"'I shall never understand, unless you explain.' 'Explain what?' 'This.' He indicated the pueblo. 'That.' And it was the little house outside the village. 'Everything. All your life'" (123).
Once Bernard is able to speak to John alone outside, he asks John to explain his way of life. Everything on the Reservation- John's home- is foreign to Bernard, but he longs to understand. John then gives a lengthy anecdote about his life as far back as he can remember. The purpose of John's story is to not only give the reader details about John and Linda and the Reservation, but also to illustrate how different John is from everyone else. John mentions that he is not accepted at the Reservation, and later he will not be accepted in the modern society. For instance, John reads Shakespeare which is highly taboo in both the Reservation and modern society. This establishes John as the protagonist, the one who tries to fight society. John's story prompts Bernard to bring him to London, giving John the opportunity to experience a life he had only heard about from Linda. John is also given the opportunity to attempt to initiate change and to challenge the ideals of the "utopia."
Is there no protagonist before John appears?
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