"'Alone, always alone,' the young man was saying. The words awoke a plaintive echo in Bernard's mind. Alone, alone...'So am I.' he said, on a gush of confindingness . 'So terribly alone.'"page 137
Recently, a new character is introduced to the story, John, the viviparous son of a former society member who has been raised with the savages at the reservation. The savages are all dark-skinned (Huxley likes to contrast their darkness to other colors) and John of course is white. This sets him apart from the others, lending him to much torment and scorn. Another factor in his uniqueness among his peers is that he is one of the two people who knows how to read, the other being his mother. I think one of Huxley's main themes in the novel will be individualism. We start off the novel with no individualism, everyone is conforming so happily. Then, we learn of Bernard and his circumstantially uncanny feelings of isolation and agonizing loneliness evoked by small stature. Then, we learn of Helmholtz and his "mental excess," which has him feeling empty and desiring a greater purpose (i.e. loneliness). Then, most recently, we here of John and his constant contempt received from the racially different savages among the reservation, setting him apart. For these reason, I believe individualism will prove to be a very important aspect of the novel.
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