1995 Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in such a character plays a significant role and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions or moral values.
Within the novel A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley places one of his characters in a society completely different from his own. By doing so, Huxley reveals the odd morals and assumptions of his "utopia". John, known as "the savage", is the character that exposes the values of future London in the novel. His values are very much like our own, and so does not fit into the conditioned world of London. The contrast between the two sets of values helps to highlight the thoughts of the Londoners on things such as sex, drugs, and death.
The people of London in the novel had been conditioned when they were children to believe certain things that we would think to be completely bizarre. For example, when Lenina, a girl who grew up in London, tries to show her affection for John, she attempts to sleep with him. Of course, since it's not acceptable to sleep with someone on the first date, John refuses her and screams profanities as he walks out the door. His reaction as well as Lenina's actions show that the society of London takes the subject of sex lightly and they believe that sleeping around with many people is normal.
Another instance is when John is visiting his dying mother. Once she passes, nurses bring a group of children to his mother to try to condition them about death. John, who is angered by their lack of emotion towards his mother's death, begins to attack the children and throws the nurse's soma (the drug used by the people to "forget their worries") out the window. The nurses begin to riot over their lost soma and police's solution to calm the riot is to fill the room with soma. The outbursts from both parties reveal that the Londoners are indifferent to death and ,in fact, are completely okay with dying. It is also revealed that the people are completely dependent on drugs and that using drugs to create false happiness is something that everyone wants or even needs.
John's reaction to the people's thoughts and ways are what made him alienated in London. But his reactions are also what exposed the true nature of the values that the people hold. By placing John in London, Huxley was able to highlight the morals of his Utopian world.
Although the examples in your essay are evident, I think you missed the mark a little with part of the directions. The prompt says to highlight the character's alienation, and even though you state the examples (like the different cultural expectations in the first body paragraph) it isn't really explained HOW this alienates him - what he feels, how he reacts, or how the author uses DIDLS to bring the point across.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I read Brave New World because I can understand what's going on. Huxley does a good job with tone and imagery, so maybe using those to support your quotes would help you further develop your examples.
(One place that could use details could be used in the last body paragraph. When talking about John's mother's death it seemed like it was just a summary of what happened instead of an analysis of the character.)
I agree with Miriam. Although you did have good explanations and evidence, I think you missed the prompt a little bit. A lot of what you did was kind of state the facts- you didn't really talk about techniques and effects, and why exactly what you say makes him alienated, how this makes him alienated, and the effects of his alienation.
ReplyDelete(I haven't read this book, by the way.)
DeleteAnother thing- you seem to assume everyone has the same moral system. Although most people in our society have *similar* moral systems, many can associate with the society in Brave New World as well, and maybe you should address the roots of his moral system. (Unless it isn't talked about in the book. Remember, I haven't read it.)
I think Preeti hit the nail on the head when talking about the moral system thing. You say that John's values are "very much like our own," but not everyone views things like first date sex as immoral, so you should probably define his morals more clearly. Additionally, it seems to me that you summarized society's values, said that John didn't agree with them, and claimed that he was alienated. Some warrants would be awesome here, so you can tie everything together and show us exactly how the savage was alienated by society. You could also probably do a better job of explaining what John's morals show about society's values. Huxley tells readers about society's fondness for drugs and loose sex far before John arrives in London. What did the difference between these values and those of John say about society?
ReplyDelete