Analysis Of John The Savage

1922 Words4 Pages

Tamilore Adeleke

Mr. Harper

English 12

02 May, 2016

‘O brave new world that has such people in it!’

John, the Savage

The beauty and uniqueness of a character comes from their imperfections and the ability of the reader to relate to their circumstance. In the novel ‘Brave New World’ written by Aldous Huxley, John, ‘the savage’, demonstrates this. The beauty of his character is seen in his refusal to accept the ways of the World State and his unrelenting heroism to force change, unlike the other characters in the story. The novel tells the story of life in an imagined futuristic society, where stability is established through the limitation of the citizens. The basis of this stability is the conditioning of its members …show more content…

His ruin evokes a sense of pity and fear in the reader. A feeling of pity in regards to him not fulfilling his purpose and quest to change his society, and fear in relating his story to our present society and the loss of hope. The reader is moved to feel sympathy for him, because he starts from a humble beginning but fails to find success, peace or happiness. He degenerates from a noble character to a violent one. For example, while working on his garden, he starts to think about Lenina and in order to get her out of his mind, he masochistically runs into some thorn bushes. This escalates to him whipping and inflicting pain on himself. He turns to violence as an outlet for his emotions, in contrast to him at the early parts of the novel. Although, his downfall is somewhat his fault as a result of free choice, his misfortune is not wholly deserved, because his character provides the main theme of the story. The choices he makes brings about his suffering, however he becomes enlightened, he learns about himself and his society. He gains increased self- knowledge and awareness. Likewise, as seen in Shakespeare 's character, Othello, who kills himself after coming to a realization of his downfall and folly, John does the same thing when he realizes (anagnorisis) he cannot change the World State. His death is anti-climatic and is an unexpected ending to the novel, nonetheless it proves that suffering is an essential part of human experience and without it people become less human. It also represents the conflict between the price for happiness and morality. His death in the lighthouse symbolizes the loss of hope. Upon discovery after hanging himself, it is described that John’s body spun with no specific direction, like “two unhurried compass needles, [it] turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east” (BNW.18). Similar to the

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