Child Abuse In Brave New World

A young child rests in the safety of her bedroom, oblivious to the world around her. Suddenly, she wakes with a jolt and runs to find her parents. She’s had a nightmare. Instantly, the parents calm her down, and she is ready to dream once more. But what would she have done if she had no parents to go to? Would she have been able to calm herself down, or would she have stayed up all night, unreasonably afraid of the monster in her dream? More importantly, what would she have done if these nightmares occurred frequently, causing many sleepless nights? Parents, as guardians and caregivers, must carry the responsibility of teaching their child how to handle new and difficult situations as well as prevent unhealthy coping mechanisms. If they neglect
Child Abuse and Stress Disorders explains that the causes of this neglect are mainly due to the parent’s own frustration, narcissism, or isolation (Olive 67-69). In Brave New World, John’s mother, Linda, displays both frustration and narcissism, as she is oftentimes too absorbed in her self-pity to care for her son. Her addiction to Popé’s mescal would leave her in bed for several days, leaving John to wash and care for himself. At one point in her frustration, Linda blatantly cries to John “I’m not your mother. I won’t be your mother,” and later calls him a “little beast” for causing her to be shamefully trapped inside the savage reservation, away from her home (Huxley 127). Similarly, in Frankenstein, Victor displays his own narcissism once he immediately abandons the Creature, claiming that the sight of the monster filled his heart with “breathless horror and disgust” (Shelley 36). In doing so, Victor leaves the Creature to suffer a fate worse than those of the monkeys with wire surrogates, for the Creature comes into the world with no one to fulfill his physical nor his mental needs. Instead of receiving a helping hand to provide him food and amenities, the Creature endures a “strange multiplicity” of senses, such as sight, touch, smell, and sound, simultaneously with no comfort or support (70). Separately, Grendel, unlike John and the Creature, possesses a caring relationship with his mother, but since she remains his only companion due to their isolation, he grows too attached, and bases all of his emotions around her. This causes Grendel to develop separation anxiety during childhood, as he claims that “when her strange eyes burned into me... I was intensely aware of where I sat... and the shocking separateness from me in my mama’s eyes... I would feel, all at once, alone and ugly...” (Gardner