Expos on the characters John of Aldous Huxleys novel Brave New World and Pecola Breedlove of Toni Morrisons novel The Bluest Eye.

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My name is ______ and I am doing an oral exposé on the characters John of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World and Pecola Breedlove of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, John does not appear until the 7th chapter. Bernard Marx is the primary character, or protagonist. That role changes when he and another character Lenina visit the Savage Reservation and meet John. At that point, Bernard begins to fade into the background and John becomes the central protagonist. When the reader meets this character, John expresses an interest in participating in the Indian religious ritual. In this quote, John explains that (see quote p. 118, 3rd ln). This is an example of direct characterization. It gives direct statements about John’s origins. John is an outsider among the Indians, since he is not allowed to participate in their ritual. It also demonstrates the huge cultural divide between him and World State society, since Bernard and Lenina see the tribal ritual as disgusting to the point where Lenina is in need of soma, the drug used for instant gratification.

In Chapter 3, Mustapha Mond explains the history of the World State to the group of boys touring the Hatchery. As one turns the page through the chapter, he reads (see quote p.41, last paragraph). “Mother, monogamy, romance” can be seen as a brief and concise summary of exactly the issues with which John most concerned with. And “feeling strongly” is something John most highly values. This leads to his eventual whipping himself, insanity, and suicide. In this quote, Mustapha is saying that by doing away with these things, the World State has finally brought stability and peace to humanity. John’s character shows that stability and peace are not worth throwing away everything that is worthwhile about life. Another facet of World State philosophy that is encapsulated in this quote is the idea of constructing a world in which human beings have only one way of behaving. The World State is an enormous system of production and consumption in which humans are turned into machines for further production and consumption. The world “allows” them to be happy by creating a system in which not being happy—by choosing truth over soma—is forbidden.

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As an outsider, John takes his values from a writer: William Shakespeare. John’s extensive knowledge of Shakespeare’s works serves him in several important ways: it enables him to verbalize his own complex emotions and reactions, it provides him with a framework from which to criticize World State values, and it provides him with language that allows him to hold his own against the rhetorical skill of Mustapha Mond during their confrontation. Shakespeare’s works embody all of the human and humanitarian values that have been abandoned in the World State. Going along with that, it seems that John’s very life is ...

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