John In Brave New World

In his novel Brave New World Aldous Leonard Huxley re-imagines a dystopian future in which all life is standardized in a test tube, conditioned to learn its place, and no one is an individual. As he does this he introduces several characters that feel out of place in the World State that has been created. One of the most prominent of these characters is John. John is introduced into the plot as a “young man...his plaited hair was straw-coloured, his eyes a pale blue, and his skin a white skin, bronzed”(78), who spoke fluent English to Bernard and Lenina. From the initial introduction of his character John was automatically set apart from the culture he was obviously brought up in. He was alienated purely based on the fact that his mother

Though upon his arrival John did not get what he had originally expected. Having said that he was going to experience a “brave new world” he went into the World State expecting new and wonderful things. While he got new, it was not all wonderful and his enriching experience would end up teaching him the ways that the World State had robbed everyone of basic individuality. Bernard, having originally brought John over to show the Director his long lost son, capitalized off of being his guardian/representative while in the World State. This pushed John into the role of somewhat of an object to be viewed and studied, called the Savage. Obtaining this name will further separate John from society as they have taken away his name in the public eye. Being pushed to the point of doing so because of the disgust he feels towards the unnatural way the World State has micromanaged every detail of life, John lives up to the name Savage after his mother dies from too much soma by violently disrupting a hospital to the point where the police must be called. And once that ordeal has been managed, John’s “friends” Helmholtz and Bernard have been exiled, leaving John essentially alone. His final step towards complete