Summer Reading Essay: Throughout Brave New World, author, Aldous Huxley explores the question: is the freedom of choice more important than ensuring and sustaining societal stability? He does this through the life and experiences of his main characters, Lenina, Bernard, and John the Savage and his description and criticism of the world they live in. Brave New World is set in a time where social class and decision making is chosen for you at birth in a test tube and all new information and learning is suppressed. Huxley explores freedom through the character, John the Savage, who serves as a polar opposite to the other main characters, Bernard and Lenina. John was never genetically engineered and is what how a person today would be described
…show more content…
Throughout the story, Bernard has always opposed the status quo of the society. He prefers to do the things that are frowned upon. One of the pieces of dialogue is when he comments on Lenina say one of the phrases that is brainwashed into her. He says, “Five hundred repetitions once a week from thirteen to seventeen.” (100) This quote shows the extent of the brainwashing and how controlled the people really are. Is their thought original thought or was is hand fed to them when they were sleeping? Bernard’s character also serves a similar purpose like Johns, to represent a person who is a member of the society, but deeply despises it. Bernard sees how horrible and how controlled the people are. On top of using conversational examples, Huxley deploys the use of many Shakespearian allusions to convey his message. On page 183, John reads, “‘ Property was thus appall’d, that the self was not the same; single nature’s double name neither tow nor one was call’d reason in itself confounded saw division grow together…’” Here John is alluding to how he is different from their society and from Lenina. Huxley includes this passage to highlight to the reader the difference between our society and theirs and how John fails to understand and fit …show more content…
He views the “civilized” world as unjust due to it treatment of literature, the advancement of learning, his feeling of inadequacy, and the “civilized” worlds view on death and his mother. In the end, John commits suicide. Here, Huxley chose to end John’s life because John represents everything that is our world. John serves as symbolism for the last remaining hope to preserve freedom. Additionally, Johns nickname, the Savage, is symbolic in its own right. John is a savage because he isn’t one of them, just as the barbarians were barbaric because they weren’t
Throughout the story, Bernard has always opposed the status quo of the society. He prefers to do the things that are frowned upon. One of the pieces of dialogue is when he comments on Lenina say one of the phrases that is brainwashed into her. He says, “Five hundred repetitions once a week from thirteen to seventeen.” (100) This quote shows the extent of the brainwashing and how controlled the people really are. Is their thought original thought or was is hand fed to them when they were sleeping? Bernard’s character also serves a similar purpose like Johns, to represent a person who is a member of the society, but deeply despises it. Bernard sees how horrible and how controlled the people are. On top of using conversational examples, Huxley deploys the use of many Shakespearian allusions to convey his message. On page 183, John reads, “‘ Property was thus appall’d, that the self was not the same; single nature’s double name neither tow nor one was call’d reason in itself confounded saw division grow together…’” Here John is alluding to how he is different from their society and from Lenina. Huxley includes this passage to highlight to the reader the difference between our society and theirs and how John fails to understand and fit …show more content…
He views the “civilized” world as unjust due to it treatment of literature, the advancement of learning, his feeling of inadequacy, and the “civilized” worlds view on death and his mother. In the end, John commits suicide. Here, Huxley chose to end John’s life because John represents everything that is our world. John serves as symbolism for the last remaining hope to preserve freedom. Additionally, Johns nickname, the Savage, is symbolic in its own right. John is a savage because he isn’t one of them, just as the barbarians were barbaric because they weren’t