Exile In Brave New World

The meaning of exile is the state of being physically or mentally separated from one's “home”. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many characters experience such a rift from their “home” which leads to isolation as well as enhancement. In the novel, Bernard Marx experiences exile when he is mentally cut off from the people within his birth caste for his moral and physical differences, which ends up being alienating and enriching.
Bernard Marx is an alpha whose physical stature and size do not meet the usual characteristics of other alphas. Throughout the novel, Huxley illustrates that these physical differences alienate Bernard. For example Huxley writes, “for whatever the cause, Bernard’s physique was hardly better than that of the average Gamma,”...”contact with members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of his physical inadequacy,” (page 64). This signifies how Bernard felt inferior to those even lower than him, causing him to chose not to interact with others to avoid the distress. To further show the effects of ridicule on Bernard's seclusion, the author includes, “the mockery made him feel like an outsider”...”which in turn increased his sense of being

Bernards alienation because of his physique and his enrichment from his different moral views illuminates the meaning of the novel overall which is the definition of freedom. The utopia in the novel puts a lot of emphasis on conformity and discourages individuality, which is something Bernard doesn’t follow the rules of. As seen in a conversation in chapter 6 with Bernard and Lenina, Lenina insists that the society has a great deal of freedom represented by soma and its hypnotic state. The author uses this technique to show the reader that the true definition of freedom is not conformity and obedience, instead, it’s the independence to be an individual apart from the rest of