Blog #4: Reasons of the Savage Reservation

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

February 20, 2016

Everything is For a Reason

In the novel Brave New World, the story takes place in a future, dystopian London, and there is the New World State, which is a society of people who are always happy, have a lot of sex, and there is an artificial creation of people. This is where are two protagonists, Bernard and Lenina live. As the story progresses the two of them decide to take a trip together out to a place called the savage reservation. This place has a lot of meaning to the story, from the writer's perspective, and the character's perspective.

First, the author of the book is Aldous Huxley, who probably wrote the savage reservation into the story to prove that even in “perfect” society, not everything is so perfect. Maybe he wanted to show how humans still can act a little uncivilized, rather than being the embodiment of perfection like in the New World State. He also is writing it as if the people in the savage are the leftovers of society. In our society, it would be similar to going into a rich neighborhood and seeing how nice and clean everything is, then going into a very poor neighborhood and seeing how dirty and dangerous it is living there. So in a way, Huxley wrote this as a parallel to his time period, when there were the high and mighty wealthy class people, and the opposite of them, which was the bottom of the barrel, hard working, poor, lower class people.

Than, when Bernard and Lenina are on the reservation it is quite obvious that there is a juxtaposition happening because Bernard and Lenina are both like fishes out of water and we see from their perspective that they are a little scared because they think of these people as being crazy and disgusting. An example is when Lenina notices a woman who is older than her, but in Lenin's eyes, the woman looks extremely ugly and incredibly old. Bernard finds the way they live very unusual, but Lenina is almost terrified because she had never seen anything like this and everything she new in her society was the complete opposite of the savage reservation. In a way, the real reason that Bernard and Lenina are acting like this is because of the New World State, which has programmed, into their minds, a certain way of thinking and behaving. Also, while they are on the savage reservation they meet this man, named John and his mother, named Linda. As the characters are talking Bernard figures out that Linda was originally from his society and that John is the son of the director and this is also a juxtaposition, because Bernard (and the reader) realize that the director has a child, which is not allowed in the New World State.

In conclusion, everything Huxley wrote in this story clearly happens for a reason, which moves the plot further and further. I find it very interesting the way Aldous Huxley wrote this, with all of the connections he makes from his world to the story’s world. The way the juxtapositions are written into the plot are placed very perfectly is a very intelligent way of writing and truly adds some depth to the story.