Isabelle Schmidt

5E

English

John the savage: a free man?

Plan:
Introduction: John's position Freedom Is John a free man in the World State? Parents Soma Shakespeare Lenina/Sexuality Linda's death Brave new world: truth, happiness Conclusion

Introduction: Johns Position:

- At the beginning, Bernard Marx represents the primary character in Brave New World, but when Bernard visits the Reservation, that fact changes and John becomes the central protagonist. - John is an outsider in the Reservation and he is rejected from the World State, he is the ultimate outsider and becomes at the same time the central character of the novel.

Freedom:
- I will introduce my presentation by defining the term freedom and its significance. - The people from the World State don't understand that they aren't free. We can find this fact in chapter six on pages 77-78. Lenina has a conversation with Bernard about freedom. The girl is convinced that everybody has a great deal of freedom, but Bernard doesn't share her

-1-

Isabelle Schmidt

5E

English

point of view. He seems to be the only one who disagrees that they are so free as the girl is telling him.

"How is it that I can't, or rather - because, after all, I know quite well why I can't, what would it be like if I could, if I were free - not enslaved by my conditioning." "But Bernard, you're saying the most awful things." "Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?" "I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays." ...

The people of the World State live in a situation where they are governed by others and have only restricted freedom. Brave New World presents a totalitarian regime that obliges people to behave as if they were happy. The State controls the different behaviors carefully, with the aim to preserve stability. People are conditioned to consume and to have the "Fordism" as their religion. People are not allowed to read history, because its perceived as dangerous the knowledge of history would create a basis for World State people for new ideas. The government of the World State was afraid that such new ideas could undermine their power.

Is John a free man in the World State? Parents:

Already from the very beginning John is an outsider. He can't choose his parents and John is bound to be an outsider. His dad is the director of the World State and his mother Linda lives in the Reservation. He was influenced and captured between this two personalities living in different environments in such a way that he lost his freedom. In the Reservation, he is on one hand too strongly influenced by the World State, and on the other hand he is, in the World State, enormously influenced by the Reservation.
"She's my mother," he said in a scarcely audible voice. The nurse glanced at him with startled, horrified eyes; then quickly looked away. From throat to temple she was all one hot blush. (page 175)

Pale, wild-eyed, the Director glared about him in an agony of bewildered humiliation. My father! The laugher, which had shown signs of dying away, broke out again more loudly than ever. He put his hands over his ears and rushed out of the room.

-2-

Isabelle Schmidt

5E

English

Soma:
-If you take this drug it clouds the reality of the present and carries you off to an allegedly friendly new world. This happy hallucination represents a kind of freedom -People doesnt ask questions about the structures of society. John has an inherent aversion to drugs because of his bad experiences with the alcoholism dependence of his mother. John did not take this drug and kept his body clean.

Shakespeare:
-The savage gets his values from the literature of Shakespeare and with this knowledge he is able to criticize the World State values. But Shakespeares words sometimes make John unreceptive to the perceptions. he rejects the superficial happiness of the World State he is unable to reconcile the love for Lenina and express his passion for her he is sometimes tempted by the idea to commit suicide He is very much in favor for Shakespeares ideas, he is indeed himself a Shakespearean character in a world where poetry is repressed and prohibited. On page 161, John recites some of Shakespeares verses to Helmholtz. Helmholtz represents one of the rare characters who is challenging the system of the World State. But when John interrupt his reading,
"Helmholtz broke out in an explosion of uncontrollable guffawing. The mother and father (grotesque obscenity) forcing the daughter to have someone she didn't want! And the idiotic girl not saying that she was having someone else whom (for the moment, at any rate) she preferred!..."

Helmholtz shows impressively that really nobody understands John and thus he cannot be free.

Lenina / sexuality :

-3-

Isabelle Schmidt

5E

English

John and Lenina havent the same understanding of what is love. Lenina has a passion for sex and the savage has a desire for emotional love. But Johns love isnt a self-determined love, he sees love through the lenses of Shakespeares world, so he perceives Lenina initially as Juliet and later as an "impudent strumpet".

On page 167, John testifies his love to Lenina. This abstract shows that both do not have the same understanding what love means.
"Listen, Lenina; in Malpais people get married." "Get was?" Irritation had began to creep back into her voice. What was he talking about now? "For always. They make a promise to live together for always." "What a horrible idea!" Lenina was genuinely shocked. "Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind that doth renew swifter than blood decays." "What?" "It's like that Shakespeare too." ...

Lindas death:
Conflict between his values and the reality of the world around him Lindas death is a horrible moment in Johns life. John is very sad and depressed. But next to Linda there is a visiting party of Delta clones. The children are not sensible to Johns situation and they show no respect to him. In the State, death is perceived as a natural and not as an unpleasant process. John cant understand this attitude. The next paragraph shows the moment when Linda dies: children are visiting the hospital and they approach John and the bed from his mother.
"Oh, look, look!" They spoke in low, scared voices. "Whatever is the matter with her? Why is she so fat?" [...] "Isn't she awful?" came the whispered comments. "Look at her teeth!" Suddenly from under the bed a pug-faced twin popped up between John's chair and the wall, and began peering into Linda's sleeping face. (page 177-178)

"What are these filthy little brats doing here at all? It's disgraceful!" "Disgraceful? But what do you mean? They're being death-conditioned. And I tell you," she warned him truculently, "if I have any more of your interference with their conditioning, I'll send for the porters and have you thrown out."

Brave New World: truth, happiness, technology

-4-

Isabelle Schmidt

5E

English

Brave New World becomes a bitter, ironic and pessimistic tone when John becomes more knowledgeable about the State -The State is focusing on happiness and stability, people from the World State are better off with happiness than with truth, John is trying to break this pretended stability -The government attempts to suppress all kinds of human truths, such as love, friendship and personal connection. But John has another vision of life and he knows what real love means. He shows feelings and he has a relation with somebody. Between the language of Shakespeare, John searches for the truth with the help and influence of Shakespeares literature and he tries to uncover the real truth of the world he is living in. In addition, the government of Brave New World controls its citizens by making them happy with drugs and they try that people do not care about freedom and just live very superficially.. John refrains from having this superficial happiness. When he was in the Reservation he was trying to explore the reality of the Brave New World system.. He cares about freedom. John knows there is something more than the government is trying to convey. Life is not just for your pleasure and happiness. Its more for joy. Live is the challenge that youve done all that you wanted to do. Its accompanied with sweat, hard work and discipline. He has experienced what life is when he grew up in a hostile environment, conditioned to be an outsider. Nobody is really free in the World State, because of the Dictatorship, everything is controlled and influenced by the government. Men and women are transformed into automata and the alleged freedom of the people turns actually out to be a prison, where people are hostage.

Conclusion
-John isnt a free man, except in death -John isn't free because of facts which are predetermined: parents, birth, education -In choosing his death, John makes the first time right of his freedom. His choice was a real act of freedom. Huxleys satire reveals that the world he is describing is actually an utopia, or even more precise an dystopia. In Brave New World, he is demonstrating a World without individuality and he has made happiness and the joy of life into an artificial feeling with the constant presence of soma. Huxley is able to demonstrate that freedom is the value which makes people to human beings. A world where freedom is taken away, this transforms it to a world where feelings disappear.

-5-