Brave New World Chapter 8- Loneliness

(Individuality is/is not harmful)

He had discovered Time and Death and God.

"Alone, always alone," the young man was saying.

The words awoke a plaintive echo in Bernard's mind. Alone, alone … "So am I," he said, on a gush of confidingness. "Terribly alone."

"Are you?" John looked surprised. "I thought that in the Other Place … I mean, Linda always said that nobody was ever alone there."

Bernard blushed uncomfortably. "You see," he said, mumbling and with averted eyes, "I'm rather different from most people, I suppose. If one happens to be decanted different …"

"Yes, that's just it." The young man nodded. "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely. They're beastly to one. Do you know, they shut me out of absolutely everything? When the other boys were sent out to spend the night on the mountains–you know, when you have to dream which your sacred animal is–they wouldn't let me go with the others; they wouldn't tell me any of the secrets. I did it by myself, though," he added. "Didn't eat anything for five days and then went out one night alone into those mountains there." He pointed (Huxley 138-139).

 

In Chapter 8 of Brave New World, Bernard and Lenina make friends with John. John tells Bernard that he is an outsider and he's not accepted by the Indians. He says that he was excluded from the other kids he was growing up with. They never included him because of his mother and his clothing. Being alone in Johns situation is not bad because he did not conform with the others, even though he was longing (and still is) to be accepted. Since he never conformed to be like them he was able to grow as an individual and learn to read. This is not harmful to society at all to be an individual because he was able to learn more and advance which can be beneficial to a society. When he says "if ones different ones bound to be alone", this is true but only in this society, where everybody is looked at and encouraged to be the same. But in a different society it would be so beneficial to be different in order to grow.