The Hidden Impropriety of Confined Society Anonymous 10th Grade

Two opposite societies, one of luxury with severe conditioning and conformity, and another of liberty with savagery and sacrifice, coexist in a modern era. In the dystopian novel, Brave New World, author Aldous Huxley juxtaposes these two differing worlds through his character John who travels from his home in the Savage Reservation to the World State, where he soon jeopardizes the supposed sanctity of the society there. Although the World State appears to be the more civilized and desirable society, the Reservation instead protects the purest ideals of humanity through the virtue and passion of the savages who live there. In order to achieve true happiness and fulfillment in life, one must embrace these humanistic ideals encompassing the capacity for knowledge, genuineness, and individuality, granted that the capability to do so is permitted by the form of government and society that they reside in.

First, attaining knowledge is one of the key factors needed to achieve true happiness in society. For instance, John reminisces to Bernard about his life in the Reservation by explaining how “gaining in skill and power” gave him “an extraordinary pleasure” and “an intense, absorbing happiness” (134). Evidently, the work and labor...