Brave New World: John's Flashback

"'But I can read,' he said to himself, 'and they can't.  They don't even know what reading is.'  It was fairly easy, if he thought hard enough about the reading, to pretend that he didn't mind when they made fun of him."  pg 130

On the reservation, Bernard mets a young man named John.  He is different from the other savages.  Bernard learns that John's mother is not from the reservation; she is from the "Other Place."  When Bernard met John's mother, Linda, he put two and two together and realized Linda came to the reservation with the Director.  Bernard wanted to learn more about John and hear his story.  So John told Bernard about himself through a series of flashbacks.  As Bernard listened to John, he came to notice that they were very similar.  They were both alone.  Bernard was not accepted because he was short and spent time by himself.  John was alone because he was different:  his mother was for the "Other Place," he didn't have a father, and his mom was useless on the reservation.  Unlike Bernard, John found a way around being alone; he learned to read.  Somehow, this comforted John to know that he could read and the other boys could not and it helped him to ignore their teasing.   Huxley's use of flashbacks were a success in letting the reader get to know John.