Epithet the Inconsistent

"'John,' she murmured to herself, 'John...'". -pg 187

The quote above is spoken by Lenina while musing over her feelings for John the Savage. When John was first introduced into the 'other place' his mother had told him about as a young child, Bernard introduced him as John the Savage. John the Savage is an epithet, or a name that describes the person by adding an adjective to it. John the Savage may not be a very complimentary for a fairly learned and polite young man. Nevertheless, John seems to accept it without comment. Although this was John's introduction, it soon became obsolete and took on two different abbreviated forms.

Lenina, as demonstrated in the quote above- uses John's given name to talk to or about him. This, in part, demonstrates how highly Lenina thinks of John. She views him as person similar to all the people she is familiar with in her everyday world. Lenina talks to John as a person just like everyone else she knows, not a savage.

Characters who meet John or are introduced to him by Bernard Marx refer to him as the Savage. For one, the call him 'the' savage. This demonstrates that John is the only savage they know; likewise, he is their only experience of the savage world. John is the gateway to a world they cannot understand. In this sense, they seem him more as a gateway, rather than a person. They do not use or recognize his real name, or even the slightly demeaning epithet given to him by Bernard.

Speaking of Bernard, he is becoming an unpredictable character. Bernard has been glamoured by the popularity and attention that John the Savage brings him from some very prestigious people. When he speaks to John directly, he calls him John. When Bernard introduces him to audiences, Bernard calls him John the Savage. Sometimes, when John is nowhere near, Bernard calls him the Savage. This multiplicity of names for John makes Bernard seem shady and manipulative. This relationship is yet another example of who the epithet for John and the way it is used to describe him display the John's relationship with the respective characters.