Entry 9: Letter from Aldous Huxley’s Character, John, from Brave New World to his Father, the Director, Written from the Reservation

Dear Father,

I know we have never met before, but I just needed to write you this letter for some type of closure or release. There are so many questions I wish I could ask you. Why did you leave Linda here? Why did you never rescue her or come back? What is life like in this amazing place she describes to me? What do you do? What are you like? There is so much I fear I will never know. Very few other boys here in the village grow up without a father, I am one of the few. I am an outcast here. I am made fun of and excluded partly because of what Linda has done and partly just because of where she and you come from. Sometimes, all I want is to fit in. Sometimes, all I want is to join you in this incredible place Linda has spent so much time longing for and speaking of.

I often wonder if we have anything in common, and I don’t just mean physical traits. I wonder if you also enjoy Shakespeare’s works and if our personalities resemble each other’s. I figure, however, that this cannot be true; we were raised very differently and live in such different worlds. I dream that you will return in one of those mechanical birds I’ve been told about and bring Linda and me back to civilization but these are merely childish fantasies. Accepting the fact that you will never return and I will never see this civilization is difficult and part of the reason I am writing this letter.

I also must admit that I have harbored much anger towards you. I resent the fact that you left Linda and me here. I resent the fact that I didn’t and don’t have a father. I resent the fact that none of this can be changed.

John