In-Class Writing Prompt (as part of a test): What do you think will happen either to Helmholtz or to Bernard after the story ends? Basing it on past actions and words, explain why you predict a particular outcome. 20 points total.
Sample 1:
When Bernard is finally sent to his exile on the Falkland Islands, it seems almost indisputable that he will live a miserable and resentful existence. All throughout Brave New World, Bernard is an incredibly unhappy character, partly because of his stature, but mostly because of a tendency towards arrogance and self-pity. At the beginning, Bernard deeply resents the fact that he is set apart from other alpha-pluses at the hatchery. Instead of trying to overcome his height, however, he instead chooses to distance himself from the society entirely. His attitudes are intensely critical of the world he lives in, and he makes himself feel better by looking down on his peers as being superficial and haughty. “Only I,” he thinks to himself, “have the courage and the insight to be different.”
Nevertheless, any convictions he had about personal behavior are immediately abandoned once John raises him to a position of prestige. Like Henry Foster and the others, his thoughts about women become entirely centered on their bodies, despite his previous annoyance at Foster for treating Lenina “like so much meat.” He even gropes women he hardly even knows, such as the principal at Eton. He now continues to place himself on a pedestal because of his position in a society that he previously resented. He even refuses to recognize that John is the only reason for his success.
When he loses his prestige, Bernard returns to self-pity and anger. He unleashes mental vitriol upon John, who he views as the architect of his fall. This bitterness reaches its peak when Mustapha Mond sentences him to the Islands. Even after hearing about how the islands are societies composed entirely of free-thinkers, he decries the loss of a community that he had hated for most of his existence.
Following his arrival, Bernard will most likely wail about the inaccessibility of Soma, which he had earlier refused to partake in. He will miss the sex that he had with all those women, forgetting that it was only because of John that these women tolerated him. He will refer to his fellows as savages because they practice a lifestyle that he had previously believed in. His only comfort will be that he alone is civilized among the island dwellers. Bernard will always want something better and different from what he has, and he will always draw both pride and angst from being different.
I put the concrete "show me" evidence in bold. Besides very sophisticated analysis, he showed me a great deal. This is good writing.
