Diversity In Brave New World

Utopian societies are created in order to achieve the most enticing, near perfect living conditions. Outside societies often times viewed as corrupted and broken. The idea of what a utopian society looks like will vary greatly from person to person. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, humans can no longer produce offspring. Ovaries are surgically removed from females, and the ova are artificially fertilized. The fertilized eggs are then incubated inside specifically designed bottles that each mimic the human womb. Each egg will receive an assigned social caste. Brave New World is split into five social castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Gamma, Delta and Epsilon eggs undergo

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, human beings have been engineered and conditioned to have detailed traits and castes in society; however, the birthing methods of the world state seem virtually full proof, some characters in the novel deviate from this standard. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson both alpha plus males; share a dislike for the world state. Bernard abhors it because of his physical defect, Helmholtz because of his psychological surplus.

            Bernard Marx was alienated in the Brave New World because of his general appearance. As an Alpha Plus, Bernard was unusually short and ugly. Suggested by Fanny, Bernard's condition resulted from an error when he was still in a bottle, the workers

In conclusion, Bernard is interested in pursuing his personal desires, instead of conforming to society because he doesn’t like the way society is and what it is restricting people from.

Bernard was an outcast in the beginning of the book. He is flawed in a “flawless” world. “Well…’ said Bernard, and hesitated. No, he really couldn’t deny it. ‘Why shouldn’t I be”, this quote proves that Bernard is an outcast because he hesitated. (Huxley, 184) Living in the World State it is uncommon to hesitate. Bernard did not fit into the standards of the World State and everyone knew it. Bernard did not like to participate in orgies, group activities, and he looked different from the other citizens, “‘He is so ugly!’ said Fanny. ‘But I rather like his looks.’ ‘And then so small.’ Fanny made a grimace; smallness was so horribly and typically low-caste.” (Huxley, 41) The above quote proves that Bernard was an outcast because he looked different from the others. Bernard is just like every human being he wants to fit in with everyone else.

Bernard is introduced as a man that does not fit into society and is different from everyone else in the “Social Society”. Throughout the novel he changes though, he becomes self-centered and views himself as a superior to others. The main event that lead up to this change is his encounter with the “Savages”, which allowed him to secure his job and further his career.

Bernard shows that the World State isn't as perfect as it seems. “I were more me, if you see what I mean. More of my own, not just completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body. (Huxley,90) Bernard knows what reality is and how the World State is really like.

Bernard Marx is a very significant character in the novel Brave New World because unlike the rest of the society who are happy and abide to the rules, Bernard is an individual. This may be due to the fact that Bernard often does not take soma like the rest of the society. Soma is a drug takes away all individuality and emotion, as well as make the individual more part of the docile society.

Although the phrase of “every one belongs to every one else” (Huxley 43) is used by the society of the World State to show social conformity and unity, multiple cases of alienation and isolation are present among the main characters within the novel. In the World State, people live “where everyone is happy, but no one is free” (“Brave New World”). In the beginning of the novel, readers are introduced to Bernard Marx, who is conditioned to be an alpha, one of the highest rankings in the social ladder, but is alienated because of his size and anti-social approach to the civilized lifestyle lived out by the majority of his colleagues. Bernard’s characterization by Huxley sanctions the reader to enter into the controlling society of the World State. Bernard has “erratic attempts to conform to a society in which he feels essentially alienated” (Neilson). Correspondingly, John, the savage, believes in love and marriage, which are values instilled into him by the natives while he lived on the reservation.

Huxley uses contrast to reveal distinctive features of a character. In his famous novel, Brave New World, the protagonist, Bernard Marx, is revealed to the reader through various contrasting characters. Bernard is an atypical Alpha Plus male in the Society. For example, he is physically different from Helmholtz Watson and Henry Foster; he and Helmholtz also contrast personality-wise; and the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (the DHC) is not only the professional foil of Bernard, but also has a different mindset than him. Firstly, Bernard's physical appearance is quite different from other Alpha Plus males.

In chapters 4-6 of Brave New World, Huxley reveals more of the plot and the experiences of the characters. During chapter 4, we learn more about Bernard Marx and why he is considered an outcast: “The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects(Huxley 65).” This made me feel pity towards Bernard because it shows how he does not fit the ideal profile of an Alpha therefore he is not treated as one. Later in this section, Bernard is trying to explain his reasoning to Lenina, who continuously repeats phrases from her hypnopaedia. I found this normal based on her conditioning; however, I found it interesting how Bernard only responded with how many repetitions of the phrase was in the hypnopaedia course.

A world without fear, without pain, without age...utopia, right? A stable world such as this can look good on paper, but not until you look at it in reality. Brave New World, a dystopian novel written by author Aldous Huxley displays a society in which men and women are mass-manufactured as twins and conditioned even while they are being developed, to fit a pre-ordained societal role. In this novel, the characters of importance are as follows, John, Linda, Lenina, Helmholtz, Bernard, Mustapha Mond, and The Director. Bernard is a normal product of society designed to do the role he was created for. All goes according to plan until he introduces an unexpected outlier; John the Savage. A man born of normal means in one of the only traditional

Humans go through their entire lives searching to find out who they are and how they can fit into society. The World State of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is able to solve this problem by creating a society where people are able to feel as a unified group by making all citizens think a specific way. However, one individual, Bernard Marx, is not able to see the same views as the State and his peers, such as Lenina Crowne, thus making it harder for Bernard to form relationships. The State eliminates the problem of identity crisis by predetermining who you will be. This is carried out through series of conditioning, such as hypnopaedia and genetic manipulation.

As it is seen in Brave New World, the World State has controlled so much of their lives that they have lost their consciousness through conditioning. In other words, the World State has controlled their minds so much that the people are unaware that they have lost their person freedom but since conditioning has failed on Bernard, he is able to recognize the loss of individuality in the World State. The government controls because they would rather have others lose their personal identity than have them be a threat to society. Therefore, if the country progresses to being all-powerful and invading the lives of individuals, there would be conformity and a loss of individuality.

In Brave New World, there are a number of instances of exile. In the story, exile exists in different ways. This can be seen in exile from home, family, or even a social class. Some of these are direct, physical rifts while others are more emotional and psychological. The character in the novel that faces a large rift within “the self” is Bernard Marx, an Alpha-Plus that should be on the top of the social ladder, but simply is not.