Brave New World AP Essay 1

There are two sides to many people in this world: the outside that conforms to the world around them, and the inside that secretly wants to rebel.  When people do not agree with the society or culture around them, human nature often makes it difficult for them to make their concerns known to their peers, allowing this desire to go against the grain to grow inside them.  This inner want to change the system has lead to much literature, and many characters devoted to describing the difficulties of breaking the societal mold, especially in the modern era.  Bernard, the protagonist at the beginning of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of these characters who cannot break free of the culture around him that he knows is wrong.  The “tension” created by Bernard’s outward conformity and inward questioning is what makes the beginning of this novel so meaningful.

The first sign of tension between Bernard’s society and his feelings is shown in his discussions in the third chapter of the novel, where he disagrees with his peers about viewing the people around him as items, believing that they are something more.  His inner thoughts are conflicting with his society, as he knows that individuals are not important in his day and age, but he feels that people are more than that.  He knows that people have the capability to reason and have feelings for one another.  Although we can see that he wants to be an individual, he decides not to be, and treats other people like they are not, mostly due to the pressure to be meaningless from the World State and the people around him.  This dichotomy between his actions and feelings is important, as it is something that people experience every day.  We know that it is the right thing to report people for doing the wrong thing, but we do not because we like our social status.  We are constantly going against are better judgement to please the world around us, just like Bernard.  

Although his short stature and portly profile are an outward appearance, they symbolize his inability to completely fit in society because he is always thinking about what is wrong.  While Bernard is labeled an Alpha, he understands that he and his mindset cannot truly be alpha, as he views everybody as equal, and does not view himself as better, simply because he is an alpha.  This shows that his inner stress and anger is literally stunting his growth, because genetically, he would be very similar to the other alphas, and thus have genetically similar height to them.  This also demonstrates the importance of Bernard’s inner conflict, as it is detrimental to his health, which connects to the world in a variety of ways, including school related stress, which in the most severe cases can lead to suicide; and also stress related to one’s body, leading to eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa. 

Finally, Bernard’s job as a hypnopaedia specialist further shows his importance in making Brave New World a meaningful story.  Bernard knows that what The World State is making him do is wrong, but he can not go against it, as the incentives to do it, along with the consequences to not do it make not preforming hypnopaedia extremely difficult for Bernard.  This is meaningful, as the audience will connect with this.  When a teacher gives you unimportant work for the sake of doing work, a student will do it so they can get good grades and dodge having a parent be mad at you.  This also surfaces in the 1999 movie Office Space, as the main character, Peter Gibbons, is forced to come to work on the weekend.  Although this is a movie, the movie became popular as many people found many similarities with their life and that of Peter, just like how people find Bernard’s life like theirs in this way.

All in all, Bernard’s inner conflict caused by his inability to go against his culture makes him a human in a story full of people who are essentially biotic machines.  Huxley’s emphasis on Bernard’s subtle differences from the people around him make his character important by connecting him to his audience, making Brave New World a meaningful novel.  Bernard’s inability to act on his thoughts connects to everyone in some sort of way.