Exile In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Written in 1932 by Aldous Huxley, Brave New World is a novel in which many of the characters experience some form of exile. Huxley himself was born and raised by English aristocracy; however, at a young age he contracted a disease that blinded him for two years and left him with severely impaired vision for the rest of his life. The disease kept Huxley from finishing his education, thus restricting him from becoming a true English gentleman. These events in Huxley's life, in part, created his own version of exile from the social class that he was raised in. It could be reasoned that Huxley’s own understanding of exile is what led to so many characters being involved in exile. The character, John the Savage, is a paragon of (the experience of)

Huxley is writing to contradict the belief of people for hundreds of years that life must serve some purpose. In the World State, a person can get whatever they may desire whenever they may desire it. This takes away the idea of working for a purpose. John acts as a symbol of opposition to the way the World State works. He still believes in actions having purpose. Even after he is exiled John continues to practice his religion, all of his actions have purpose. He bought seeds to grow a garden for the purpose of survival, he bought rope and string and nails and tools and matches, all for the purpose of survival (pg. 246). Huxley also writes to bring to light the issue of consumerism that was a growing problem in the twentieth century. Throughout the novel it is constantly brought up that the people of the World State are raised to want to buy more, to want to have more. John contradicts this belief because he believes in not indulging in your vices. He refuses to have sex with Lenina even though that is all that he desires (pg. 194). At the end of the novel when he indulges in his vices he ends up killing himself (pg. 259). The exiling of John symbolizes how the would move to get rid of anything standing in its way to increased