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Outsiders in Brave New World Essay

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Outsiders are a very common theme in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Many characters show traits of an outsider. John is one character who fits the bill. He is the ultimate outsider. Other outsiders in the book are Bernard and Linda. All of these characters have traits that make it difficult for them to “fit in” to the society of the New World. They don’t fit in a conforming society. These three characters are perfect examples of outsiders in Brave New World. Bernard is an outsider who doesn’t want to be an outsider. He wants more than anything to fit in, and when he does, he takes advantage of it. He is physically smaller than the other Alphas. Other Alphas think that a “gamma put alcohol in his blood surrogate” when he was …show more content…

The word “mother” alone “made Lenina look uncomfortable” (Huxley, 118). The idea of a family disgusts the citizens of the New World and she is definitely viewed as an outsider for having one. Another reason Linda isn’t accepted is the fact that she aged. When Lenina first sees Linda, she is disgusted at “all the lines on her face” and she cringes at the sight of “the wrinkles” and her “sagging cheeks, with those purple blotches” (Huxley, 119). The citizens are not used to old people. Lenina does not know that this was the natural aging process. Linda is also viewed as an outsider on the Indian Reservation. She is used to the New World, and when she first arrives in the Indian Reservation, she is viewed as different. She is used to sleeping with many men, so when she “had people in the ordinary way, the others [thought she was] wicked” (Huxley, 121). The women who lived on the reservation hate her deeply. She becomes an outsider on the Reservation. Linda is a fitting example of an outsider in the book because she aged, she has a kid, and she lived on the Indian Reservation with the same morals as the people from the New World. Lastly, the ultimate example of an outsider is John. He is an outsider in both the Indian Reservation and the New World. He is a “stranger in the reservation,” because he was born of a woman from the New World and his skin was much more pale than the others (Huxley, 118). He is an

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