as a “cool” kid, to join a sports team, or to belong to a club are all efforts to be a part of the “ingroup”. This idea is been so important because of the fear surrounding the opposing outcome, being part of the “out group” and facing rejection. One of the main characters from Brave New World, deals with the desire to be loved first hand. Bernard wants nothing more than people to accept and love him. At the start of the novel he is rejected by his social class:
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. Which increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity, (Huxley 17).
In his mind this desire to belong wis everything, a desire which controlled the quality of his life. He spends all his time focusing on trying to belong, twisting his malleable soul. Bernard is living

as one who is in the out group and we see the effect, it has on him-isolating and rebelling against life. This desire ignites the soul inside of him.
However, acceptance and the desire to be in associated with a group is not the only thing that amplifies the tangibility of one soul.

In order to be accepted into the group, they must find people who love them. According to Association for Psychological Science, “People who feel isolated and lonely and excluded tend to have poor physical health, they don’t sleep well, their immune systems sputter, and they even tend to die sooner than people who are surrounded by others who care about them” (Dewall 6). Not only does this capture the need to belong, but the need to have people love and care about you. Ruth, who searches the hardest for acceptance and to be loved never finds it, and is the first to fall out of the friend group. Kathy, who has someone who loves her is the last. Ruth is a perfect example of a soul that needs love. She wants this love so badly she is willing to keep people apart for her own self gain. “‘The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart.’ Her voice had dropped once again, almost to a whisper. ‘That was the worst thing I did.’” (Ishiguro 414). Ruth realizes she did wrong by keeping her friends apart, and in order for it to mean something to her she starts to care about the outcome, By keeping them apart, Ruth gets to be loved by Tommy, and being loved gives one a place to belong. She is no longer just Ruth, she is also a part of the relationship Tommy and Ruth, which allows her to achieve her soul’s desire of being loved and accepted. The feeling of wanting to be loved comes from the deepest part of her, from the bottom of her

soul.
A common saying is “treat others how you want to be treated”, meaning if someone wants to be loved, they must love others. Loving someone else is a desire held by many, and

being able to give something to others is also a desire. When Bernard is talking about feeling passion he means that in a general life sense, including finding passion for another person. In Brave New World it is on a physical level, but John Savage wanted to display it on another level-love. “I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly” (Huxley 323). People desire a physical and emotional connection with others. Part of belonging to a group is having a deeply rooted connection that connection is often called love. Love is something we feel and that is hardly ever broken. There is a desire to feel something more towards the people he is associated with. He is not the only character wanting to love, John the savage also wants this. He wants love before a physical connection, “‘How much I love you, Lenina,’ he brought out almost desperately” (Huxley 332). This connection is so important to his identity. He frowns upon how the characters in the Brave New World are living because he saw their lack of soul and emotion, caused by not desiring a deeper connection, because they were unaware it could even be possible. Soul is what is used to achieve more in life, and to have a soul one must know they can reach more in life. Many males are known for only wanting a physical connection, however John is looking for more because he needs Lenina to “belong to him”. The feeling of having and belonging is another thing that contributes to one's soul. While Ruth knows Tommy and Kathy were in love, she also knows that she used to be in love with Tommy, but her love for Tommy was only so she could have someone to love and have someone to love her back. “We were right for each other once” (Ishiguro 69). She is looking for someone to fill a void in her soul, and she knows she must love someone. Yet she did not, and she is trying to love Tommy to fill this void.

The soul is so much more than simply what fills the body of a human. The soul is a tool created in order to allow us to live life to the fullest. This idea is much more than what a character captures from a book, but instead what makes everyone who they are. The soul is the ability to love, to be loved, and the desire to be a part of a greater group.