Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Bernard Marx: the relatable "underdog"
Everyone has been posting about how the ideas in Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World, are so far from our own world and society. While our governments may be very different (democracy vs. totalitarian) one character seems to share many of the same qualities and insecurities with people from our society. Bernard Marx starts out as somewhat of the "underdog". He's a nobody. He's terribly average for an Alpha Plus and looked down upon by his peers. This makes him a relatable character to many of Brave New World's readers. But, when he comes back from the reservation with two savages and the prospects of making great discoveries after conducting many social experiments, the society respects and applauds him. But, as seen by the reaction when John the Savage doesn't show up for Bernard's party, the society soon dumps him back to a lower position than before. This shows the harsh reality in both their society and our society that fame is hard to come by, but easy to lose. It reminded me much of a new actor coming up in Hollywood. A great movie can boost their career and make them a star overnight, but a bad critic can send them in to a downward spiral just as fast and ruin their reputation, just as it did for Marx.
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As I read Brave New world I constantly compared Huxley's "futuristic" characters to todays social structure. Huxley creates many of his characters with characteristics of "labels" and steriotypes. Some examples are bernard, the intelligent outcast (neard). The attractive and confused Lenina(blond).[Im not steriotyping you Sarah I know your smart. Plus I'm blond too :) ] Even the alpha Henry who enjoys everything (jock). This illustrates that even back when Huxley was alive there were steriotypes, and that he was observant enough to study and write a nove including them.
ReplyDeleteActually its not only for Hollywood actors its for everyone in our society. People associate with one another because they like something about that person. Bernard to start with has nothing going for him as you were saying. But once he has a Savage the rest of the society immediately gives him attention. This is much like our own society. For example if someone who went to school with us pulled up in a Ferrari, wouldnt you want to be their friend or at least get to know them? Its human nature to be attracted to nice or good looking things. Which is the same nature that these people in Brave New World have.
ReplyDeleteno offense anna firpo, but i do not agree with some of your labels. why does an inteligent out cast have to be concidered a nerd? by this logic, are all nerds inteligent outcasts?. i think it is just safe to say that Bernard is just an outcast. who is to say that he is smarter. I think that he is just less ignorant than everyone else. Henry and Lenina are just ignorant members of the utopia who "go with the flow". Lenina is the femine version while Henry is the more masculine version. I beleive Hulexy did not have sterotypes, he had characters which represented broad ideas. Benard represented the desire for freedom and creativity while Henry and Lenina represent "going with the flow" and ignorance.
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