BRAVE NEW ESSAY

I chose to do the AP essay topic that Rebecca found for Brave New World:

Many people want to be part of the majority; they desire to be like everybody else in order to be socially accepted.  In Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley creates a society in the future where people are divided into social castes, such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, before they are even born and conditioned to enjoy a particular lifestyle according to their predestined occupation in society.  The social norms include a hate of nature outside of the city and an inclination towards erotic activities, short, non-romantic relationships, and the drug soma which provides a sense of euphoria if people are feeling miserable with their monotonous lives or simply feeling the slightest bit of discomfort.  However, in the novel, the character Bernard Marx, who specializes in the sleep-teaching conditioning that molds children into the type of adults that society needs, starts to become disillusioned from the superficial happiness of the people around him.  He is conflicted, though, with becoming a complete social outcast because he wants to win the heart of Lenina Crowne, a woman who is supposed to be the epitome of the female role in the society.

Bernard is short compared to the other Alphas in his social caste.  Over time, this has created an overwhelming sense of self-consciousness for Bernard as he is almost eye-to-eye with the lower caste of Deltas.  His lack of confidence in his ability to be like everyone else gradually alienates him more and more from his Alpha peers.  Occasionally, it seems that Bernard becomes comfortable with this alienation and possibly even proud of it.  When Bernard is first introduced into the novel, he is insulting two men and how they treat women like meat, including Lenina, in his thoughts.  He doesn’t outwardly express his discontent with them, however, until they offer him the drug soma because he looks disgruntled.  Then, he refuses to take the drug, a major social misstep. 

Refusing soma seems to be a small act of rebellion for Bernard, and the desire to commit this act starts to diminish as he spends more time with Lenina.  When Lenina accepts his invitation to spend an evening together after work, Bernard says he wants to be himself throughout the night and doesn’t take the soma that Lenina offers him multiple times throughout the evening.  It isn’t until that night, before he sleeps with Lenina, that he caves and conforms to society by taking the drug.  From then on, Bernard seems to take more and more soma, once at a congregation meeting that worships the society’s religion, and another time on the way to a Savage Reservation, where people who live in a society more like today’s society live in an enclosed territory.

This gradual decrease in Bernard's outward rebellion against society can be seen at other points in the story as well, all of which are when he is with Lenina.  Bernard is a private person, and for their first date, he wanted to walk along a lake and privately talk.  Lenina, however, conforms to society and wanted to go to a boxing match, a public place.  Bernard eventually gave in and conformed to the societal norm of going out in public after work.  Then, on another date, Bernard was complaining about the pressures of "fitting in" to Lenina, and she was disturbed by his speech and wanted to move away from that spot over the churning sea that Bernard liked to observe.  After awhile, Bernard saw how upset Lenina was, and he again gave in to her conforming ways, reassured her that he was back to "normal" by fondling her breasts, a casual action in the erotic society of Brave New World.

Brave New World attempts to predict a future society where people are designed and conditioned from an embryo to fulfill a specific role in society that will contribute to the greater good of the world-state.  Bernard's inclination to be independent from this promiscuous and materialistic society demonstrates that human nature cannot be made into machines of factories that work, consume, and take drugs for happiness; there are always cracks in a seemingly perfect system; there are always individuals who defy the social norm.