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Lecture Topic John and the reader

John is you, John is me


What makes John such an interesting and engaging character could be seen as wrapped up in his relationship with us as a reader. When we look at the novel as a whole, John stands out as the character who we can identify with most. He comes from a world the resembles our own, has values that are generally aligned with ours and struggles in a way that we find very human. So, if we look at the wider implications of Johns character, we can start to see him as a representation of the reader; a representation of you and I and how we would feel if confronted by the World State.

John asks our questions


John does a fantastic job of questioning the values of people he meets throughout the World State. A lot of these questions we see as fully justified because they represent the kinds of questions we would see ourselves asking in such a situation. Consider the following: Do you like being slaves? (Chapter 15) Do you like being babies? (Chapter 15) Why dont you make everyone an Alpha Double Plus while youre at it? (Chapter 16) But if you know about God, why dont you tell them? (Chapter 17) Then you think there is no God (Chapter 17) But isnt natural to feel there is a God? (Chapter 17)

Implications
Through the use of dialogue and all the questions that John asks, we find ourselves more engaged in the narrative because we see ourselves represented in the dialogue being presented. This is a really nice way for Huxley to enter the reader into the arguments taking place and to put them on a very specific side of the argument. Because we tend to empathise with John and generally agree with his position, we find ourselves aligning our values with his values. The end result of this is that we are more likely to see the World State in the light the John sees it. We are much more likely to despise everything the World State stands for because we see it how John sees it. This allows Huxley to quite effectively get his reader to fully appreciate the nightmare of conformity, genetic perfection and totalitarianism.

Johns demands are our demands


But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. This is a lovely piece of dialogue because it aligns John, Huxley and the reader. This could so easily be Huxley saying this directly to the reader. It could easily be the reader saying it to Mustapha Mond in the same situation. It perfectly sums up Johns value system and perfectly sums up Huxleys value system. The repeated sentence structures are worth discussing when closely analysing the passage. The repetition of I want can be read as a way of expressing the Johns humanity is attached to his ability to desire; to want. This is something the citizens of the World State are incapable of. They arent able to want, because they dont have the ability to feel enough to be capable of an emotion as strong as desire. And the repeated I structures work as a nice representation of John reinforcing his individuality. So what we could argue is a connection between Johns individuality and his ability to desire. Beyond this, we could argue that desire for something means you suffer from a lack and so you suffer unhappiness. As John eventually says, he claims the right to be unhappy. And so what we perhaps get here is a representation of the need for unhappiness to exist if we are to be able to truly feel and appreciate happiness.

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