John the Savage in the Brave New World
Jennifer McClure
Prof. Kies
ENGL 1302.412
June 21, 2010
John the Savage in the Brave New World Life in the Brave New World is a completely different world than that in the Savage Reservation. John, being somewhat Savage and somewhat civilized is unable to find a place where he belongs and agrees with the central societal norms. Being raised on the reservation and not decanted and conditioned in the ways of the Brave New World John experiences life in a completely different way than that he is genetically made, the civilized population of England. After being discovered on the reservation by Bernard and Lenina, both John and his mother are brought to civilization to be observed and studied. Upon arriving John experiences not only wonderful things of comfort he had only heard about from his mother, Linda, but never experienced but also terrible things that torment him and drive him to a life of solitude. Being disconnected from the civilized world, except for what his mother can remember and shares with him, shapes John into a very unique individual in the minds of the civilized citizens of the Brave New World. John learned to value personal relationships that are non-existent in the utopian society, such as the relationship between a mother and her child. We are shown by the narrator early in the story that these types of relationships not only do not exist but are laughable to even think of. During a tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning Center of London students are granted a glimpse into the past, a life none of them have ever known and some even guessed to be almost some sort of fiction, not truth. The students respond to the Director’s story very uneasily, as if they don’t want to confirm that humans used to behave in such a manner, almost like they are ashamed of the past. ““In brief,” the Director summed up, “the parents were the father and mother.” The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys’ eye-avoiding silence. “Mother,”
Prof. Kies
ENGL 1302.412
June 21, 2010
John the Savage in the Brave New World Life in the Brave New World is a completely different world than that in the Savage Reservation. John, being somewhat Savage and somewhat civilized is unable to find a place where he belongs and agrees with the central societal norms. Being raised on the reservation and not decanted and conditioned in the ways of the Brave New World John experiences life in a completely different way than that he is genetically made, the civilized population of England. After being discovered on the reservation by Bernard and Lenina, both John and his mother are brought to civilization to be observed and studied. Upon arriving John experiences not only wonderful things of comfort he had only heard about from his mother, Linda, but never experienced but also terrible things that torment him and drive him to a life of solitude. Being disconnected from the civilized world, except for what his mother can remember and shares with him, shapes John into a very unique individual in the minds of the civilized citizens of the Brave New World. John learned to value personal relationships that are non-existent in the utopian society, such as the relationship between a mother and her child. We are shown by the narrator early in the story that these types of relationships not only do not exist but are laughable to even think of. During a tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning Center of London students are granted a glimpse into the past, a life none of them have ever known and some even guessed to be almost some sort of fiction, not truth. The students respond to the Director’s story very uneasily, as if they don’t want to confirm that humans used to behave in such a manner, almost like they are ashamed of the past. ““In brief,” the Director summed up, “the parents were the father and mother.” The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys’ eye-avoiding silence. “Mother,”