John The Savage In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation, once said “it is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts” (“Boris Yeltsin Quotes.”). Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, takes place in a futuristic society called the World State. Each person’s fate is in the hands of The Hatchery. The Hatchery designs each fetus for a particular caste. Once born from a bottle, each person lives his life craving pleasure all of the time. Although most people in society believe they are living a wonderful life in their particular caste, some individuals …show more content…
John the Savage is one of few people from the Savage Reservation. Because is he from there, John is already an outcast. The citizens become obsessed with John because he is so different. Bernard even goes to the extent of showing John off at parties to boost Bernard’s own popularity. John is also unorthodox because he feels emotions other than just pleasure. John shows this example of unorthodoxy when his mother, Linda, passes away: “The Savage stood for a moment in frozen silence, then fell on his knees beside the bed and, covering his face with his hands, sobbed uncontrollably” (Huxley 206). In the World State, people do not get upset when someone passes away. Children are exposed to it at a young age to learn how to deal with death. In contrary to the people of the World State, John does not take his mother’s death lightly. He falls into a state of deep grief and depression. John the Savage is unlike the other’s in the World State because he bases his knowledge off the plays he reads by Shakespeare. On the contrary, the citizens of the World State learn everything they know through hypnopaedia. Lastly, John is unorthodox because he is against the use of