Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

III. Character Description
1. John the Savage
Thomas and Linda’s son, John, is a scholar and resident of the savage reservation in New Mexico. Despite not being introduced until Chapter 7, John is seen as the centralizing character of the novel. Unlike the rest of his community, he is educated. When Lenina and Bernard come across John during their trip, they soon realize John’s biological father is the Director, Thomas. Once reaffirming this, Bernard and Lenina offer to bring John and Linda back to the World State. Hoping to connect better to the people in the World State, John gladly accepts. It was, however, to John’s misfortune to find out that either way, there was no escaping his isolation. In one scene, where John takes Lenina home, John realizes this:
“Looking down through the window in the floor, the Savage could see Lenina's upturned face, pale in the bluish light of the lamps. The mouth was open, she was calling. Her foreshortened figure rushed away from him; the diminishing square of the roof seemed to be falling through the darkness” (137).
John role in Brave New World, is an important one, in that he is of the only characters to clearly articulate the atrocities of this society; how no one is truthfully happy, knows what love is, or is fully aware of their situation. And it is this realization of the world around him that eventually drives him into insanity. Everything from his mother’s eventual death, to his inability to control his lust, causes him to lose hope. Throughout the novel, John struggles to fit into society, but because he had never been brought up under the conditions of the World State, he was not able to assimilate. John’s strengths are his intelligence and determination, but his downfall’s are his s...

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...erned, dangerous and potentially subversive.” (117)

V. Thesis
A dystopian novel, such as Brave New World, is usually centered on the conflict between man and society. In this case, Aldous Huxley tells three compelling viewpoint from John the Savage, Bernard, and Helmholtz. Though each is distinct in their upbringing, each share the same path. While in the World State, each try to reach a level of satisfaction by their standards. Helmholtz, an intellectually superior Alpha, hopes to create compelling works of literature and spread his wisdom, whereas Bernard merely seeks social acceptance. And John the Savage, having been shunned by his community at the savage reservation and mother, aspires to find a sense of belonging in the new world. Each, however, meet the same fate; failure.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.