Brave New World: The Alienation of John in Both Cultures

Cursed to a life of isolation because of his appearance, values, and outrageous thoughts, John was alienated mentally, emotionally, and physically in both the Savage Culture and the World State Culture. Torn between keeping true to his virtues and conforming to society, the treatment of John highlights the values of both cultures in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Not looking like the rest of the Indians on the reservation hampered John's ability to fit in with the Savage society. John wanted more than anything to be a part of the Indian culture, to be part of the ritual, to give his life. "Why wouldn't they let me be the sacrifice? I'd have gone round ten times-- twelve, fifteen." John asked why, but he knew the answer. "But they wouldn't let me. They disliked me for my complexion. It's always been like that. Always." Always was John shunned, always was he left out, always was he mocked. The Indians were dark skinned, and fiercely looked down on the light skinned people from the "Other Place." It wasn't only John's features that set him apart, but also the actions of his mother. When he tried to participate with the other boys in becoming men they yelled, "Not for you, white-hair! Not for the son of the she-dog." They crushed his spirits and pelted him with rocks. John's mother, Linda, who was from the "Other Place", was too promiscuous for the Indians and was dirty in their eyes. Because of her actions, John was unclean, covered in her filth. When Bernard asked if John and Linda would like to return with him, John couldn't believe he was going to see the "brave new world."

"O brave new world. O brave new world that has such people in it. Let's start at once." John's excitement was premature, before long he would be quoting the same line but with hatred in his heart. England was a complete new world to him, filled with people that had his appearance, but had none of the same beliefs. Bernard quickly capitalized at John's expense, inviting people to come and look at this amazing spectacle he had brought back from the reservation. John, on the other hand, wasn't amused. "You ought to have asked me first whether I wanted to meet them." John was sick of being shown to people and gawked at. The rift between John's values and the rest of the "civilized" people was further split when Lenina tried to have John. "Whore!" cried John when he realized what she was doing, "Damned whore!" His beliefs were tested and he passed. The new world was so different than the reservation, Lenina and the rest of society was pushing him further and further away. "They had mocked him through his misery and remorse, mocked him with how hideous a note of cynical derision! Fiendishly laughing, they had insisted on the low squalor, the nauseous ugliness of the nightmare" What was paradise to some, was hell to John. The brave new world he had dreamed of was turning out to be a nightmare. Isolating himself

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