BNW ESSAY DRAFT

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 play or novel (BRAVE NEW WORLD)
in which such a character plays a significant role, and show how that 
character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions and 
moral values. 

"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.": The Savage in chapter 17. Here the Savage explains the old world reasoning. He asserts that true life requires exposure to all things, good and evil. John one of the main characters in the novel has grown up in this way, he was raised by the savages. John is the outcast of the World State and hadn't been raised on the consumer conveyor belt that has brought the world of which he lives in close to perfection. In this conveyor belt world of one person is different they are ostracized from the general population. Not only is John an alienated character but so is Bernard Marx who is faced with this taunting society that has alienated him because of his appearance and moral values. Through this we are given an insight into a world that may be closer then we think it is.

Bernard Marx was the Alpha Plus, which pretty much defined him as short and heavy set. These characteristics alone made him inferior to society, he didn't fit in with all the other male alpha who were made to specifications of Brave New World. Bernard was a mistake and accident, when he was created the creators put alcohol in his blood surrogate thus resulting in his unusual structure of his caste level. For something such as that to happen on accident and then he is outcast-ed because of it is disgusting and wrong and make the whole Brave New World a very unwelcoming place. His simple alienation shows this society's lack of conformity and proves how don't value or embrace individuality.

When Bernard visits the Savage Reservation he is somewhat at ease and nearly feels at home even among a foreign setting. Although quickly disgusted by Bernard’s attitude as Lenina is, the reader understands that Bernard knows how much different he is from the world he had just come from and how the world he has just entered could seem more welcoming and new with fresh ideas. Lenina serves as a counterexample to the idea of Bernard’s alienation from the rest of society. She immediately begins to make crude comments about the Savages, disregarding the fact that they are just as human as she. Lenina also represents a being who feels stronger within her own caste than as a separate individual. She can't stand the fact that their could be such Savages and that they are even aloud to live on an prosper. This is where Lenina and Bernard greatly differ, the intended utopia society makes individuals need the stability and comfort of a caste in order to prosper in the new world. Bernard and the Savages obviously contradict this idea in that the Savages have no apparent social structure along with Bernard. In part because of rumors and of his own beliefs,  it seems to always be on a path to find true self and individuality.

Bernard stayed true to his morals and himself at the beginning of the novel and although these were great qualities to possess, the thought of utopia and a perfect world ostracized him. There are example through the novel such as when Bernard goes on his first date with Lenina and is offered soma, a popular and powerful drug. He rejects the offer because he wants to be himself. This was an unheard thing in society, as no one new different. Another example which he did fall for peer pressure was when he did "orgy-porgy". He finds himself lost among all of the sexual emotions. He feels a great emptiness by the time they are finished. The rest of society has been conditioned to believe the normally illegal and immoral activity is just the norm.

Through Bernard the reader is able to see the evils revealed of a society that depends on too much of the belief that that everyday aspect can be controlled. Bernard’s isolation is spawned by his disgust with immediate satisfaction, his acceptance of the Savages simply fills that hole of emptiness of trying to fit in. This alienation proves the lack of morals, acceptance, and self-pride that the world state individuals have in their society. Their assumptions that anyone unlike them is inferior is insulting and proves their ignorance, but is justified to them.