Individualism In Brave New World

In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley stability and group happiness outweigh individualism and truth. Each person within the society must pay a price for the group's stability and happiness. As the Controller says, “Happiness has got to be paid for” (Huxley 228). Everyone pays, but not many realize it. This is shown all throughout the book through characters like Bernard, John, and Lenina. Bernard is different from most of the other citizens including the other Alphas. Alphas are supposed to be the height of the New World. They are created and conditioned to be the tallest, strongest, and smartest in the society. However, they are still conditioned and expected to act a certain way. Bernard hates the society he is in. He feels, “enslaved

John was born an individual. He was not conditioned and shaped his own personality and thoughts through what he experienced in an uncontrolled environment. His mother Linda is from the New World but got left behind on the reservation. Linda taught him how to read and write and told him about the New World and how great it is, “The happiest times were when she told him about the Other Place” (127). John always felt alone on the reservation, “Alone, always alone” (137). John felt like the only way he would be happy was to go to the New World. John thought he was paying for his happiness by leaving everything he has ever known, but in truth, he was leaving his happiness behind. John is an intelligent free- thinker. On the reservation he may not have fit in with the people, but he held some of the same ideals. He left a place where he could have been happy for a place he could never be happy with the way the world

John believes in religion and the power of man; not Ford and the power of manufacturing. He wants women to be more than pieces of meat and he values marriage. As John witnesses the flaws in the new world he slowly goes insane, and tries to free himself of civilization, “‘I ate civilization’... ‘It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then’ he added, in a lower tone I ate my own Wickedness’” (241). To try and keep a part of himself pure he runs away to an abandoned lighthouse. The people enthralled by him find John and treat him like a zoo exhibit as John continued to try and purify himself. He would whip himself and always make himself uncomfortable just to rid himself of society. The people saw him as an, “Extraordinary Spectacle” (248). In the end, John drives himself mad by not being able to free himself of the civilization that has tainted him because of this he kills himself. John pays the price for the happiness of the group with him out of the way the New World will move on and continue as it was before he disrupted it. He paid an even greater price for his own happiness resulting in him taking his own