"Brave New World": Individuality and Freedom in Aldous Huxley's Novel

Introduction

The people in the world state wants to be free, but they are all not fortunate enough. Some of them are gone, because physically or mentally they are different. Freedom in Brave New World can not happen, unless individuality is given. Those who are left alone and who have different ideals, thinking and morals are the true ones. Aldous Huxley, author, identifies the Alphas, the Beta's, Gammas, the Delta and the Epsilons. It can be defined as an effort to remove all individuality. In other words, everyone would lose their rights to express and convey their opinions and reactions. In the novel they address this as “the human condition.” The society concentrates on removing everyone from the feeling of individualism, so they can not be free and are eternally constrained mentally. Despite society's efforts to distract people, however, this may still come to light, and many people may wish to rebel against this government. Thus, in Brave New World, individuality must be expected to revive a limited society, which will be argued in this essay.

The Role of Individuality in Brave New World

In spite of his social rank, Bernard, an Alpha male, is driven to individualism. Bernard's a smart person. Yet he feels disqualified because of his unique structure and starts thinking about another direction than the other alpha. 'Looks are often deceptive,' as many people put it outside. This quote describes how our world is different from that of the world and how people in the world are to behave. Persons in our society try not to judge people on the basis of another person's appearance, but others are welcomed in the world to judge others if they behave odd, look unusual, or are simply different. Because almost everyone looks the same, people physically and mentally different like Bernard are left by themselves. 'I'm the one boy in the group who is not left out of everything because I am quiet and don't have a boyfriend like everybody else,' a boy who has the same problem as Bernard said. This quote represents the feelings Bernard was going through when he was feeling left out. This quote shows how people in our world can also act the same as people from the world state sometimes, because no one is perfect. They feel very isolated from the world causing them to question themselves and explore more about their making. After isolation people are left to reflect on themselves making them feel more lonely and depressed. Due to all this time left alone we can clearly see how Bernard started to see himself and understand how much of a different person he is, compared to the rest of the alphas. This helped him evolve his thoughts/ ideas on different things. This citation depicts Bernard's feelings when he felt abandoned. This example illustrates how sometimes people in our culture can also do the same thing as people in the world, because nobody is flawless. They are very isolated from the world and ask questions about their production. People have to reflect on themselves after isolation to make them feel lonely and depressed. Because we remain alone, it is clear how Bernard began to see himself and understand how much he was different from the rest of the alphas. His thoughts / ideas about various things have helped him develop.

John the Savage is another character in the novel represents individualism. John was born like no other, an outsider and the wild reserve of the world. Despite John being raised in wilderness, because of his mother who was from the world State, he is still treated like an outsider. John never becomes a member of any society which makes him feel alone. As said in the text “John ends up becoming a hybrid of the two cultures, singing new songs while sculpting old world clay pots” (page 125 to 126). It helps Bernard to understand and want his feelings to be similar. John's beliefs and values also seem to be left behind.“It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional piece.” (David Bowie) This quote shows how people usually judge others by wearing traditional clothes or by singing traditional songs.

His traditions were to 'engage a girl with one man and one man alone,' which was extremely odd and uncommon in the state around the world. Others like Lenina screamed, though Lenina was against her ideals. This belief was so dedicated to John that he even gave himself the chance to be with his favorite person. Because of his individualism, John is so committed to that belief. Being alone has now made him a person who believes in himself and himself. As spoken from the novelist Franz Kafka “Isolation is a way to know yourself”. John won't trust a lot of people because they're so different from him. The people who ignored him have made him a person who uses isolation to understand completely what society is doing to people and the way he can be different as a person. Isolation is the best way to understand what it takes for people to improve and to see the need to be 'safe.' John eventually continues with his beliefs and reveals how faithful he was to his faith by killing him and giving up his loving person.

The rebellious behavior of Lenina Crowne to the world state is also slight. According to Gbatiste, 'sometimes the harder someone you love is the greater the distance between you and him.' This quote depicts how the more he wanted to keep John out of her. Because Lenina had this addiction to john, she began to get real feelings for him. Lenina is different from any male protagonist in the book, since she has no intention of showing her individuality. Lenina and her friends were forced from a very young age to follow the ways of the state, especially when it came to love and sex. As stated in the text 'Two children, a little boy with about seven children and a small girl who might have been a year older, were playing in an extremely grassy bay between the large clumps of the Mediterranean heather, and the scientific intentions were very gravy and devoted to a work of discovery. A sexual game rudimentary. ''Fantastic, lovely!' Sentimentally, the DHC repeated.'' (Huxley 26). Individuals are then punished if passion or sexuality is not encouraged or appreciated. Those who don't like these things are then separated from others, Bernard would be a good example. Still, because of peer pressure he never enjoyed these two things and didn't even want to have relationships with Lenina. To John the Savage and Bernard, Lenina is much alike. As she moved from Henry Foster and instead went to John, she began to lust at him and him by herself, for so long, she fell in love with him without even knowing it. “The simple true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.” (John Mason) Lenina's been with both Bernard and John a great deal of time. As she has always been with them, because of what Mason told us, she started to learn their habits, morals or ways of thinking. She spent too long dealing with such men. People are not supposed to be in love with each other in this society. They did recreational drugs instead of passion. These include sexual chewing gum and soma, two medications used to improve and give people more satisfaction of sexual hormones. Since the change of Lenina she has been a rebellion of the state of the world and she was classified as Bernard and John the Savage.

Conclusion

In summary, not everybody is safe in the brave new world. The only people who can free themselves are people hit with the true feelings of individualism. Bernard Marx, John the Savage and Lenina Crowne are now a symbol of liberty. Thus, individualism should be expected to revive a limited society as these 3 people have been changed.