Open Prompt #1 (Revision) -Jan. 20-

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. John, known as "the savage", is the character that exposes the values of future London in the novel. His values and his world are completely different compared to people of London. His differences are what cause him to be alienated. . By placing John in the futuristic London, Huxley reveals the odd morals and assumptions of his "utopia".

The people of London 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. John refuses her and screams profanities as he walks out the door, scaring Lenina and a few other Londoners. Lenina’s actions show that the society of London assume that everyone wants to have sex on the first date. John’s reaction, though, further shows the contrast between him and the rest of London, and so he appears even more foreign. 

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 show them that death is a happy thing. 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. John, who believes that death is a dark, sad event clearly expresses his pain and anger, especially when attacking the children. The fear that is sparked within the people comes from his rage, which further alienates him. His further alienation shows the people’s fear of the “different”. They clearly do not accept him because of his small attempts to change their values, which is clearly seen when he throws the soma out. Their fear of the different is also clear through John’s nickname, “the Savage”. They clearly believe that John’s outsider status is dirty and wild, and only a select few want to be associated with him.

John's actions and reactions alienated him within the world of London, but they also exposed the underlying societal norms, as well as emphasized the obvious ones. He shows the Londoner’s unwillingness to accept the new and their dependence on sex and drugs. Huxley clearly put John in London for a good reason, to show the audience the true utopian London.