Unorthodoxy is defined as contrary to what is usual, traditional, or accepted. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the three primary characters Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John the Savage display the characteristics of abnormality that the society of the World State alienates to maintain order. The lack of emotion and desire leads this society toward the aspect of a utopia. These utopian factors can inversely be seen as dystopian in the American society due to discrepancies in peoples’ choice and direction. People of the World State live predetermined lives, openly engage in sexual interactions, and they take soma to ease their empathy. Bernard, Helmholtz, and John deviate from this pattern in their own unique ways. Bernard Marx …show more content…
John the Savage is the epitome of unorthodoxy in this novel. He was born viviparous making him a person of interest as does his detrimental expression of emotion through literary allusions: “The Savage shook his head. ‘Listen to this,’ was his answer; and unlocking the drawer in which he kept his mouse-eaten book, he opened and read: Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be…” (Huxley 183). John is discriminated against because he was naturally born from Tomakin and his mother, Linda. John is shunned at the Savage Reservation because of his ethnicity and his mothers’ sexual antics with the husbands of tribal families. He leaves with Bernard Marx to the World State in order to find a greater meaning than that of the role he plays in Malpais. John finds the expression of emotion to be very humanlike and natural. He acknowledges importance in the feeling of all emotion, so he frowns upon the use of soma to drown out feelings of grief: "Don't take that horrible stuff. It's poison, it's poison” (Huxley 211). Lastly, delving into the character of John the Savage brings forth one of the significant themes of the story, freedom through identity and
A: Life in The Brave New World changes John in an unusual way. Being a child from the savage reservation, John was taught that morality, rather than conditioned by the Controller. John learned his rights and wrongs from his mother, and his own experiences. John knew a personal relationship was valued, and everyone loved one another. He learned that religion was a major part of his morals. Sex was something done with a mate that is loved.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided into 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs, using many characters throughout the novel. John, a savage, has never been able to fit into society. Moving through two contradicting societies, John is unable to adapt to the major differences of the civilized society due to the different ways upon which it is conducted.
In the 1932 satirical novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes an emotionless, mechanized world of the future, set mostly in London, in which individuality is eliminated, creativity is stifled, and such institutions as marriage, family, and church are unpleasant artifacts of a world long gone. In this society, people are mass-produced; human eggs are artificially engineered by technicians. Happiness is achieved through physical gratification and peace is safeguarded by the conditioning of youth and by dispensing soma, a tranquilizer. Bernard Marx is the main character and his unorthodox viewpoints and physical difference from the rest of his caste makes him as an outsider. Bernard and Lenina, his present "girlfriend", receive permission to visit a Savage Reservation in New Mexico. They return to "civilization" with a savage, John. There he struggles to understand this so-called utopia and is eventually driven to suicide while Bernard is exiled to an island for his unconventional beliefs.
The World State is filled with essentially clones; no one is truly a free thinker, which is why Huxley writes in John. John is the purest form of individual that is present in Brave New World. John Savage is viewed by the society as this sort of animal, untamed and different. John is enthralled by how the ‘civilized’ world views life. The simplicity of life sickens him.
Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley is a book about a Utopian Society that thrives on stability rather than freedom. This futile, yet widely accepted society was gone against by one man, John the Savage. John’s mother, Linda, accidentally conceived him in the World State but soon after, moved to the savage reservation to give birth to him. Living in the savage reservation all his life, John had merely heard stories about the World State through his mother. The excitement he once had about moving to the World State was short lived as he was being given a tour of the society. John is accepted in the World State but he begins to have a difficult time dealing with the principles one has to follow in that society.
Individuality and refusal to be like others is what makes a person unique. In the dystopian novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explores the refusal to conform to a structured society. The consequence to not conforming or being something other than the norm ultimately causes one to be alone.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World presents readers with intriguing characters whom all live in a much different world. Among these individuals one really grasp the reader's attention and more importantly delivers author Huxley’s theme. Through the viewpoint of John readers and the society of the brave new world are provided with truth. Meaning, John’s character succeeds in the deliverance of the central message; the top of the totem pole in society will do anything to maintain their version of a perfect world, even at the cost of free will. John is an outcast throughout the novel, because unlike the people of The Brave New world he chooses to love, seek truth and aims to implement changes.
Aldous Huxley’s most influential novel, Brave New World, fabricated a society with a restrictive government, widely distributed mood-altering drugs, unchaste morals, and suppressed individuality. Under the control of directors, world societies are comprised of genetically altered humans created in labs, that are conditioned into castes and modified for maximum productivity. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, a world of manufactured comfort opposes the norms of today’s society. The introduction of John the Savage represents the conflict between present-day society and its satirical counter-society.
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
In Brave New World, John’s happiness in the new environment of hill does not last long because he dies few days later. He does not have enough time to enjoy his new life. Writers of dystopian fiction usually tend to resolute the central conflict by death because there is no life without troubles. Huxley seems to say that real happiness in this world is difficult to attain. The dystopian protagonists may succeed to escape to a new desired society but they cannot overthrow the totalitarian dystopian society.
In this world where people can acquire anything they need or want, we have to wonder, “Is the government controlling us?” Both the governments in A Brave New World and in the United States of America offer birth control pills and have abortion clinics that are available for everyone, thus making birth control pills and abortion operations very easy to acquire. Although both governments offer birth control pills and abortion clinics, A Brave New World’s government requires everyone to take the pills and immediately get an abortion when pregnant. This in turn shows us that A Brave New World’s government is controlling the population and the development of children. China is one of the few countries that currently have control of the development of children. In controlling the development of its children, China is also controlling the population levels. In any country, controlling the amount of children a single family can have can dramatically decrease the population levels. Just by having birth control pills and abortion clinics there for anybody to take advantage of shows that the involvement of either government is already too high.
John was born in a “natural way”, unlike all the other characters, he was raised separated from all control and medication – his only contact with the establishment is Shakespeare. His “purity” and sudden insertion into a different environment may resemble an investigation, idea reinforced by the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. Mr. Savage expresses that Mustapha Mond, after sentencing Bernard and Helmholtz to exile, said that “he wanted to go on with the experiment”. This statement, together with the scientific discussion in the book, leads us to believe that an experimentation is also taking place in this novel.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World illustrates a colorful, fantastic universe of sex and emotion, programming and fascism that has a powerful draw in a happy handicap. This reality pause button is called “Soma”. “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.” ( Huxley 54 ).
There are numerous ways of life around the world today in different cultures and countries, each changing as the world around them changes. In the novel Brave New World, author Aldous Huxley shows a dystopian society with strange new beliefs and practices. This story revolves around three characters, Lenina Crowne, Bernard Marx, and John and shows their individual thoughts on this so called “civilized” world. John in particular is a man born and raised away from the new culture who is suddenly pushed into it without preparation, therefore receiving the shock of how different this “brave new world” really is. Although John dreamed about going to the civilized world all his life, he finds it disturbing and corrupt because of the lack of emotions
The genre I studied this year was dystopia because I've always been facinated with the different possible futures that have been created by numerous authors and directors that have been portrayed in their work. Our future is uncertain but there are common aspects in all dystopian pieces which combine to create an extremely real and believable future. All the dystopia pieces I studied were set in similar places in time and place, had at least one memorable character who tried to fight against society and all had the same authors/directors purpose. The texts I used for my study were: 2081 directed by Chandler Tuttle, Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip. K. Dick and also Looper Directed