Many works of literature include a character with unusual origins to provide contrast to societal norms and to introduce complex relationships involving clashing morals and values. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley depicts John the Savage as an outsider because of his unusual upbringing and his headstrong morals in both the Savage Reservation and the World State society. Huxley does this to warn us against the potential abuse of technology to control people by rising dictators in the increasingly totalitarian world in which he lived.
Huxley first introduces John the Savage when Bernard and Lenina visit the New Mexico Savage Reservation while on vacation. John is excited to see Bernard and Lenina because they are from the civilized society of which his mother Linda had spoken so fondly. John has never truly fit in the Malpais society because he is white and both of his parents are foreigners (from London). His mother tried to raise him as if they were still living in the World State and she acts like she is still living there too. This upbringing, along with his mother’s immoral actions humiliated John and caused him to be hated by the other boys. No matter how hard John tried to be accepted by the Malpais society, he never felt a true connection. Despite all this, John still adopted many of the values and beliefs of the Malpais society. However, he also mixes those behaviors with what he learns from reading. John finds security and comfort in the works of William Shakespeare, which he reads from a book given to him by the Pope. Through Shakespeare’s words, John can express his feelings and emotions to others. John’s Shakespearean world he creates reinforces Huxley’s depiction of him as an outsider. When John is allowed to go to the “brave new world' he jumps at the opportunity because he is tired of being lonely on the Reservation. He is not accepted in the Malpais society because of his skin color and ancestry but he thinks he could maybe find companionship in “civilization' because he thinks he would look more like everyone else. When John comes to London with Bernard, it is not what he imagined. Society is void of all emotions, morals, and values which are ingrained in his very character. He sees firsthand the stark contrast between the Reservation and the World State. Once again, John is an outsider, and being an outsider in both worlds, he can make objective opinions about both. He sees the corruption in the World State society, where human emotions are traded for bland happiness and stability. The world controllers abused technology to such an extent that they control every aspect of human life through it. The dependency of the citizens on this technology made them slaves to their society and the idea of being an individual was eradicated. Everyone is made in a factory like products on an assembly line, so John’s unusual birth and upbringing provide an extreme contrast to such a controlled environment.
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As John learns more about how society runs in the World State, the more he begins to loathe civilization. He is very stubborn about his core values and beliefs which he acquired from the Reservation and Shakespearean works. In the World State, monogamy is banned and sex is viewed as a form of entertainment, not as a means of procreation. The World State controls all reproduction. Most women are kept sterile so that all creation of humans is done in factories so that they can be efficiently separated into their predetermined castes. Real relationships no longer exist and instead, everyone devotes themselves to society and the betterment of it. This use of technology to create a “perfect” society has stripped society of all humanity and loving relationships between people. John is shocked that the World State is void of all the morals that were instilled in him when he was very young. The acceptance that John was hoping for in the “brave new world' does not seem possible. When he first meets Lenina, John is amazed by her beauty and he feels like she is Juliet and he is Romeo. John gets most of his ideas about love from Shakespeare and the ideals around marriage in the Reservation so he is very conservative in his ideas about sex. John falls in love with Lenina but does not want to have sex with her but Lenina feels the opposite. She has been raised in a society where love and sex are not interconnected and love has been replaced with drug-induced superficial happiness. The only emotion allowed is scientifically made in a factory which is exactly what Huxley feels will happen if humanity allows technology to run their lives. The replacement of normal moral aspirations of society—family, love, success—were replaced with industry, economy, and technological growth. John’s unusual upbringing makes him stubborn in his belief that truth and human emotions are much better than stability and technological “progress'. The World Controllers’ emphasis on stability through technological control over everything else dehumanized the world so much that humans are just parts of one huge machine in the factory of society.
Huxley’s warning in his novel about the direction he feels society is headed with all the technological progress occurring in the 1930s is exemplified through the character of John the Savage. Huxley wants his readers to stand firm in their morals and values that come from their origins and upbringings and not succumb to false happiness. People should be aware of how much technology is an influential factor in their lives and should consider dialing it back if it hinders their relationships with others especially those that they love.
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Essay on Malpais in ‘Brave New World’.
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2024 Feb 28 [cited 2024 Nov 21].
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