Brave New World Pre-write/first 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.

 Pre-write:
Character alienated: Bernard Max

Why alienated:
-He thinks for himself more than the other characters

• He questions certain traditions that the society has, seen in such things such as reluctance in Ford Day, and not taking soma while at the Savage reservation

-He accepts others such as the savages

• While Lenina is distraught at the sight of the elderly, Bernard takes it in calmly

- He wants to enjoy simple things, such as the ocean and lights among clouds.

• Bernard values little things in life, such as nature, which the others among his society have been conditioned to disregard. Seen through him staring into the ocean and viewing the clouds as beautiful.

-Has more of a sense of being than the other characters

• He feels emotions different than any of the other characters, and accepts these emotions as his own. When sad, he doesn't take large gulps of soma to repress these feelings of sadness, he deals with them more on a personal level.

Paragraphs-
1. Society's tendency to follow orders, and do what is told of them for "the greater good." Following tradition blindly
-Alienation due to Bernard's reluctance to such ideas
- Soma, orgy-porgy, elderly being sent off
- Motifs

2. Happiness. Things that make Bernard happy don't seem to affect others around him. Others seek artificial happiness.
-Use of soma
-Conditioning
-Setting and description

3. Repression. Bernard accepts reality outside as it is. He allows himself to be sad, even angry. Others don't care to feel such emotions, and simply but these emotions off.
-Reservation
-  Lack of use of pathos by any character besides John.

First Draft:


                   Society is an idea born out of the ideas of the people that encompass it. Those who feel attuned to this ideology share commonalities of value with those around them. Those who have contradicting ideals are able to highlight what the society values through the juxtaposition of there own ideas. In the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, these contradictions of society can be seen through the character Bernard Marx. Huxley uses Bernard to show a society that has lost its humanity as well as its individuality. As a character, Bernard is seen to struggle through his own sense of being in a society which acts as a single being. Bernard's alienation in the society, seen through the literary techniques of motifs, setting, and a general lack of pathos by others in society, exhibit themes of lack of individual thought, artificial happiness, and repression of feelings within this world.

                  The society thinks as one omnipresent being. Individuals are all taught to enjoy the make things, and to not make any decisions of there own intellectual thought. The use of soma, hypnopaedia, orgy-porgies, and the caste system are all examples of this. These individual things are used as motifs for the author, which with its own individual significance. Bernard is seen as reluctant to these things throughout the book, and the several of these are introduced through Bernard. The society seems to think that it is all working for the greater good, and Bernard is challenging these ideas though reflection.

                   Everyone in the society is conditioned to one thing. To be happy. Happiness is the only care for the individuals in the society. Soma helps keep this up artificially, as does everyone being conditioned to love their individual caste. Bernard is able to see beauty and happiness is ways that others can not. Others are conditioned to hate nature, while Bernard wonders why he still has love for it. The author puts Bernard's happiness in the book through subtle undertones of reaction to the setting around. Bernard's enjoyment of natural beauty shows his potential for true happiness, and the lack of such feeling in the general public.

                  The society as a whole is quite devoid of genuine human emotion in general. They repress their sadness, their anger, their anxieties. Another outcast revealed at the end of the book shows this repression. When John is exiled, and flogs himself, the others don't feel pity or horror. Instead they culminate their efforts through an orgy-porgy to get rid of such poor emotions. Bernard also does not take soma on the savage reservation, and instead allows himself to be exposed to such things as old age. A majority of the characters defend their society through the use of faulty logos, and the use of emotion is minimilized to get rid of any discomfort.

              Brave New World shows a society that is almost inhumane. Not fully enjoying the human experience through the denial of anything negative shows such feelings. The author is able to put forth this message through characters that don't quite fit this mold of inhumanity, such as Bernard and John. The author's use of motifs, setting, and logos, all contribute to his general themes throughout the book.