Brave New World Comparison-Contrast Although Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was written long before Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, from Things Fall Apart is a reflection of John the Savage from Brave New World. Okonkwo was very proud of his own culture and wasn't ready to get along with the changes that the new culture that was being forced on them, brought. Soon, he decides to hang himself. In Huxley's novel, John - who was raised away from the "New World" - after coming to the New World realizes that he cannot be a part of such a world where everything is driven by drug and sex and soon decides to commit suicide as he couldn't go back from where he came from. Despite the similarities in their actions, the two characters are similar and different in several ways. Okonkwo was very proud of his own culture. He grew up pushing himself to …show more content…
Okonkwo, whose goal in life was not to be the person his father was, despised laziness and so, he always pushed himself to work hard and would punish himself for having any kind of thought that matched his father's. He pushed himself to the limit to achieve success. Thus, he gradually got used to being hard on himself and only did what he thought was best without judging the consequences. Similarly, John was also very hard on himself. He didn't want to be happy in the New World where happiness was the only thing that mattered. He hated that world and wanted to go against it completely. That is why, when he realized that he was feeling good and singing while he was making a bow for himself, he felt guilty for feeling happy in such a world. He felt mad at himself for feeling happy and felt the necessity to be hard on himself and punish himself so that he doesn't feel happy anymore. He picks up his whip and hits himself until he could stand. Such toughness leads him to kill himself, and it was the same in the case of Okonkwo as