Brave New World Analysis on Characters
Brave New World Analysis on Characters “The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get… they are so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave” (Huxley 198). Many people speak and dream about a perfect world, for the problems which we face in the present world to simply just go away. Brave New World is a novel which shows an example of what life would be like in a utopian society.
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It shows the differences that civilization has against the savage world, which is how we live in present day. The characters in Brave New World all experience the controversy between nature vs nurture ultimately leading to their unhappiness. An individual can be given everything they need but yet still live unhappy. This especially can be seen with one of the main characters in Brave New World, Bernard. He was an Alpha Plus, the highest class in civilization, but unfortunately didn’t look like most Alphas (69). Despite his class, he was an outcast and spent most of his time alone.
The narrator in the novel explains, “The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and aroused hostility about his physical defects… which increased the sense of being alien and alone” (68). Although he had a high title it didn’t make him feel happy. He felt like there was more to life than a set routine they were all given in civilization. Bernard felt himself different; he wanted to feel emotions and not just live day by day on fake happiness.
Bernard expresses his frustration to be feel different when he states, “ But wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example, not in everybody else’s way” (90). Bernard was tired of being enslaved by his conditioning. The people of the New World were all taught to think, act, and see things a certain way. No individuality. Living in a controlled world doesn’t cause happiness, it just numbs people of actual feelings. Lenina is a “pneumatic girl”, very popular, and has spent a night with almost all of the men in civilization. Pleasure was key in the controlled world.
She found herself wanted by men, and like most women enjoyed having sex with men. When Lenina began talking to Bernard, she didn’t agree with him on wanting more to life. She’d rather be on soma, a drug that would numb them from any true emotions, whenever she felt a little uneasy, just like everyone else. Lenina’s unhappiness comes when Bernard takes her into the Savage world and she sees how John and Linda and everyone else is living. Her immediate reaction was to find some soma. She couldn’t believe how people grew old, suffered, and had to deal with everyday problems.
Lenina began falling for John and quickly realized that she wanted something specifically with him that most men couldn’t satisfy. Lenina states to her friend Fanny, “And what about a man– one man. Hes the one i want… and in intervals I still like him. I shall always like him” (171). Lenina had never felt like this before, therefore she didn’t know how to handle it. The only thing she knew of about men was to have sex with them. When John rejected sleeping with her, she was completely taken by surprise. The narrator explains, “ Drying her eyes… she pulled out her soma bottle… hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction” (157).
Never being in the position, she immediately turned to soma to help her cope with what she was feeling. She has been living numb to emotion and for the first time she was forced to feel unwanted and ached for an escape. Linda was a Delta in a civilized world who went on a trip with the Director to the Savage world. Unfortunately for her she had fell and bumped her head, causing her to get lost and be taken in by Native Americans (112). The Director searched for her but was never able to find her. To her dismay she was pregnant and had a baby named John. Linda only knew how to act like a civilized person.
She was very promiscuous and like the controlled world, began to sleep around with different men. This was strange to the Savage World and they then began to call her names and make her an outcast. Linda stated, “I was so ashamed. Just to think of it; me a Beta– having a baby” (114). Having John was very difficult for her. Linda had no idea how to be a mother, how to nurture, or even how to be a good role model for the child. Linda thought of how perfect her life would be if she were to return to the civilized world, returning to soma. She was willing to do whatever just to be back in the New World, “… here was her appearance… so the best people were quite determined not to see Linda. And Linda, had no desire to see them. The return to civilization was for her the return to soma” (142). Linda thought all her problems would be solved by going back to the controlled world, but in fact they made her even more depressed and unwanted. She had nobody except for John and she would rather be numb and not feel anything than deal with civilization. Where would she find true happiness if in the Savage World she is discriminated for her ways, and in civilization she no longer fits in.
Living in the Savage world, one can only imagine how perfect the civilized world could be. Unfortunately, having came from the savage world John had something to compare the controlled world to. Being the son to a women in the civilized world, he had heard nothing but wonders about it. On the other hand, having been raised in the Savage World allowed John to learn morals and want to find a purpose in life. When John reached the civilized world he was completely disappointed on how fake everything and everyone was. “ How much I love you, Lenina… or always… to make a promise to live together for always” (174). John had seen his mother sleep with so many men and get teased by it that he did not want to just sleep with the women he liked. He wanted to marry and be with just that one. For Lenina this was just nonsense, and that just made John not want anything to do with her. He wanted to feel a special connection with Lenina that she had never had before. By the end John decides to be isolated because he would rather deal with his emotions than live in a “perfect” world numb and unhappy.
Ultimately, the utopian society didn’t mean solving all problems and people forever living happy. If a civilization is all an individual knows, how is it that they still manage to be unhappy? There is no happiness when people are living numb from what is really going on. When it comes to the topic of a utopian society vs the kind of society in which we currently live in, I think there is really no solution. We are human and as much as they can try to condition human beings, there is still going to be some kind of downfall.
