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Individuality In Brave New World

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Although Sparknotes offers a concise summary of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, it lacks important character details that are crucial to understanding the individuality of each characters desire for change within the World State. For instance, Bernard Marx’s outsider status fuels his selfish desire for power, not change. By only watching the SparkNotes video summary, readers do not get a close look at why Bernard wants change, and may confuse his egocentric greed as a desire for individuality and advancement of the society. In actuality, after Bernard was blessed with social success, his discontentment with the society disappeared. In a conversation with his friend, Helmholtz Watson, readers learn, “Success went fizzily to Bernard's head, and in the process completely reconciled him” (Huxley, Ch 11) with his dissatisfaction of …show more content…

In vague terms, SparkNotes also compares Bernard’s feelings of isolation to Helmholtz’s by stating, “Both Bernard and Helmholtz feel different” (Video SparkNotes) and apart of the society, with no indication of how or why. The book, however, depicts why both feel isolated from society, stating that, where Bernard feels separated from others by a “physical defect”, Helmholtz is separated by a stronger barrier of “mental excess” (Huxley, Ch 4). By understanding the differences in Bernard and Helmholtz isolation, readers recognize that Helmholtz’s defiance and criticism of the state branches from his philosophical beliefs to find more meaning in life, and is fueled by curiosity, not greed. John also offers an important perspective on isolation that SparkNotes omits. Rejected from both the savage and civilized states, he is more of an outsider than Bernard or Helmholtz. When confronted by Mustapha Mond about the price of freedom John defiantly says, “ ‘I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want

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Individuality’s Role in Society Anthem is a dystopian novel written by Russian author Ayn Rand in 1937. Ayn Rand was avid about the importance of the individual, and she supported a hands off government, where the people define and sustain themselves. Ayn Rand’s interest in the government’s effect on society certainly led into her creation of Anthem. At the start of the novel, Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, writes from a secluded tunnel and shares about the dystopian society he lives in which prevents education, and individualism. The society prevents individuals from learning on their own, having questions, doubting their elders, and threatens any sort of rebellion or individuality with extreme punishment.

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His understanding bothers him; however, he believes it sets him on a pedestal. Bernard looks down upon others while he still conforms to society making him an outsider to his world.

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Bernard Marx is first drawn to John as a means of boosting his status within the World State's structure, seeing an opportunity to set himself apart from all his peers. However, as John's power develops, Bernard's objectives become clearer, and the two become increasingly at conflict. When confronted with his shallow interest in John, Bernard concedes, "It's true. I'm envious of you… I'm glad you're an outsider too. We're so conditioned to believe that no one can be happy unless he's… well, ordinary" (Huxley, Chapter 8).

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"Everyone belongs to everyone else," whispered the voice in the dreams in Huxley's future world. The learning of lessons heard during sleep suggestion disheartened separation in friendship and love. In a sense, everyone in the novel is essentially everyone else as well. All the fetal conditioning, the learning of lessons through sleep training, and the power of convention makes each individual into an interchangeable part of the society, valuable only for the purpose of making the whole run as smooth as possible. Uniqueness is uselessness and uniformity is bliss in this novel because social stability is everything that matters.

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1473 Words | 6 Pages

In a futuristic world, people are not born, but genetically engineered, or “decanted,” and mentally conditioned to live under rules and beliefs; but there will always be that odd one out – one that does not fit in right with the rest. In Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World, he makes sure to criticise the idea of a future political state where the citizens are divided into subdivisions and given specific roles. He portrays the protagonists, Bernard Marx and John, as the “odd ones out” and makes sure to fully question if the futuristic world is better, or if it is worse. Huxley demonstrates the importance of one's individuality in a totalitarian political condition, as it stops the citizens from succumbing to their slavery. First and foremost, the citizens of the World State have been conditioned to

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739 Words | 3 Pages

Once Bernard finds John, he starts taking advantage of John’s uniqueness as an opportunity to fight his internal class struggle. Rather than yearning for change in society as in the beginning of the novel, Bernard is more concerned with impressing others and climbing up the ladder. While there are no monetary stresses in Brave New World, Bernard feels the need to improve his status because of his mistreatment by the lower classes as a result of his physical disabilities. For example, when Bernard is trying to get the lower castes to prepare his helicopter, he has to exert force, even as an Alpha male, to accomplish tasks (Huxley 64). Bernard starts treating John like an object, rather than a person.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” the world has fallen into an authoritarian order, of which control is kept through constant distraction and suppression of information. Though through this remains communities of “savages” who reject the new world order and have continued more traditional human life in reservations. It is in one of the these reservations the Aldous Huxley introduces the character John, a foil to the society he is introduced to. This exile from the land and the ideologies of the home John once knew to the “brave new world” allows John to both learn about himself and gives him the ability to see the corruption within the world state. John is introduced in the novel as the protagonist, Bernard Marx, and his female companion,

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It is what I expected from him since fighting for someone is not known of in his society. (pg.182-184). I think that John relates better to Helmholtz than Bernard for the reason that Helmholtz believes himself to be a subversive writer, creating poems that reflect his personal disconnection from the world, he is immediately fascinated by John, since he sees in the Savage something of the self to which he aspires. Furthermore, when they meet Helmholtz reads some of his personal poetry to John, who responsa with selections from Shakespeare.

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Bernard is someone who isn’t very sociable and he is an outsider who is very emotional and insecure. He later shocks

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Bernard Marx is a weak and selfish character. With arising social status and power, Bernard boasts disruptively to Helmholtz: “Bernard went off in a huff. Never, he told himself, never would he speak to Helmholtz again” (Huxley 157). Huxley suggests the idea of Bernard mentally altering his attitude in a way that his desires fulfill the society’s standards and beliefs. Now that he has finally gained the recognition he deserves, the less than enthusiastic response from Helmholtz insults him.

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Since the World State is based on Factories children are conditioned “forced” to hate nature and love factories by electric shocking the babies. The controllers gather the babies next to the flowers and roses as soon as the babies enjoy looking and touching the flowers the nurse electrically shock the babies and repeat the process again “The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down little lever. There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded.

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1038 Words | 5 Pages

In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World, he clarifies how the government and advances in technology can easily control a society. The World State is a prime example of how societal advancements can be misused for the sake of control and pacification of individuals. Control is a main theme in Brave New World since it capitalizes on the idea of falsified happiness. Mollification strengthens Huxley’s satirical views on the needs for social order and stability. In the first line of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are taught the three pillars on which the novels world is allegedly built upon, “Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 7).

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492 Words | 2 Pages

Living in a world in which money and possessions are extremely important can cause a lot of damage because essentially human individuality is corrupted by society and the government. In Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, the author blames the government for imprisoning the people causing them to lose their individualism. Meanwhile in Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless is fighting society by going off to explore nature with the ultimate goal of being alone in Alaska. Both argue that one must learn to live with themselves and look within and become self-reliant in order to restore what society has stolen.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

Bernard is the only one who tries to break the lack of individualism in his community. Bernard wanted to be “more on [his] own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body”(Huxley 90). The utopians described themselves as being to everyone else that no one was on their own. However, Bernard wanted to be different than everyone else, he felt different than everyone else.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

The book and story of Chris McCandless reflects on the transcendentalist ideas and the effects of human nature, whether positive or negative. Chris, a young ambitious kid travels the country for two years and then makes his way to Alaska to live into the wild, which will be his last stop. When in the wild, the transcendentalist ideals shine through as having a positive effect, however, when living in society and reflecting back on society, they reflect a negative response on human nature. When on his own, Chris sees the beauty in the world around him, but with noise and money and working people, he sees the cluttered nonsense of this world. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer reflects transcendental ideas through individualism and the awe of nature,

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