What Does John Symbolize In Brave New World

Aldous Huxley uses John the Savage to represents how people in today’s society would behave and react to the society that he created in Brave New World. John is so distressed that he is driven to commit suicide in Huxley’s Brave New World in London because of people’s inability to want more, and strive for something better. John represents the common respected man in today’s society, but in the Brave New World he is an outsider, and different from everyone else. Huxley uses John to demonstrate the flaws and strengths of society's views on suffering, isolation, and sex.

John does not fit in with either of the societies that he encounters. John is the last natural born London child in the New World. Children at the reservation are natural born,

but since he is from the outside world, they reject him, and his mother. Although living in isolation seems like a lonely sad thing, it is actually a great way to develop views untampered or influenced by society and people. Huxley use John to expose this truth. After living in isolation with his mother, his views are completely different than the people of London’s views. John is the only person in London that believes in religion, and fears death. John says “it is natural to believe in God when you're alone—quite alone, in the night, thinking about death…" (Huxley 159-160). John turns to God because he is all alone, which makes him even more isolation because no one in London even understands the thought of God. John wants people on the reservation to allow him to fit in, but by the end of the novel all he want is solitude. Huxley is showing how a certain amount of isolation is good, but complete isolation makes it impossible for people to fit in and contribute to society. Everyone wants alone time, but people also crave human connections. When someone is completely cut out of society they will create their own views, and will be hard to influences or control. The rejection John experienced caused him to reconsider his beliefs and create his own worldview separate from societal norms.
John believes that in order to survive people need suffering.

Suffering shows people the good, and makes them appreciate what they have. The society that Huxley created shows what society would be like if there was no suffering. Everyone is happy with their place in society, and no one knows pain or discomfort. Huxley also creates a drug called soma, that allows people to escape if any of these problems were to arise. Since John was raised on the reservation, he understands and desires pain and suffering. He cannot see a world without it, and think that it makes life worth living. Huxley uses John to show how people in today’s society would view this world he has created. Although many humans dream of a world where they would feel no pain, and everything is easy, and requires no effort, they would not be able to survive, and would seek the pain they once knew. People need hardships to overcome, without it there would be no forward progress and people would not know true happiness. John wants pain, and creates situation that allow him to experience it. When John is talking to the controller he

said
“You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them… But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy" (Huxley 162).
John does not understand how the Controller allow people to go without suffering. People engage in painful circumstances in order to grow which makes them successful. In order to prosper people put themselves through extreme physical, mental and emotional pain. The desire for pain is developed because of the satisfaction and pleasure of improvement received after enduring the pain. John’s behavior in the Brave New World shows the reader what would happen if pain was removed from today’s society, and how people would react to the removal.
In London sex is a very open and talked about subject.

People are encouraged to have sex, and start at a very young age. Anyone can have sex with whomever they want, and it is purely to fulfil desires and not for reproduction. When Brave New World was written, birth control was on the rise, and people were starting to have sex without trying to recreate. The society in Huxley’s era encourages the suppression of human desires, and believes that sex should only be for reproduction, however with the creating of birth control this view started to change. Today’s society people have sex for desire, but encourages people to have a committed relationship with their partner before sex. When Lenina goes to John and tells him that she wants to have sex with him, he confesses his love for her. Lenina is overjoyed and excited to finally have sex with John. John. however, feels like he has to earn her, and thinks that they have to commit to each other. John tells her how people in Malpais get married. He says “For always. They make a promise to live together for always” (Huxley 129). John thinks that they have to commit, but Lenina does not, and is disgusted by the thought of marriage. Huxley is showing what could happen if society continued to disconnect sex and reproduction. Most people in today’s society do not think that children needs to have sex, and believe that people show commitment to one person before having sex in adulthood. The thought of infants and toddlers having sex is

unheard of and repulsive. John represents society’s views, and shows how people would view a world that was only focused on desired and wants.
Huxley’s Brave New World shows his fear of the future, and he uses John to represent how people would react in the dystopian society he created. Most people would not be able to survive in this society, and would end up isolated because of their views and difference. People’s need for human contact would drive to the same fate as John in this situation. Huxley also shows the benefits of suffering and how it is needed. Pain is require for growth, and improvement. Finally, Huxley shows how sex needs boundaries, and without boundries sex activity is out of control, with young children having sex with no consequences. Huxley shows how extreme views, for or against, can destroy a society, and ruin the good in the world.