With John's arrival in the Brave New World, we see the shortcomings of this society even more clearly as he becomes the moral "yardstick" by which we measure both these people and the world they have created.
Give several examples of what John finds especially upsetting and explain why he reacts the way he does.
As always, you may choose to ask/answer questions over these chapters by posting them here.
In chapters 10-12 we really start to see how horrible this world truly is through John's eyes. He was raised in a society with similar moral code and that why he finds some of these things so horrible. Examples of some of the things he finds shocking are the fact that they show no respect for human life, and the lack of individuality. They disrespect for human life is shown on page 154 when the doctor says how Linda will only live two more months if she continues to take the amount of soma that she is currently taking. Then on page 160 John is shocked when he sees how they treat the Betas and the Epsilons at the factory. How they have become the machine of the government.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think the repercussion of what Watson did with the poetry will be?
"But aren't you shortening her life by giving her so much?"; a line that shows John's true nature as a son. He objects towards the doctor about showing innate disrespect for human life. The doctor then rebuttals with the statement of "...can't allow people to go popping off into eternity if they've got any serious work to do." John probably reacts the way he does because of the simple reason that Linda is his mother. The doctor shows or gives signals that he doesn't really care about Linda, and that giving her the soma (thus shortening her life), is 'best' for the 'rest of us'.
ReplyDelete"Oo-ooh"; at the Feelies, John shows distaste in the movie being showed. He states, "Like this horrible film.", and "It was base," towards Lenina. He acts this way because of the movie's content and social, racial 'bias'. The way how the bad-guy is depicted as a gigantic unranked negro and how the good guys are 'handsome young Alphas'.
Once John truly sees this world, we see how shocked and saddened he is. First, when Dr. Shaw explains to him how long his mother will be out on her soma-holiday he says, "I don't believe it's right." He is forced to give in and let Linda take her soma. Another example I found was how perplexed John was after he was with Bernard in the Alpha Double Plus classroom. Also, when the head mistress took him into a Beta-Minus geography room, he saw the savage reservation's behaviors being displayed to the class. They were laughing continuously at the video that was projected to class. John was confused and asked, "But why do they laugh?" Also when John asked, "So they read Shakespeare?" and was rejected, I could tell he was disappointed. Also when Lenina took John out to the film at Feelies, he was shocked at what he saw. He said, "I don't think you ought to see tings like that... It was base... It was ignoble." Lastly, towards the end of the reading I found another example. Once Helmholtz and John become friends, John reads Romeo and Juliet. As he is read, John broke out in laughter. John was then disappointed and upset about the reaction on behalf of Helmholtz. I feel that John acts the way does because he has never been exposed to something like the new world state. He is seeking for acceptance, confused, and doesn't know any better. I think it is hard for John to understand how these people are acting towards the ideas he has grown up with because he thought differently about them. He thought it was a "brave new world."
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 10, when John first comes in to finally meet his dad, he shouts, "My father!" Everyone starts laughing at John, they have no idea what this crazy boy is talking about. They have never heard of anyone having a father before, it's crazy news to them. As they say in the book, "The joke was almost too good to be true." The Director is shocked and humiliated, and so glares at John while the laughter starts up again. John is embarrassed and sad that his father does not know him, so he covers his ears and runs away from the pain. In chapter 11, Lenina and John go to the film at the Feelies. After the film, John is almost disgusted. He says, "I don't think you ought to see things like that... Like this horrible film. It was base... It was ignoble." Lenina is terribly confused and wonders why he is "so queer" and goes "out of his way to spoil things." Another example of how John reacts to this world in general is when he says, "O brave new world... O brave new world that has such people in it." In The Tempest, Miranda says, "O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!" It is obvious from the way John quotes The Tempest that he is disappointed, this isn't what he expected. When he says "such people," he is not referring to them as great, advanced people whom he looks up too, he is saying, why are there such people as these, who completely disrespect our individuality? It's very disturbing to him.
ReplyDeleteJohn is originally upset by the idea that his mother would be going on a soma-holiday. He understands that it will affect the lifespan of his mother and that it's just a quick escape from reality. He states that he doesn't believe it is right because it is potentially dangerous and it is not a real feeling. It's fake and he gets that.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is his retching at the treatment of the low-class people. Where he comes from, there isn't as much of a pyramid effect of social hierarchy as the brave new world. John has morals and he knows that every person has at least some dignity and when he sees it so dampened by the brave new world, he is literally sickened by it.
At the classrooms, John is appalled at the laughter because he has actually experienced a sacrifice and he knows it is no laughing matter.
Question: Do the taxis fly or is it just me missing some huge important fact about flying cars? Pg. 171 "The cab shot up into the air."
I kept wondering as I was reading this what John was expecting. You'd
ReplyDeletethink he would be less surprised and upset about the way things work.
I was a little confused when they kept saying things like "young girls
over their test-tubes" and mentioning young girls and my question is
where are the boys and are all the jobs like this? I guess I didn't
realized they were separately working and not put together. Another
question I have is about Lenina and whether she is just physically
attracted to John or if she feels differently for him than others?
In these chapters, we see countless examples of John's disgust and disappointment with some of the customs and social concepts in the brave new world. The first example that I saw was in chapter 10 when John is talking to Dr. Shaw about his mother and her frequent trips to her soma happy place. Dr. Shaw says that "you can't allow people to go popping off into eternity if they have serious work to do". He was just going to let Linda take these soma holidays whenever she wanted to because she had no legitimate work to do. John really didn't like the disrespect that the doctor had for her life. The next big example I found was also in chapter 10, I believe. The point is brought about before John even enters the room that the Director and Henry Foster have no respect for individuality. ("Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?") John has been brought up in a society where individuality is somewhat more widely accepted and John is allowed to express himself in whatever ways that he chooses. He is going to run into problems in this new place when this expression is no longer accepted. The last example that I found (not really. I found several others, but that would take forever to type) was John's refusal to take soma. I could quite possibly be dropping the ball here, but it seems to me that John is very much for finding enjoyment in real things, no artificial enjoyment that soma gives you. He enjoys reading Shakespeare (are they even literate? I forgot) and being educated as opposed to being dazed and confused in happy town all the time.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: What is meant when Huxley uses the term 'queer' in his writing? I have read it several times and have not quite drawn a conclusion as to its exact meaning in this context.
John finds that this "Brave New World" isn't quite what he'd thought it would be. He even vomited in chapter ten after saying, "O brave new word that has such people in it." He reacts in this way when Bernard and him go to the Electrical Equipment Corporation. While getting a tour of the factory John sees how the society works. He witnesses the people at work, with eighty-three of the same Deltas, fifty-six Gammas, one hundred and seven Epsilon, thirty-three other deltas, and many more clones. He realizes at the factory what their society is all about and is upset and disturbed. Another example of John becoming upset with this society is in chapter eleven after Lenina takes him to the feelies. While leaving the film John calls the it base, and ignoble. John reacts this way because he has morals. This was previously shown in the book when he doesn't take advantage of Lenina.
ReplyDelete-Dani M.
In my opinion, what John seems to find most unsettling, is the total depravity of society. There is no such creature as morals. The innate, pure, and human conscience that he possesses has been chemically purged from these, his 'wondrous people.'His trip to the 'feelies' with Lenina does not disgust him nearly as much as how thoroughly Lenina herself enjoys it. In this London, as simple and ignorant as John is, he is allowed the grace that is real freedom. And think, what embodies simplicity, ignorance, and freedom?- John is like a child. In terms of this society, John is as innocent as anyone can truly be. While he has been exposed to the squalor and filth of Malpais, he has also seen true human goodness, and the utter lack of it in London sickens him.
ReplyDeleteThe hapless treatment of his mother's life, the intellectual emptiness of the universities, the severe divisions of the factories; all disturb him.
In soma and promiscuity, in conformity and castes, John sees no good. And rightly so, as there is none.
John is even mor apalled by the society's idea that everyone owns everyone else than Bernard was himself. While Bernard eventually gave into the social pressure and became as prolific as everyone else, John locks himself in his room and retreats into the world of Shakespeare where relationships have actual meaning. I think that John is really saddened to learn that the socioty has no art forms. Even Helmholtz, who is the most enlightened member of the socioty, still only equates the value of poetry with its worth as a tool of propoganda.
ReplyDeleteJohn is upset when he sees all the lower caste workers who were bokanovskafied, they all looked the same. He found this disturbing, maybe because they didn't have that in the reservation, and seeing some eighty people looking exactly the same would be weird. John is also upset that the doctor is giving his mother so much soma that she will die, just because she wants soma. My question is: Why didn't the Director end up sending Bernard to Iceland? He was talking like he was going to, and then Bernard brought in Linda and John, and that embarrassed the Director. Wouldn't that be even more of a reason to send Bernard away?
ReplyDeleteTo Gerene question: on pg 170 when Lenina says "why was he so queer?" i think it means that John is strange and unusual which is ironic because Lenina and her society are the ones that are strange, not John. John has family and think of Linda and the director as his parents. The director was so ashamed of being called a father he resigned his job. John doesn't like the idea that Linda went on a holiday on soma. It's make her life shorter, but the society is strange because they say a soma holiday is like an eternity.
ReplyDeleteThe first example I found is when John starts asking about what they are doing to his mother. He is upset at the fact that Dr. Shaw is trying to kill Linda through excessive amounts of soma, just because she has no role in the Society. His moral values help him to believe that this is wrong. Another example lies where John visits the geography room, and they watch a video about the savages that presents them whipping each other, after worshipping Jesus and the bird-dude-thing. John is shaken by this because they do not really know what goes on in the savage reservation. More sadly, they do not desire for that knowledge, or extra knowledge at all for that matter.
ReplyDeleteJohn comes to the Brave New World expecting wondrous things, but is surprised. Not by how wonderful it is, but really by how awful. He is appalled with how the society functions to the point of physical sickness. In a way, he reacts almost exactly the same as Bernard and Lenina (but mostly Lenina) did when the arrived at the savage reservation, which is rather ironic because it provides an account on both ends of the spectrum. The most obvious example of how John reacted would of course be how he threw up after seeing group upon group of people that were exactly the same. The words "O brave new world" were used again, only this time, with an entirely different connotation. Also, when John is talking to the doctor about his m-----'s soma dosage, and how he asks a very normal question in "won't that shorten her life?" it shows his genuine concern for her, whereas the doctor, ironically again, isn't worried about cutting her life short as long as she is on soma. John just doesn't understand why this world functions the way it does and is overwhelmed by the society he has been thrown into.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first people John meets is the Director, his father. When he exclaims, "My father!" the workers start hysterically laughing and the Director is humiliated. He is appalled when Dr. Shaw revealed that Linda will die in a month or two, due to her excessive soma holidays. He is shocked by this society's lack of respect for human life, but is forced to give in. He continues to visit Linda, who is on her permanent holiday, and refuses to take soma, even though he grew up hearing about it's wondrous effects from his mother. When he sees the different castes working, he repeats Miranda's words, "O brave new world". This was the world Linda had made him believe was so perfect and desirable. John, who grew up as an outcast in the reservation, is disturbed by these identical Gamma-Plus dwarfs and Epsilon Semi-Morons. Though they are alike and are accepted in a way to society, he recognizes their loss of individuality and does not want to be a part of them. He does not understand what his mother loved so dearly about this world.
ReplyDeleteJohn is shocked to find that this "brave new world" isn't all its cracked up to be. He is sickened by the fact that people here are so light about talking about death. He doesn't understand why nobody, especially a doctor, cares that his mother will die in a couple months due to overdosing on soma. John himself refuses to take soma, even though everybody tells him how great it is. Also, John respects others, especially women. He doesn't just sleep with them on the first date like everyone expects him to do. John stands up for what he believes in and he keeps his values in this new land that has none.
ReplyDelete@Erik: I think that the Director did not send Bernard to Iceland because of his embarrassment. He was about to, but once Linda and John came in, his embarrassment took over and he had to escape. Once he overcomes the humiliation, he may send Bernard to Iceland or even somewhere worse due to the embarrassment that he endured.
ReplyDeleteJohn was so excited to escape the reservation. He heard what it was like, but from Linda. John would not be able to have the same type of life that Linda had in the brave new world. John had gotten his hopes up, in excitement that he would possibly fit in. He never imagined that it would be what he found it as. He seems to be the only one that has his morals in the right place. A few examples are when he is discussing with the doctor about Linda and her soma and when he goes to the Feelies. He was thrown into this society too quickly and he does not like it one bit. John will never come to except this society for what it truly is. I do not think he will even come to like this society throughout the time that he stays in the brave new world.
We see the differences between the two societies because we were just at the savage reserve and we were exposed to the difference between the new world and the stench and filth of the reserve. John is very upset about the way they are treating his "mother' by the way they are allowing her to overdose on soma.
ReplyDeleteMy question is does John know that Lenina has feeling for him or is he trying to stay away from her because of the way that she acts and how she is from the new world.
-Alexis Nelson (I couldn't remember my account so I used Megan's)
I think that one thing that John found the worst was how the doctor didn't care that he was shortening his mothers life by giving her so much soma. He actually said that it would probably help. Another thing was when he went to the feelies with Lenina. She thought that it was a great movie, but John thought that it was horrible. I think that the longer he stays, the more he sees is wrong with this world, he may eventually even want to go back to the reservation. One thing that might stop him though is his love for Lenina.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Where do you think Huxley is trying to get with this whole Lenina and John love thing? Lenina says that she likes John, and John thinks that he loves her but is to shy to say anything. I don't get it.
@ nathan
ReplyDeleteHuxely is trying to give John the appearance of control of his emotions. Rather than jumping in bed with her, he is waiting. This is wayyyyyyyyyy too appalling for the "brave new world". John can resist his temptations.
John thought that the movie was appalling. "It was base. It was ignoble." He didn't like how the movie was so perverted. It was just outrageous. The more that John stays in this world, the more he will dislike about their perfect society.
Another example was the first soma incident with Linda. John knows that if she continues to take it she will die. He is shocked that a doctor is trying to kill his patient. In his society, they want to live longer that 60. that is why he reacts that way.
John's discontent with his idolized "brave new world" grows more and more evident as he sees more and more of it. He is against the idea of his mother being on a constant Soma high, because he feels that it is fake and immoral. The first of these ideas (since their whole world is fake) along with the concept of feeling for one's mother are alien to the people of brave new world. John is also ashamed by casual sexual behavior. Society in the reservation (the women beating Linda for sleeping with their husbands and the boy's ridicule of him for his mother's actions) frowns upon sexual promiscuity, and as a result has conditioned him to do so also. The feelies and Lenina's expectation of him to sleep with her are both examples of sexual promiscuity that disgusted him.
ReplyDeleteI also just noticed that Lenina is a feminine spelling of Vladimir Lenin's last name.
In chapters 10 through 12 we see how Bernard is in fact more like the rest of society then we originally thought to be true. We can see this because we now see that John is a very normal, but emotional boy, due to his reading of Shakespeare. Examples of this are how he vomits when say o Brave New world again, and Lienna does not understand why John is so shy around her, when the reader can obviously see that the John is in love with her.
ReplyDeleteTo try and awnser nathans question i think that Huxley is trying to show that John who has lived on the reservation understands what love is and thinks that he loves Leinna. Leinna who does not understand what love is but knows that she likes him. He is trying to show the contrast of two different worlds, and could it be possible that with this scientific experiment could result in Leinna understanding love and the two worlds are
merging? its just a thought, but i think itd be cool if it happened.
First off, John must have been really bummed out when he found out how backwards the Brave New World really was. After hearing all his mother's stories he must have been super excited and then when he actually gets there, well, it wasn't exactly what he expected.
ReplyDeleteJohn has the misfortune of his mother going on a perpetual soma holiday. He is especially confused and concerned about the doctor's lack of, to put it simply, doctoring. The doctor just lets Linda take as much soma as she wants even though it will eventually kill her.
John is also upset by his visit to the factory where he witnesses all the identical workers. I'd say this was the first moment when the idiocy of the Brave New World really hits him.
Also, John is upset by the 'feely' movie that he saw with Lenina. It was graphic and sexual and he found it way too inappropriate for Lenina, who he thinks of as absolutely pure and innocent.