Question 3

In Brave New World Bernard Marx, an outsider at heart, is put into a society that is forced to engage in self pleasurable activities in order to create a false sense of happiness. It gets to a point where everyone thinks and acts the same way leaving no room for individuality of any sort. For Bernard it is hard but he eventually gives into his culture and becomes like everyone else.

Brave New World's society is based on a social hierarchy and Bernard believes being popular in the top level will make him happy. The author of Brave New World puts Bernard in this "perfect world" where everyone is happy except Bernard, and as he goes around studying other people in his social class they appear to all act the same. The author combines this setting with Bernard’s insecurity.  Everyone thinks he is odd because of his physical appearance and social shyness. Bernard internalizes this and develops his insecurity and he believes he must be popular and accepted to be truly happy. The author conveys this desire with Bernard’s actions and internal monologue. When someone smiles he does his best to smile back and act normal.  On the inside however the audience can read Bernard’s thoughts and they know he is just doing his best to act out fake emotion. Bernard eventually gains the popularity he wanted but in this he loses the part of Bernard that made him different from everyone else. For a while he appears happy but once his popularity left him he was filled with grief and his insecurity returned.

Bernard’s physical oddity convinces him that acceptance from a women will mask that physical error and make him whole. In the author’s society women are seen as property or niches in your belt. The more you get the more popular and successful you are.  The author describes Bernard directly to create an image of a small man that sticks out of a society based off physical perfection, like a sore thumb. Because Bernard is not physically perfect (or at least culturally acceptable) he believes he must get as many women as possible to cover up his imperfection. To prove to himself that he’s not that different after all. Because of this desire for normality Bernard achieves his goal but become like every other man.  He is nothing special any longer.  

Bernard Marx in Brave New world is shaped by his societies’ culture and personal insecurity. He believes he must cover up his oddity and insecurity to be like everyone else. In order to be accepted Bernard loses his individuality and gives in to his cultures desire for entertainment.