Critically Evaluate Character of John
Savage
John
Savage is the most significant character in the novel “Brave New World” by Aldous
Leonard Huxley. This novel presents a satirical picture of the future based on
the extreme advancement of science. The characters in this novel do not show
any development, they remain rooted in the ideas and beliefs assigned to them
by the novel. The Savage is such character who sticks to his opinion in
favour of the old way life and does not accept or relish the conditions
existing in the new world of future. Diana
Neill remarks.
“Having built up his picture of
a scientifically controlled state,
Huxley proceeds to demolish
it by introducing the Savage
who represents the old world
of religion and natural values.”
Spokesman of the old world
John
is spokesman of the old world. With his dislike for the new world, the
savage seems to prefer the old world (Mexican World). Here Huxley has
introduced him for a satirical purpose. Discarding the traditions of the new
world, he read Romeo and Juliet. He does not miss any opportunity to ridicule
the civilized world of the future. For example, when he is show the Bombay
Green Rocket capable of running at a speed of twelve hundred and fifty
kilometers an hour, he finds it very nice, but at the same time he remarks, “Ariel could put a girdle round the earth in
forty minutes” Through the savage Huxley’s satire against the brave new
world is voiced
Central character
John savage, is the dominant and
central character in ‘Brave New World’. He is the most important figure in
the novel, because As Paul W. Gannon
point out,
He acts
as a bridge between
the two
cultures, and having
known
both ways of life, he
is able
to compares them and
comments on them.
His
beliefs and values are a curious mixture of Christian and heathen, but most
important thing that he has a strict mode. His old fashion beliefs about god
and right and wrong contrast sharply with values and beliefs of the citizen of
the ‘Brave New World’. It is this conflict between the two values systems that
ultimately beings about his suicide.
A typical and distinguishing
character
The Savage is a typical and
distinguishing character endowed with strange qualities that distinguish
him from other character in the novel. According to Stephen Greenblatt,
“The
Savage has many of
qualities
and strange habits- he
quotes
Shakespeare, actually
loves his
mother, is a romantic,
and
believes in God.”
Living
on the reservation, John is unhappy and filthy. Brought to London by Barnard,
he is a sensation among the fun-loving and curious citizens but finally he is
driven to suicide. Thus the savage is misfit in the society and his longing to
go back to his native place reveals his preference for the old world. Thus no
doubt, he is a distinguishing character of the novel.
Humiliation
John
has to suffer much humiliation at the hands of various persons and
society as well as because of the situation in which he is placed. John is so completely the antithesis of the
scientifically conditioned members of society. Fatherless, He has been
brought up by a drunken sporadically loving mother who is hated and has been
assaulted before his eyes her neighbours, whose sexual activities have often
taken place within his earshot. Thus John’s lot arouses pity in reader heart
Two alternatives before him.
John,
the Savage, has two alternatives before him. i.e. To live the life as lived in
the scientifically managed new world. Or to return to the old world of
primitive impulses and emotions. As Huxley himself tells us in the
novel,
“The
Savage is offered only
two alternative, an insane life
in Utopia, or the life of a
primitive in an Indian village
a life more human in some
respects, but in others hardly
less queer and abnormal. .
The
savage has two choices between these two ways of life and he seems to favor the
life in the village for away from the so-called ‘Brave New World’.
An amusing character
John
may be regarded as an amusing character. Despite his position and
pitiable predicament, he can evoke laughter among the readers. He is part of
the comedy embodied in the novel. He becomes
a part of the comedy of through various later incidents. e.g. his refusal of
Lenina’s advances and particularly through his Shakespearean diction. Thus John
is a great figure of fun.
An abnormal and implausible character
John is an abnormal and implausible
character who does not seem to have been taken from real life. Nor are the
circumstances of his life normal or plausible. It is not in the least artistic
error that John should be an implausible character because any serious attempt
to make him realistic would have broken the unity of the novel. The situation in which John is placed may
also be said to be abnormal or implausible so he has to speak and behave in a manner
which is hardly in accordance with native character.
A non-conformist and an outsider
John
is a non-conformist and an outsider from the world of the twentieth
century. He does not originally belong to the new world he has been brought
into, nor can he grow a liking for it. He remains a pathetic figure of an alien
in a strange land, having nostalgia for his native-land. There is the immediate
conflict between what the savage expects and what he finds. The suicide of the
Savage is extreme form of his protect against the mechanical life in the mass
community for which he is unable to grow a liking.
Conclusion
To
summing up, The John Savage is a well-drawn character in his right, whom Huxley
develops more deeply then any of the other character. Through this central
character, He has presented lawrentian ideal of primitive vitalism. He stands
for the type of people who may be regarded as the antithesis of the
scientifically conditioned members of society as found in the future world. Finally
to conclude in the words of Karl and Mangeler
“In the
Savage, he(Huxley) uses
for
ironic purposes a type of
traditional
device – the intro-
duction
of a person into a
complete foreign environment “Great Twentieth
Century English Novels.”
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