Character Analysis: John of Brave New World

Character Analysis: John of Brave New World

Markus Zusak once said, “Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are” (Zusak 224). In “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, the protagonist, John, the savage, is a great example of what Zusak tries to illustrate to the audiences. Above all, Huxley uses a large amount of dialogues to represent the way Brave New World works in the era of Ford. Two employees of the Conditioning Centre, Lenina and Bernard decide to go on a vacation to a Savage Reservation, where Bernard accidentally meets the protagonist, John, and takes John back to the mainland. Since John is a completely different individual compared to others, “John becomes the object of everyone’s curiosity and amusement” (TheBestNotes.com Staff). The definition for Brave New World is an imaginary technology-based society that is unkind and lacks creativity. The protagonist, John suffers from social isolation; he is horrified by the a lot of things in the world State; at the end, he repulses the rules in Brave New World.

Isolation depicts John’s life, whether he is in the World State or the Reservation. As a matter of fact, John spends his childhood with his mother, Linda, on the Reservation; however, natives never treat John and Linda as part of them, although he shares the same religious and moral values with them. Sometimes there are quite a few natives strike at John, “This time [A native person] [strikes] [John], [pulls] [John]’s hair. .... There [is] a shower of stones. Bleeding, [John] [runs] away into the darkness” (Huxley 118). There are several reasons which isolate John from those natives in the Reservation: firstly, John has nothing in common with those locals, such as dissimilar color of hair, eye, and skin; moreover, another significant cause is because of his mother, Linda. Due to the cultural differences between the Reservation and the outside world, Linda has a different point of view about sexuality, which causes natives to consider she is a salacious woman. Linda’s actions definitely implicate John, such when “The boys [begin] to point their fingers at [John]” (111). In contrast, nothing changes in others attitude towards to John after Bernard takes John to the World State, even though that he shares the same exterior with them. All upper-caste London is wild to see John, suddenly, “seeing John as nothing more than a curiosity” (Justin). Besides, Bernard starts trying to manipulate John with the intention of gaining what Bernard truly wants, power, and women, so that John begins to feel isolated. Further, John settles away from the city and trying to stay away from the crowed, but the public does not let him out of their sights. No matter if John pleads or not, “‘why don’t [the crowed] leave [John] alone?’ There [is] an almost plaintive note in [John’s] anger” (226). John finally realizes that he is just a curiosity to the World State culture, he is “isolated” by his culture compare to the World State culture.

John longs to escape the Reservation in order to go to “paradise”, on the contrary, he is actually horrified by the new world. First, John gets horrified because the citizens are unconventional about sex, especially the woman he loves, Lenina. Huxley uses description of movements to show the panic of John: “..., [John] [retreat] in terror, flapping his hands at [Lenina] as though [John] [is] trying to scare away some intruding and dangerous animal” (170). This scene clearly explains that John is able to command for emotional release, while the characters of the World State have completely no idea how to control their mature emotions, since the values of community and world never allow them to experience numerous emotions. Further, the last quote express that the distinct opinions towards sexuality as well, Lenina is conditioned to do whatever she wants to do, the ideas of virtue and nobility have no meaning for her or the rest of the world. On the other hand, John believes that love and commitment are the requirements before sexuality. Furthermore, John also finds out that citizens of the World State have no individuality, they are just products on the assembly lines. At the mean time, “John becomes a symbol of the primitive pitted against utopia, the old pitted against utopia” (TheBestNotes.com Staff), which emphasizes special characteristics for each side; then, Mustapha Mond, one of the controllers of the World State, has debate with John about happiness and stability compare to freedom and truth. Again, dialogues between them symbolize the opposite standpoint of utopia and dystopia. John reviews the experience a while back about “..., those queued-up twin-herds” (Huxley 195), and says: “Horrible!” (195). Furthermore, soma (allows people to escape from reality by thinking less critically) as a common drag in the World State has shocked John, he does not understand why citizens gives up the chance to be themselves in order to chase after illusions.