"BRAVE NEW WORLD" ESSAY

            Order and control are two powerful concepts of life and the literary work “Brave New World,” when an individual’s freedom to live, feel, and be curious is stolen away by a powerful authority. Huxley introduced multiple characters in the book that depict different personalities in the real world and by doing so portrayed a fictional plot with glimpses of reality visible to create awareness on behaviors that might result in a “Brave New World” of the society. One of Huxley’s characters, Bernard, defines a true human because he has weaknesses and imperfections, both physically and emotionally, which are the basis of humanity. So, with the stateworld having order and control over the mentality and physicality of Bernard and all the other characters, they are unable to evolve as a human being and as an individual.

            To create an effective mood to the book to convey his theme with great effect on the audience, Huxley uses literary techniques such as characterization [to develop or anti-develop his characters], figurative language [to create a more realistic setting and world], irony [to have a strong effect of difference between characters and setting or characters and plot], and juxtaposition [to depict dissimilarities among multiple characters]. Bernard’s curiosity and dislike towards the authoritarian system of the stateworld made him a character who’s inwardly questioning the concept and function of the “Brave New World” while outwardly conforming to the “suggestions” by his peers and bosses, pushing the questioning deeper into his mind and into the corner of his heart by taking soma, a drug that basically makes one unaware of the reality surrounding them and makes them unreasonably happy.

            Huxley created Bernard to be an extremely bold and strong but simultaneously a weak and afraid individual. Bernard, in himself, is a juxtaposing character – able to speak his mind but unable to take an action based upon it. It is an irony that such an important character in the story is observed to be inactive. Even though Bernard was characterized in a way that he’d rather take soma in a pressurizing situation than face it like John, a foil to Bernard, who at least had the courage to kill himself to prove his disappoint, Bernard is the perfect character for Huxley to use as an epitome of human nature. Through Bernard's fear and uncertainty about himself and the significance of his reaction against the authoritarian stateworld, Huxley highlighted the key characteristic of human nature: imperfection, leading to growth. With the gradual gain of self-confidence, growth is inevitable for an individual and humans as a species - a path towards perfection, which is almost impossible to achieve. With describing the stateworld and the manufacturing of "life" in it, the competitive attitude expected out of the inhabitants of the factory described how humans are expected to fight for their "resources" and attain perfection.

            Bernard represents a normal human being: too afraid to react too spontaneously based on instincts but curious enough to ask the "prohibited" questions. The outcome is an individual who is physically and externally conforming and adapting to the environment and people around him but emotionally and internally questioning not only his existence in the world he's living but also the existence of the world around him and its system. Huxley, through his literary techniques wrapped around Bernard and his plot and setting, exposed the public to an extremely important question and theme: How can growth and perfections be achieved, by overcoming weaknesses and imperfections, if the society is controlling the individual and preventing him from asking the essential questions necessary to achieve satisfaction and aim for perfection? In situation similar to this, the society will become a "Brave New World" and the inhabitants, Bernard: a functional heart but dysfunctional brain.