Individuality In Brave New World

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

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