Brave New World is a novel about a dystopian society named “The World State” set in A.F. 632 (632 years after Henry Ford’s Death). In this society, advanced technology is used to mass produce people and condition them into only wanting and doing certain things, creating a caste system. However, doing so takes away people’s freedom to think for one’s self. Certain people are able to step back from the monotony of this society and because of this they feel detached. This scenario adds an element of alienation, this scenario poses as a question, is it better to be happy or individualistic. Bernard was born as an alpha, the highest caste. Unfortunately, he was born with multiple birth defects. Bernard was short and slightly disfigured, making him stick out compared to everyone else's genetic perfection. Because of this, Bernard was made fun of a lot by other people in the community making him feel lonely, even though he was born 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 takes Linda and John to see his boss, the Director. The Director is so shocked he runs out of the lab in embarrassment. Babies and families are so frowned upon that the word spread sand Mustapha Mond find out. As a result Bernard is exiled from the World state, and John is forced to live in a lighthouse on the shore. Meanwhile, in poor health, Linda passes
John is isolated from birth and through all of his life until Bernard brings him
...ore you realize what's happened, Bernard has gone downhill. All of a sudden our hero guy is a blackmailing socialite with no pride and even less honor. Luckily for we have, John who is the antagonist and who steps in to fill the vacancy for antagonist. He's principled, courageous, compassionate, and of course most importantly, incredibly attractive says the book.
He doesn't love the same recreational activities as the others, nor does he have the same conditioning and thought process, yet he still excels in his field and gets the girl of his dreams to go on vacation with him. (Not) Shockingly, the two decide that a visit to the New Mexico Savage Resvervation would be a treat, yet poor Lenina finds the place of the Indians to be revolting, until she meets a young, handsome, a savage outcast named John whose mother who was left behind on one of her visits to the Reservation, (mothers are considered embarrassing in this culture of the future, for giving birth is utterly disgusting) wants to return to civilization. Eventually, all four return to London, where The Savage takes his turn of being utterly confused and hideous by civilization, Lenina gets her heart broken, Bernard is sent to Iceland, and John's mother dies. The turning point occurs when The Savage, John, cannot achieve loneliness and takes his own life by hanging himself from the rafters of his lighthouse. There is never a resolution to the conflict between Bernard and
The first way Aldous Huxley shows the art of happiness is through the World State’s motto, “community, identity, and stability”. Being oneself is the best person one can be. Bernard says “I’d rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly” (Huxley 89). Bernard gets mocked for being short but he does not want be anybody else, he wants to be himself. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we were all the same? Lenina says “everybody belongs to everyone else” (Huxley 26). This is a powerful quote by Lenina and describes the World State society accurately how the D.H.C
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.
As largely out of place Linda is, she still manages to have a sense of love and affection towards John. It is insignificant to John's already made choices as to whether or not Linda truly cares. Yet, it still dwells on shaping the boy’s decisions. Firstly, when John talks to Bernard about his memories they are brief and John chooses not to think too much of them and accepts the fact that they happened. This proves John’s optimism towards difficult situations. Also, he never held a grudge against his mother for being so socially unacceptable and making it hard for John to live his own way. In the end John still held onto her. Another way John shows optimism is how he deals with the bullies in the reservation. Instead of keeping it on his mind how mean and rude the other boys where, the raggedy boy instead thought about how h...
What if there was a place where you did not have to, or rather, you could not think for yourself? A place where one's happiness was controlled and rationed? How would you adapt with no freedom of thought, speech, or happiness in general? In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, there are many different attitudes portrayed with the purpose to make the reader think of the possible changes in our society and how they could affect its people.
One day when John Ferguson was following Madeleine, he saw her jump into San Francisco Bay. After he rescued her, he brought her back to his house and cared for her. Afterwards he and Madeleine started to spend time together. They began to fall in love and Madeleine became more insane. She started to see images from Corlata's past. Madeleine started to live the life of Corlata Valdez and had visions from her life. One day John and Madeleine went to an old Spanish missionary outside San Francisco, which Madeleine had seen in one of her images. When they arrived at their destination Madeleine began to remember things from Corlata's early life and became hyster...
John is overwhelmed by all the people that he sees that are all the same. He tries to fit in by focusing all his heart and energy into Lenina. However when he realizes that she has fully succumbed to the ways of the brave new world and she is truly lost, he realizes that he can’t start a life there with her. Shortly after that John’s mother, Linda, died from soma. All the soma intake caused her lungs to give out.
In short, the novel Brave New World, shows that the World State eliminates individuality through social restrictions, government controlled groupings and the abuse of drugs to maintain control of the population. Social restriction through hypnopaedia and shock therapy robs individuals of their creative personalities by preventing freedom of thought, behavior, and expression. Government controlled groupings such as Solidarity Service Days and the feelies to eliminate individuality stemming from individual thought due to discontentment; therefore maintaining control by eliminating the chance of people revolting and going astray from their conditioning.
This is a source of major tension between Linda and the other villagers, and on no fault of John’s, the other village boys exclude him, and he is rarely able to take part in the village’s coming of age milestones. For example, it is village tradition for every young boy to climb into the kiva on the full moon, and at sunrise he will emerge a man. Yet when it is John’s turn, “…the man struck him, pulled his hair. "Not for you, white-hair!" "Not for the son of the she-dog," said one of the other men…the last of the boys had climbed down the ladder. He was all alone.” The boys leave John out of an event that would be cause for celebration in the village. From these experiences, John cannot help but feel alone and an outsider to the culture. The natives treat John as though he belongs in the New World, when the reservation, is all John
People like Bernard and Helmholtz have broken through their conditioned thoughts and have a curiosity of knowledge. Helmholtz and Bernard go to meet with the Controller, along with John to talk about their society and the future. John had previously been arrested for lashing out at the hospital after the passing of his mother. The Controller explains this about the society, “‘They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave.'” (Huxley 220). The Controller speaks of the people of society almost as robots, or objects, saying they can only behave as conditioned to behave. As a leader of a society, the people under one's rule should be thought of as people. One of the most ignorant characters in the book, Lenina, had wrestled back and forth about the feelings between her and John, and he finally tells her that he loves her. He tells her that where he comes from people get married and live together for the rest of their lives. Lenina's reacts as if she cannot comprehend his feelings, “She jumped up and, as though afraid that he might run away from her physically, as well as with his mind, caught him by the wrist. ‘Answer me this question: do you really like me, or don't you.'” (Huxley 191). Lenina's ignorance causes her to feel genuinely shocked and confused that even after John saying ‘I love you', she still does not know how he feels. Lenina broke John's heart when she responded this way when he declared his love for her. He was also heartbroken and angry about his mother's death. His frustration led him to isolation at the lighthouse, “But it
While they both experience the conflict between conformity and personal desire, they experience it in opposite ways. Bernard longs to conform to society. Constantly being viewed as an outcast, when Bernard is finally accepted into society, he loves his situation. Helmholtz, is the opposite. He found little satisfaction conforming to society, and wished to pursue meaning instead. Through the juxtaposition, Huxley is trying to emphasize that individuals cannot independently maintain conformity or personal desire. Bernard and Helmholtz experience the conflict between the two, because they are polarized. Bernard is polarized to lead a meaningful life. He longs for the happiness that his peers have, but is constantly rejected. Helmholtz is polarized to lead a happy life. Yet, he longs for meaning in his life. Both Helmholtz and Bernard are striving to find a balance between the
Later, Bernard visits the Director and receives permission to take Lenina to the reservations (Huxley 95). This leads The Director to retell a story of himself, and how he lost a lady while he was there one time. He is upset with himself and Bernard because he still had memories of her and he told the memories to Bernard (Huxley 96-99). So then, Benard and Leliana are off on their adventure to a Brave New World. However, Bernard forgot to turn something off in his house, so he asked Helmholtz to it turned off. While there Helmholtz learns that the Director has decided to transfer Bernard to Iceland as soon as a replacement is found (Huxley 103). They landed in the reservation, and they get a tour guide to lead them around. However, they find the area to be toxic and disgusting (Huxley 110-114). After watching a ritual, they run into a man by the name of John. He talks to them that he is upset with the Indians because they will not let him participate in the ritual because of his skin color (Huxley 115). Later he explains that his mother was like Lenina, a woman from civilized society, who some hunters had
Theme of Alienation in Literature A common theme among the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne is alienation. Alienation is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others. In Hawthorne's novels and short stories, characters are consistently alienated and experience isolation from society. These characters are separated from their loved ones both physically and psychologically. The harsh judgmental conditions of Puritan society are the cause of isolation for these characters and eventually lead to their damnation.