What do Bernard and John have in common? How do the ways that they deal with pain differ?

They have a few things in common. John Savage was part of a world shunned by the mainstream. His belief in meaning, loyalty and even monogamy is ridiculed by the greater population. Bernard has long felt the insanity of his world. He laments about the emptiness of love, sex and friendship. For this he is mocked or shunned himself. If he were not an Alpha one wonders if he might have simply disappeared. In the end, both John and Bernard try to rebel but are silenced in different ways.