D3    Character file 'John'

by Marius

John is a very important character in Huxley's novel “Brave New World”. John is introduced in chapter 7. He is described as a typical Indian. (P.104) In this scene he meets Bernard and Lenina for the first time.

He grew up in a completely different situation than everybody else in the world. He does not know much about the “Brave New World”, except the very few things his mother Linda told him. Here it must be mentioned that John was not allowed to call her “Mother” because it was a doctrine of the world Linda came from. (P. 114) This situation shows the conflict John suffers from. He wants to enjoy a personal relationship with his mother, but she denies that because she prefers to follow the rules of the civilized world. John's lifestyle is the complete negation of the one which is followed in the civilized world.  A clash of these different worlds is shown, when Bernard and John are talking about marriage. (P.126) While Bernard is arguing for the “unlimited sex lifestyle” John seems to be convinced of the conservative lifestyle. As I see it, John's belief in conservatism is caused by two important points.

First of all he is attracted to the life in the Indian Reservation, which is influenced by the norms we share nowadays. But John is also heavily influenced by the works of William Shakespeare, who writes about things like love to only one person. (Romeo and Juliet quotes). John keeps on quoting Shakespeare throughout the complete rest of the novel.

John is an outsider in the reservation. This becomes obvious in chapter seven, when John wants to sacrifice himself during the fertilization ritual but he is not allowed to. He is an outsider because of the antisocial behaviour of Linda, who is “having” most of the men in the reservation. Especially a man named Pope. Because of this, he hates Pope and he tries to kill Pope when he visits Linda again. (PP.120-121)

John tells Bernard the story of his life and Bernard concludes that the D.H.C is John's father. Later in the story John and his mother Linda are brought to the civilized world in London. Here they are displayed like animals in a zoo. But John tries to be noticed not as a wild animal. He wants to be seen as an alternative to the characterless life in the civilized world. But his efforts do not seem to be successful. His behaviour is seen as funny and is a welcome change for the yellow press. Especially his self-punishment ritual is seen as an interesting abnormality for the common people. (P.230)

Because of his love for literature John forms a friendship to Helmholtz Watson, who is very much into literature, too. But also Helmholtz has problems with the values of John's Shakespeare quotes.

From the first time he saw her in the Indian Reservation, John developed a strong sexual desire and even love for Lenina. Lenina wants to “have” John, too, but the problem is that John thinks he is not worth having a relationship with Lenina. Because of Lenina's education she doesn't have a problem with just having sex with John. After she tried to seduce him, John was provoked by Lenina's behaviour and started to be violent, only the news of Linda's death saves her from being killed.

When Linda dies because of an overdose of “Soma” and Bernard and his good friend Helmholtz are exiled to an island, John has lost all his friends in the new world. Because of this, he begins to separate himself from this world again and so he flees to the countryside.

Here he hangs himself because he feels guilty of what happened to Linda and he can't stand the new life anymore. (PP. 236-237)