Aldous Huxley’s Version of Courage Through John the Savage
Stand up for what you believe in even if it means standing alone. It takes courage for one to stand up for a cause even when it will cost one’s life. The novel Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, is a science fiction which fantasizes a utopian society. Brave New World explore advanced technology, happiness, culture, and the human civilization. John the Savage is a major character in the novel. He comes from the uncivilized society called the Savage Reservation in Malpais, New Mexico, where the people live in absolute poverty, hardship, and suffering. When John the Savage was a teenager, his mother Linda taught him to read and write. John loved his
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John the Savage was considered a nonentity in the “civilized” New State because he liked religion, poetry, faithfulness, freedom, and discomfort. Also, John the Savage was condemned because he believed that a real civilized State should have freedom, science, religion, poetry, and monogamy. John the Savage remained self-righteous and never had sex with the women in the New State because they weren’t aware of sin. Moreover, John the Savage refused to take the drug soma, which gives happiness because he preferred to be unhappy and aware of his sufferings while being intimidated by the people of the New Society. John wanted a normal life filled with unpleasantries. Despite the criticism and condemnation John faced in the New State, however, John the Savage was courageous because he had the audacity to reject sex and he abstained from drugs. John the Savage’s motivation which made him went through it all are due in large part to the novels: Othello, and Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. John the Savage believed very much in the words of William Shakespeare such that he recited them whenever he faced immorality, criticism, and dehumanization. Shakespeare’s words serve as a moral code to John. Therefore, Aldous Huxley used John the Savage’s characterization to define courage as the ability of a person to face any circumstances without a change of