Helmholtz Watson reads an illicit poem he wrote aloud to his emotional engineering class, and he later joins to fight with John during his soma riot. Bernard even tells the World Controller, Mustapha Mond, his objections, and that he “agree with the Savage in finding civilized infantility too easy or… not expensive enough” (Huxley 146-147). Bernard Marx, who has spent a lifetime being ostracized by his associates, disagrees with many aspects of his society and chooses to act counter to them he refuses to take the cure-all drug soma, prefers to spend time alone, and does not normally partake in the various activities, such as “Obstacle Golf” and “feelies”, that are such an essential part of the average citizen’s daily life. In Brave New World, Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John the Savage all purposefully rebel against the World State.
The fates of John and Lenina demonstrate that despite the ease with which the World State is able to homogenize its society, individuality, even when limited, is still strong enough to seriously threaten the fragile stability of the World State’s society. However, John’s bold individualism is something that must be rebuked and contained he is much more threatening to the World State’s uniform society than Lenina because of his conscious refusal to conform to their societal norms and because of his obvious distaste for and condemnation of their utopian society. Lenina’s unintentional displays of individuality go unnoticed by the World State because she still associates herself with and supports the civilization she has always belonged to. This key difference in Lenina and John’s actions is why they are treated so differently by the World State. However, Lenina’s rebellion is not a conscious attempt to differentiate herself as an individual from the conditioned masses, whereas John is the embodiment of solitary individualism. Lenina and John are alike in that both Lenina’s subconscious acts of rebellion and John’s particular choice of lifestyle and moral ideologies speak to the persistence of the natural instincts that the World State so desperately desires to quash. Lenina Crowne, the only female protagonist, differs from her male counterparts in that her unorthodox actions are unintentional while Helmholtz Watson, Bernard Marx, and John the Savage are aware of their differences and individuality among the rest of society, Lenina never acknowledges her own. The majority of the main characters in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World make conscious decisions to rebel against the World State that controls them and eventually suffer the consequences of such decisions.
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