Parental Figures In Brave New World

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Family plays a major role in peoples’ lives, but are they really necessary? In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding parental figures are either entirely missing or play no important role. Although many may believe that a lack of a family encourages independence among people, a lack there of ultimately leads people to feel a large sense of isolation. To begin with, in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden feels lonesome after the death of his brother, Allie. For instance, Holden “was crying and all. I don't know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (82). Holden is distraught and drunk. He copes with his problems by drinking in order to mask what was really going on in his life. Holden considered his brother as a large part of his family, and without him Holden feels depressed and alone.…show more content…
For example, Ralph states “‘I'm chief,’ … “because you chose me. And we were going to keep the fire going. Now you run after food’” (216). Ralph has a great sense of confidence despite the situation. His father is in the navy, so Ralph doesn’t see him much. Growing up without large involvement from his parental figures, he learned how to be strong and independent. Additionally, at the beginning of the book Ralph makes it clear that “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.” (58) Ralph is taking very mature actions. Consider the other boys, all they wanted to do was play without parents or rules to punish them. Surprisingly, Ralph took a very adult-like approach to this life-threatening situation. He knew what he had to do to survive and was persistent in enforcing that. Ralph’s maturity and independence ultimately helped everyone persevere long enough to be
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