BNW ESSAY
In a world where physical satisfaction, chemical happiness, and long-lasting peace is readily available you would understand why people wouldn't mind conforming especially if you were raised to conform and outcast anyone that doesn't. In the book Brave New World many of humanity live their entire lives only being a societal zombie who follows orders without a question or doubt. Those who dare show individuality are outcasted reported and transferred by the world state. Now in this book we focused on three characters who became their own individuals and we follow their lives as they spiral downhill and one of those characters who stuck out to me the most was Helmholtz.
Helmholtz at first was a character who had conformed to society. He stuck to his conditioning was happy and had plenty of fun with women, but after sometime he wasn't feeling satisfied with his life anymore; he began to feel like something was missing. He didn't feel like he was able to be himself. We the readers get to know him though Bernard as he and Helmholtz were friends and shared with each other the issue of their individuality. They were outcast buddies in a sense though it seemed that Helmholtz was the one who had understood the situation and himself more than Bernard whose thought process was still a bit like that of a child which was like most of the people in this society. But Bernard was still beginning to drift away from what he was raised to be, along with Helmholtz.
Helmholtz felt like he needed to do something, but couldn't figure out what. At first he didn't know, but he had begun to question society and doubt the effectivity in which it would treat it's people. When he met John he began to understand that this was what was happening. Helmholtz and John became good friends. With him he found words. Stronger than those he was used to. He found them strange, but moving. Better than the propaganda he was used to, but these words had not suited his needs. He found some strength but lacked a resolve. Towards the end Helmholtz found John revolting and Helmholtz had finally found the spice he had been looking for: Revolution. He wanted to change people. He wanted to reveal to them the ability to be who they really are.
This plight Helmholtz faced was all because he felt that in the end these people that surrounded him did not feel alive. They were slaves to the system who needed a taste of Freedom as John had said. These people for a perfect world had sacrificed their individuality along with their humanity. They were in a chemical prison that was too small that they feverishly used the other for pleasure and consumed poisons that granted them synthetic happiness. Helmholtz had been this way, but he found that it wasn't right anymore. He didn't want to see the husks of chemically chained humanity, but rather wanted to get to know them as free individuals.