The hero of Brave New World is the protagonist, John, a 'savage' from an uncivilized area of New Mexico. John is an idealist because he always looks on things with optimism at first. For example, when Bernard asks him to travel back to the World State with him, John quotes Shakespeare and calls it a 'brave new world. (Huxley 95) He doesn't think about how the citizens of the World State will react to see an uncivilized man in their society and he never doubts that he will be more accepted than at the Reservation. Also when he meets Lenina, a beautiful 'civilized' woman from the World State, he sees her as the innocent Juliet from Shakespeare's writing, and he as Romeo, although in reality he and Lenina could never be together because they come from two different worlds and their values are completely out of sync and incompatible. (Huxley 98) John can also be characterized as confused, because he doesn't really belong anywhere in society; in life at the Reservation he was excluded because of his white skin and promiscuous mother, and at the World State he was seen merely as a social experiment to see how a 'savage' would react to a 'civilized' society.
John is portrayed as an outsider in society. He doesn't fit in no matter where he goes. For example, at the Reservation he was not allowed to participate in the Native American ritual sacrifice because of his white skin (Huxley 79). Even his closest friend at the World State, Helmholtz, laughs at one of John's favorite plays, Romeo and Juliet (Huxley 128); by doing this, john probably felt his friend was laughing at his love for Lenina, since John often compares his love for her to that of Romeo's undying love for Juliet.
John represents humanity in a grim dystopia where humanity is threatening to be destroyed except for the 'savages' who remain in the reservations. John keeps all the same values that humans have held so high for centuries. In fact, John gets his ideas about what is right and wrong from reading Shakespeare. For instance, after reading a Shakespearean passage that he related to the promiscuity of his mother Linda he realized that Linda and Pope's sexual relationship was not morally correct (Huxley 90).
John helps Helmholtz to finally stand up against the government at the end of the novel. When john attempts to get the Deltas to rebel against taking the soma which killed his mother, Helmholtz defends him and gets himself and Bernard sent to an island which turned out to be a good thing for both of them (Huxley 157).
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Electronic.
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