Protagonist in brave new world
OVERALL ANALYSIS
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
John, the Savage
Though he does not appear until chapter seven of the novel, John is the protagonist and the symbol of the old world order. The physical description of the Savage reveals the conflict within him; he is dressed like an Indian, but his straw-colored hair, pale blue eyes, and light-colored skin betray his origin. He was born on the Savage Reservation to Linda, who had lived in the new world and been abandoned on the reservation by Tomakin, who does not even know of his existence until John appears in London as an adult. His life on the reservation is miserable, because he is not accepted by the other savages and cannot understand the way of his own mothers; as a result, he is isolated and longs for something better.
Fed on Shakespeare, Linda's description of the brave new world, and his own hyper-active imagination, John the Savage longs to escape the reservation and go to a better life in London; he has visions of everything being perfect there. When he is actually taken to London by Bernard, he is sadly disappointed. He is repulsed by the sterility and rigidity of the new world that is anything but "brave" and
Huxley’s Brave New World and the Hard Work of Sadness
Ninety years ago, Aldous Huxley published his prophetic and incisive Brave New World (1932), a dystopian novel that imagines a society of people intoxicated and controlled, not by state power, but by pleasure. Whereas George Orwell predicted an inevitable totalitarian world government in his novel 1984(penned in 1949), Huxley proposed that human beings wouldn’t need to be coerced into submission but could be coaxed by the allure of pain-erasing drugs.
Both nightmarish visions of the future have already somewhat played out today in American society. The government set up the Disinformation Governance Board in April of 2022, which sounds eerily like the “Ministry of Truth” in Orwell’s 1984. (The board has since disbanded.) Tech companies can track us more than we like to think, creating what some have named “surveillance capitalism.” We are also a culture of addicts. The opioid crisis in rural America, the social media revolution ruining the mental health of children and young adults, and our national obsession with sugar, sports, and porn all indicate that we are susceptible to the temptations of Huxley’s
Protagonist
More on Brave New Society
Character Role Analysis
John
Discussing the protagonist in Brave New World is interesting, since Huxley pulls the old bait 'n' switch. The first time we read the novel, we're convinced that Bernard is going to be our hero. He shares our control sentiments of disgust with the new world, he's faced with adversity (getting a date with Lenina, being an individual), and he has his own sidekick (Helmholtz). But then, before you realize what's happened, Bernard has gone downhill faster than Tom Cruise's public image. All of a sudden our hero guy is a blackmailing socialite with no pride and even less honor.
Luckily for us, John steps in to fill the vacancy before we can post a "hero wanted" ad on Craigslist. He's principled, courageous, compassionate, and, most importantly, incredibly attractive. He's also naïve and subject to manipulation, so we're particularly concerned as we follow what's sure to be a conflict-riddled story.
Brave New World is probably one of the more interesting science fiction novels I’ve read over the course of the past few years. Like George Orwell’s 1984 it provides us with a vision of a future society where people’s individual freedom’s are restricted. The main difference between Brave New World and other seminal works in dystopian science fiction is that the future in Brave New World is a future brought about by over-indulgence. People are genetically developed to be as happy as possible in their roles, with the population born exclusively in laboratories where they are conditioned from birth to fill their roles in society.
They are kept in check by a hedonistic lifestyle where time alone is frowned upon is actively encouraged, and things such as sexual fidelity and chastity are completely foreign to the general population. On the surface one would believe it to be an utopia of sorts, but behind the surface there are little things like the increasing lack of individuality, the banning of works of seminal literature, which are considered subversive, and then there is the “savages” people who embody the old world and live outside the system and are tr
Table of Contents | Printable Version | Barron's Booknotes
OVERALL ANALYSES
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
John, the Savage
Though he does not appear until chapter seven of the novel, John is the protagonist and the symbol of the old world order. The physical description of the Savage reveals the conflict within him; he is dressed like an Indian, but his straw-colored hair, pale blue eyes, and light-colored skin betray his origin. He was born on the Savage Reservation to Linda, who had lived in the new world and been abandoned on the reservation by Tomakin, who does not even know of his existence until John appears in London as an adult. His life on the reservation is miserable, because he is not accepted by the other savages and cannot understand the way of his own mothers; as a result, he is isolated and longs for something better.
Fed on Shakespeare, Linda's description of the brave new world, and his own hyper-active imagination, John the Savage longs to escape the reservation and go to a better life in London; he has visions of ever