The Freedom of Exile A common occurrence in dystopian stories seems to be the exile of those who are different. Some movies that exhibit this are The Giver, Divergent, and Brave New World. The goal of these societies is peace, and they believe the way to achieve peace is by control. When everyone thinks similarly, control is easily attainable; however, when a few people are different from the rest, they pose a risk to society. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Bernard Marx is an outsider in a utopian society which causes a rift to form between him and the people of the World State, his hometown. Bernard’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching because it causes him to feel lonely, yet unlike other people in this dystopian future, he is intelligent and thinks for himself rather than what the controllers conditioned him to think. Throughout the novel, Bernard experiences two types of exile, both of which are alienating because they cause him to feel lonely. First, he experiences emotional exile because of his social discrepancies. One instance where this occurs is when Lenina and Fanny are discussing whether or not Lenina should accept Bernard’s invitation to the reservation. Fanny expresses her disapproval of Bernard mentioning “his reputation” and that “he doesn’t like Obstacle Golf,” and “he spends most of his time by himself,” which is frowned upon in the World State (Huxley …show more content…
People, in a way, are conditioned by the media and other influences to think or act a certain way, and they judge anyone who doesn’t do the same, but the people who are profoundly intelligent and successful are typically the ones who don’t bend to the will of society. In Bernard’s case, his exile is both alienating and enriching because it results in loneliness, but he has this advantage of intelligence and freedom that others in his world do not because their actions are governed by the