John, the Hope Within the Brave New World

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

To create an interesting novel there must exist a well-thought plot, developed characters, and some form of conflict. This conflict usually includes good versus evil, each side usually represented. Even in dystopian novels that tell of negative utopian worlds, hope is embodied in at least one character struggling against the dominant society and representing the last flicker of humanity as he tries not to be overwhelmed by the darkness. In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, a young man named John represents hope. Raised with morals and views that we are familiar with, John struggles to survive in a different society, desperately fighting as he brings his own light to the dim novel.

Throughout Brave New World, Huxley describes a fictional future for our planet in which people are created and manufactured, then told how to live their lives. The ideas of family life, sexual abstinence, marriage, and solitude are abandoned and people are brainwashed with hypnopaedia to believe, think, desire, and decide how the Society wants them to. With morals and ethics that contradict our own, the people of this society seem doomed to live a life with little personal freedoms and glazed eyes. The future looks dim and change seems like an impossibility.

While creating a dystopian novel, Huxley does not devastate the reader with a deprivation of hope. By adding the character of John who was raised outside of the Society with similar morals as the reader would most likely have, hope is restored and “good” is introduced to the story, just as it must be in any novel. As the story progresses, the emphasis focuses more clearly on John and his trouble adjusting to the Society. This theme of isolation, discrimination, and differences is common throughout the entire novel and is portrayed through John’s small gleam of hope. His positive aura keeps the reader interested, the story continuing, and the conflicts brewing. While his view may be considered “correct” to the reader, they are considered immoral to the residents of the new world, causing him to be shunned, disliked, studied, and questioned. As he lives in the Society, John continues to spread his positive views, delivering the motifs of the novel and keeping the hope alive.

Because a novel cannot exist without conflict and problems, characters with different views are placed together, stressful situations are created, and emotions are stirred. To help deliver his message, Huxley creates a positive character named John, following the formula and bringing an opposing force to the dominant society. This individual faces discrimination because of his differences and is left to suffer in solitude. He demonstrates perseverance and determination and continues to fight against the controlling society. With the inclusion of this positive character, Huxley creates a conflict that delivers his themes and demonstrates his messages. John is the guiding light that reveals the darkness of the new world.