Identity In Brave New World

Cursed to a life of isolation because of his appearance, values, and outrageous thoughts, John was alienated mentally, emotionally, and physically in both the Savage Culture and the World State Culture. Torn between keeping true to his virtues and conforming to society, the treatment of John highlights the values of both cultures in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

Two of the World State beliefs that John feels the strongest opposed to include soma distribution and sex. John believes that soma is a sedating drug which the government gives to “the civilized” in order to distract them from their unhappiness and noticing something is wrong within their society. The people take soma for comfort without realizing the enslaving nature the soma withholds. John picks this up in Chapter 15 of the novel when he throws the Delta’s soma out the window saying, “Don't you even understand what manhood and freedom are.” (page 213) John also disagrees with the World State’s view on sex, which can be partially attributed to his reading of Shakespeare work.

John is the most important and the most complex character in the novel “Brave New World.” More interestingly, he is the only character born naturally. He tries to discover himself and find himself in society, especially in the reservation, although he is not accepted therein. He becomes a hero when he forcefully takes and lay waster to the soma that belonged to the Deltas, calling them to join him in rebellion. He is a smart person who loves art and literature. I feel John is a very bold, powerful minded character, although he was not successful in change the way the World state operated.

John, the savage, is the only human in Brave New World. He despises the “civilized” world for its inhumanity and lack of morals. John loved his mother and even though she wasn't a very good one. He is the perfect balance of “civilized” and “savage”. After doing something that he heavily regrets, John subjects himself to his own discipline for his guilt.

Everyone knows how this world runs with what is right and wrong; but what if what we think is right to another world might be wrong. In Brave New World there are two different worlds between the savages and the people of the New World.

Community, Identity, Stability is the motto of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. “the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY” (Huxley, 5). Basically, these words describe the society of the new world and are the basics in building a perfect world as well as the main goals of Utopia. Community is the relationship between the classes in the society of the World State that live together. Even during death, a body is not left alone. Identity refers to the five castes within the society: Epsilons, Alphas, Gammas, Betas, and Deltas. Identity differs among each caste based on their roles within the society. Stability is the peaceful environment that is created for the people of the Brave New World. In Brave New World, Community, Identity,

He fought for change and development, as well as the freedom of the people who don’t even know that they are imprisoned by their controllers. His identity guided him to do that, to fight for change. However, the Controllers have different ideas in mind, as Mustapha Mond informs John that,”we don’t want change. Every change is a menace to stability. That’s another reason we’re so chary of applying new inventions” (Huxley 224-225). Change and development is an integral part of life, even for John. He may have never acted in such ways that he did if it weren’t for reading and the development of his own mind. He had an opportunity that many in the New World don’t and that is the freedom to develop and expand his horizons of thinking, which is a freedom that everyone

The innovative novel Brave New World exploits the theme of the search for identity through its futuristic environment and society, which causes the main protagonist John to become sequestered from the others. In contrast, in the novel Brave New World individuals are supposed to be happy with their identity as it states, ‘…COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY’ (Huxley 1). Although each individual is placed into their own cast either as an alpha, beta, or gamma, they are supposed to be happy. In this obscure society, ‘the people who accidentally attain knowledge have only two choices if they are to survive: they can become oppressors or outcasts’ (‘Brave New’…6). This relates to my theme of identity as these people are constrained to limited amounts

InThe Brave New World, Huxley creates a so called utopia based on the fundamentals of “Community, Identity, Stability” (Huxley 3). In the community, citizens live together as one where everyone belongs to everyone else. The citizen’s identities are predestined which determines how they will be utilized in the community. Overall, the world is completely controlled which results in total stability of the utopia. The stability of the New World slowly deteriorates and is viewed as a dystopia when John the Savage is welcomed in. Growing up in a different community, John has made his own identity and creates his own view on how life should be lived. John spreads his thoughts to other citizens in the world and slowly starts to influence others to

Our world acts as a scale between order and freedom. A slight tip does not throw off the scale, however, the slight tip will gradually create a large imbalance in time, which will throw the world into chaos. Missing elements in society characterize a dystopian literature, and often the missing elements refer to balance between order and freedom. In their modern dystopian novels, Brave New World and Lord of the Flies, both Aldous Huxley and William Golding reveal the necessity of balance and how an overexpression of either order or freedom results in a dystopian world. Huxley reveals how an overexpression of order results in an apathetic society and warns individuals of social expectations and totalitarian governmental control, whereas Golding

Characters play important roles in helping reveal the themes of a novel. The struggles they have to face helps build the setting. Each character interacts with each other in numerously profound ways. This interaction is the core of every story. The actions of one person affects the environment as well as the people around him or her.

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

Whereas, In Brave New World, John the savage is a white male who is set aside from both Civilization and the savage reservations. He was born from an actual womb, which is prohibited by the state, but is also not physically similar to the those in the savage reservations; therefore, he is excluded by both parties. When Bernard exposes John to the world state, John feels a sense of disconnection which later drives him into utter madness. For instance, When Helmholtz and Bernard find John in the bathroom throwing up, they hear John utter that he “ate civilization” (Huxley 213) . Civilization had poisoned him; thus he cannot stand the inhume customs that the new world offers.

This novel, Brave New World, is about a Utopia, an ideal state. However, it is actually a bad ideal state. Because of this, the themes are mostly expressed as fundamental principles of the new civilization. Not only are the themes reLater towards Huxley’s Utopia, but also the readers. Community, identity, and stability is the main belief of the new world that was created.