Journal #2 - Brave New World

In the novel, Bernard’s emotions are repeatedly expressed. Every time Bernard gets angry or annoyed, which is uncommon in this society, his partner Lenina offers him some soma, a drug with no side-effects that instantly makes you happy. He refuses, “preferring his anger” (100). This repeated expression of his negative emotions and his repeated refusal to let these emotions go show the struggle that Bernard has with the society. His unique viewpoint of the society due to his being an outsider allows him to question the principles of the society. He holds on to his emotions and refusing to take soma because if he gives in, then he loses his individuality. Huxley urges the reader to take the standpoint of Bernard, emphasizing the importance of individuality by having the reader encounter the same questions that Bernard does during his struggle against the uniform society he faces.

The second third of the novel takes place in a Savage Reservation, where the last few remnants of the old civilization still exist. This setting juxtaposes with the previous setting of the futuristic civilization. The differences between the two civilizations are highlighted, and this contrast helps identify the problems of the futuristic society that Huxley warns about. With this juxtaposition, he shows the road that civilization undergoes to reach the futuristic civilization. He also has the old civilization take the form of the Native Americans of the old. This representation of old society, symbolized by “the Savage”, dramatizes nature’s role in the futuristic civilization: as the great unknown that is to be feared.

I noticed that the language when speaking of the savages seems to become more frenzied, and this reflects the context that they are repeatedly put in. As John finds his mother sleeping with a man, he runs “across the room and stabbed [the man]—oh the blood!—stabbed again, as Popé heaved out of his sleep, lifted his hand to stab once more, but found his wrist caught, held and—oh!—twisted” (124). The savages are repeatedly implied as being violent and hateful by Linda and John’s stories. Their customs of the savages are strange and primitive, quick and terrible, and also dramatizes nature’s role in the futuristic civilization as something to be feared.