Brave New World / Aldous Huxley / chapter 8

“The magic was on his side, the magic explained and gave orders,” (Huxley 133).  John has lived his life as an outcast.  Bernard has also lived like and outcast.  Bernard is very interested in learning from John what his society lived like.  He has felt alone is his society so he seems to want to learn about another society to compare his life with theirs. Both Bernard and John seem to share a lot in common even though they live in two different societies. They both are different and have paid for their uniqueness.  John has lived in the shadow of his mothers conditioning.  He is always criticized by the other kids for something that is not his fault. When John learns to read he seems to find a new outlet for his frustration.  He reads Shakespeare which then sends him into a weird state of mind.  He is portrayed to be conditioned by Shakespeare’s works just as much as Bernard and Lenina are by their conditioning.