Manifestation of the Character of the Main Character Johnny in Brave New World

In "Brave New World", we are introduced to a main character named John. When his first appearance occurs in the book, one main character trait is revealed: he wants to suffer. He believes that suffering holds value to a person and wants to resemble that.

"Why wouldn't they let me be the sacrifice? I'd have gone round ten times- twelve, fifteen. Palowhtiwa only got as far as seven. They could have had twice as much blood from me. The Multitudinous Seas Incarnadine.

" He flung out his arms in a lavish gesture; then, despairingly, let them fall again (Huxley 77).

Now knowing that John is struggling with some self-proclaimed trauma, we realize he is an outsider. John starts to tell Bernard about the beginnings of his childhood, how his childhood made him feel like an outsider.

"Lots of men came to see Linda. The boys began to point their fingers at him. In the strange, other worlds they said that Linda was bad [...] He threw stones at them. They threw back; a sharp stone cut his cheek. The blood wouldn't stop; he was covered in blood" (Huxley 81).

John grew up reading Shakespeare and, with that, his ideas of romance were influenced and his view of love was different from those of World State characters. John thinks the only way to have Lenina is to idolize her, thinking of her as something to worship.

"He was not worthy... not. Their eyes for a moment met. What treasures hers promised! A queen's ransom of temperament. Hastily he looked away, disengaged his imprisoned arm. He was obscurely terrified lest she should cease to be something he could convince himself worthy of" (Huxley 94).

Lenina tries to seduce John, this corrupted the image he had of her and the love he had for her because this was not the way he thought love was, and he disapproved of her ways.

"Faint, almost to imperceptibility, but appalling, she suddenly heard the grinding of his teeth. "What is it?" she almost screamed. And as though awakened by her cry he caught her by the shoulders and shook her. "Whore!" he shouted."Whore! Impudent strumpet!" (Huxley 96)

Overall, in "Brave New World", we can conclude that John is a very confused character. Starting from his early childhood memories, he struggled with being an outsider and his own personal troubles. He is a white man that cannot be accepted by Native Americans, but he is also a Native American that cannot be accepted by the whites.

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