Choose nearly any scene from these chapters and relate it to a similar problem you see in our society today. Explain what you think Huxley would feel is wrong with how we act or what we do in today's society as reflected in this scene from the novel that you have chosen.
Along a similar line of thinking, there are a lot of allusions and symbols operating in this chapter. Can you pick out a few and explain them to us?
As always, you may ask/answer any questions you might have over our reading for today.
The scene where John is with his mother and she is dying because of having too much soma is similar to many overdose deathes that happen everyday in our time. Soma made Linda feel happy and made her feel like she had no trouble or pain. People get addicted to drugs today because it makes them feel numb and feel llike they don't have anything to worry about as Linda wished to feel. Drug addiction is a problem in today's society. After this
ReplyDeletemany years and this problem is still very real and is a problem that is not going away. Huxley would probably not be surprised to hear that drug abuse has not gone away. But he would probably ask why we haven't taken care of this issue and why people haven't realized the dangers of these drugs and how they lead to health problems. In Linda's case, the toll was taken and progressed to death. We have studied that drugs are just plain bad for us an this isn't new information. So why is it still such an issue?
Abby
"My Ford," she wondered, "have I given this one its sleeping sickness injection, or haven't I?" She simply couldn't remember. In the end, she decided not to run the risk of letting it have a second dose, and moved down the line to the next bottle. Twenty-two years, eight months, and four days from that moment, a promising young Alpha-Minus administrator at Mwanza-Mwanza was to die of trypanosomiasis- the first case for over half a century. Sighing, Lenina went on with her work. - I think we sometimes have this problem in today's society, not respecting human life. There are many ways this is done. One of them is abortion; taking the life of an innocent human baby. Another example is like what Michael said in class- when we see on the news that so many people were killed in this attack today... To us, these people are just numbers. But when it happens to someone we know, it becomes so much more. We just don't always show the proper respect for humans, whether we know them or not. I think Huxley would feel this is wrong because, just as he predicted in the Brave New World, we don't show the proper respect for human life. Just like how in the Hospital for the Dying, the children who are being conditioned are completely desensitized to death, and they think nothing of it. This also relates to something kind of random I did a report on last year... child soldiers. One of the first things their leaders do is desensitize them to death, so they won't feel any pain when they are forced to kill hundreds of people. It's very sad. Also, I saw a few allusions to Shakespeare again, and also The Tempest, as John repeats the line, "O Brave New World..."
ReplyDelete-Amy
oh and I also found another allusion, when John says "Lend me your ears..." -Mark Antony, Julius Caesar
ReplyDeleteMy question is did John beat up Lenina or since she wasn't used to having someone be angry with her was the way she felt exaggerated?
ReplyDeleteAlso did Helomoltz help John when he was throwing all the somma bills out or was he going up there to try in stop him? He was helping right?
The Savage pushed her away with such force that she staggered and fell. "Go," he shouted, standing over her menacingly, "get out of my sight our I'll kill you." He clenched his fists. Lenina raised her arm to cover her face. "No please don't John..." "Hurry up. Quick! One arm still raised, and following his every movement with a terrified eye, she scrambled to her feet and still crouching, still covering her head made a dash for the bathroom. The noise of that prodigious slap by which her departure was accelerated was like a pistol shot. This paragraph made me think of domestic abuse in today's world. John's actions and remarks made me think of that of a domestic abuser. I assuming he learned his habits from his mother and her "friends". That however doesn't make it right. You would think that his moral conscience wouldn't allow him to behave that way. I doubt Huxley approved of domestic abuse in his time. He probably thought that husbands should protect their wives and not be part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteSo does anyone think that we will see anymore of Lenina?
@Alexis I thought that John actually beat up Lennia. He definitely pushed her so hard that she fell to the floor. It also says she has a hand print on her shoulder.
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ReplyDeleteSorry, my first post was really long, so now its still going to be really long, but I'll make it into two posts :)
ReplyDeleteI thought the scene with John and Linda was really sad. While John was visiting his dying mother all these little hooligans were running around and acting as if the hospital was a playground, unaware and uncaring that John was in grief. Of course, Huxley was trying to express the world's increasing desensitization (I'm not sure if that is a word) to death. Huxley would probably think we are crazy for letting death become so inconsequential. Like Michael said in class of Tuesday, death is just a statistic and someone' death is just another number even though they were someone's son/daughter/mother/father/brother/sister/husband/wife/aunt/uncle/cousin/friend/teacher/neighbor. Someone in the world is feeling grief for that particular loss.
Allusions:
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 13, a lot of John's statements are from The Tempest.
"'Oh, you so perfect' (she was leaning towards him with parted lips), 'so perfect and so peerless are created' (nearer and nearer) 'of every creature's best.'"
"If thou dost break her virgin knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite"
"The murkiest den, the most opportune place, the strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honour into lust. Never, never!"
"The strongest oaths are straw to the fire i' the blood. Be more abstemious, or else…"
From Troilus and Cressida: "Outliving beauty's outward with a mind that doth renew swifter than blood decays."
"The devil Luxury with his fat rump and potato finger"
Othello:
"Impudent strumpet!"
"O thou weed, who are so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet that the sense aches at thee. […] Was this most goodly book made to write 'whore' upon? Heaven stops the nose at it."
Twelfth Night:
"If I do not usurp myself, I am."
Timon of Athens:
"For those milk-paps that through the window bars bore at men's eyes."
Pretty much anything highly intelligent that John says is from Shakespeare.
@ Alexis: He didn't physically beat her, but John did push her down and slap her back. And yes, I think Helmholtz was helping John.
Drugs are particularly a common ninja problem in our society today. Why did I adjudicate it as a "ninja" problem? We know it exists and that it roams the streets out there, (and maybe even our local streets!), but it seems to rarely ever hit the news lately anymore (excluding the TV show, "Cops").
ReplyDeleteIn bed lays Lenina after subsequent heavy dosages of soma within the past few days. She is on the verge of passing ever so slightly away into the other realm. Though, she states, she was happy on her soma holidays. This relates to our current society in how people takes drugs to initiate a kaleidoscope-trance within their world. The drugs however, damage the user and can eventually lead to death if said user takes too much, or stays on it for too long.
Did anyone comically (or at least normally) laugh at the usage of water pistols? I know Huxley described them with an anesthetic element, but water pistols??? I kept picturing a plastic toy water gun and grown men using them to enforce 'the law'.
A big example of a problem in today's society that is displayed in these chapters is in the scene where John speaks to the children who are receiving the soma about how harmful it is to them. Because he is an outsider to the brave new world, he sees the consequences it has on the people. "I come to bring you freedom," says John. In this scene, John stands up for what he believes in. In our world today I feel as though few people stand up for their beliefs and what they truly feel is right. Instead they follow the crowd and don't give themselves the chance to be a leader. I feel it is important in today's world to not go along with an idea or scenario that you do not believe is moral. It is important to stand up for your thoughts even if you are ridiculed for doing so. In this scene, John shows a perfect example of this by speaking out about the harmful effects soma has on the children even though the children are raising ruckus about his beliefs. This happens in chapter 14. John speaks out because of a personal experience he had with the effects of soma on his mother. His mother past away which made him want to raise awareness for how wrong it is. Also, at the beginning of chapter 14, there may be symbolism in saying that The Park Lane Hospital for the Dying has 60 stories and the age of death is 60 in brave new world?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I noticed in these chapters that is like problems we have today is the Lenina and John scene. When Lenina heard from John that he loved her, she went wild started taking off all of her clothes. He tried to explain to her how they shouldn't do this, but she wouldn't stop. Then she was naked and started kissing him and telling him to put his arms around her. This relates to a problem today like teenage sex. People give themselves to others without the fact if they are really in love. Sometimes people will force it on others to do this when they don't want to. Kind of like what Lenina was trying to do with John.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I couldn't rememeber, and frankly I didn't notice any allusions.
At the very end of chapter 15, I'm reminded how many people these days seems to want to escape the blame. Bernard demonstrates this by trying to escape the police by moving "as inconspicuously as he could towards the door."
ReplyDeleteMany Shakespeare allusions (Sammy got them all)
Question: What is a Sub-Bursar? It's on pg. 210 and some sort of odd title for someone.
I was reminded of our society in these chapters when Lenina went all nuts and started taking off her clothes, and when John started randomly throwing punches. I instantly thought of our society's issues with domestic violence. Although not all domestic disputes begin with promiscuity, they often end in the same fashion, with someone being hurt physically or emotionally. Part of me does think that John was on the right track with his actions. I am absolutely not in favor of domestic violence whatsoever, but I share the same values about life that I'm sure that John posseses also. He did what he did for the sake of his own morality.
ReplyDelete@Andrew: yes! Oh my goodness, I thought the same exact thing during that scene! Upholding the law with the power of water pistols....classic.
Sammy stole all of my amazing Shakespeare allusions.
We see a lot of new concepts here that Huxley has yet to reference in the book up until this point. Domestic violence is touched upon during Lenina's and John's little dispute. The behavior of the Delta children gives us irreverance for death. The officers armed with their mighty squirt guns and vapor clouds mocks law enforcement. Oh, and might I say that, in my eyes, Bernard is pretty much beyond redemption at this point. Something really bad has to happen to him, because he just deserves it in every way.
ReplyDeleteThe scene where John and Lenina finally talk to each other but ends up with John hitting Lenina shows what happens without a longterm relationship. My question is how long will John get to stay in the resorvation, espically after the riot he caused.
ReplyDeleteThe scene that jumps into my head right away is that of the one with Lenina and John in the apartment. It reminds me so much of how often teenagers -and adults- mistake lust for love. John tells Lenina that he loves her, and it seems that before he even finished his sentence she was out of her clothes. Huxley is mocking this in a major way, exemplifying Lenina's ignorance and pure sexual drive. She is acting on impulse, nothing else. Once John said "love", she was ready to go, because that is what she was taught love is, nothing more than sexual pleasure. I think this is also very relevant to today's society, in that the same thing is taught through today's media and pop culture (which, at times, is only just a slight step below brainwashing). Huxley is condemning people's stupidity for mistaking the two, something that happens, and has happened for hundreds of years.
ReplyDeleteMy scene is when the little kids came into the room where Linda was dying. The kids were scared and had "a stupid curiosity of animals suddenly confronted by the unknown." They were scared because she looked different. They wonder what was wrong with her? Today people look at people in with scars, no leg, a missing arm, ect. and assume they're different and not normal. In brave new world, it expresses how there is no such thing as normal. Huxley is mocking how we judge people.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of chapter 14 John is conspicuously grieved over the death of his mother. Instead of showing compassion an attendant scolds him for making a disturbance. Also, the group of bokanoskified children regard the death of Linda with only casual interest and are easily distracted with the mention of pastries. I think Huxely is angered by the trend towards desensitization to death in our socioty.
ReplyDeleteThe Super-Vox-Wurlitzeriana, the type of scent organ that was playing in the death hospital, is an allusion to the Wurlitzer Company, an instrument manufacturing company that was famous for its organs and jukeboxes. The Bentford Monorail station is named after a suburb of London.
Wow. My bad. Sorry for stealing all the quotes. But on the bright side, I didn't explain them, so really I just made it easier for everyone else by finding them.
ReplyDeleteThe scene at the soma distribution center was a wonderful example of the omnipresence of stupidity in society. The dense nature of the Deltas resulted in them being completely ignorant to John's insults and only processing his intentions and actions once he threw their precious soma out of the window. The situation at this point descends into brawling and the riot police have to sedate the dissidents with soma gas and sedative spray. Huxley is mocking the seemingly mindless actions of individuals in certain situations. So basically, he is laughing at stupid people.
ReplyDeleteThe scene where John promotes his "love" for Lenina by saying he'd do anything for her is of importance. I believe Huxley is trying to make fun of the people of societies. Sometimes we would be willing to "do anything" for a seemingly great cause, when we know so little about it, or give ourselves up for something we deem as great, without knowing why we think it is great in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea from the scene is getting ourselves into situations that we do not want to be in- because we act upon spur-of-the-moment decisions without thinking about the outcomes. It's like every decision we (should) make every day. Before we do anything or say anything, oftentimes we find ourselves not thinking about all the consequences of a action- wether good or bad. We have all tried to incorporate it into our lives, but our bad habits have forced us to do otherwise.
The scene where Linda is dying relates to our world because she is dying of a drug overdose. This happens in our world. It's wrong because it is not respectful to ourselves by taking drugs and it's hurtful.
ReplyDeleteOne allusion I saw was when John said "Lend me your ears."
When John proclaims his love for Lenina, it reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. John says that he will do anything in the world for her, but really, as seen only moments later, he won't. Lenina thinks she will finally enter the
ReplyDeleterelationship with John that she had been dreaming for, but John refuses to. Like Romeo and Juliet, neither of them are truly in love, yet they both proclaim their "love" in drastic ways. I believe Huxley is mocking how relationships have developed to lose their meaning. Lenina does not seem to really care about the emotional part of their relationship, though she is glad he likes her. She uses his "love" as a way to get what she wants. By doing that, she ruins John's moment, which I'm sure he had been nervously anticipating for quite some time. She takes away from the meaning of the relationship by jumping to satisfy her wants.
(This is going off of what Amy said) People tend to lose focus on what they are doing and they start to think about something that seems to be more important at the time. Lenina was not focusing on her job and was thinking about what had previously happened and was no longer focusing on what truly mattered. People in today’s society often do this. Whether it is at work or at home or anywhere else. Especially in church, people lose focus at think about what else they could be doing or what they need to do or what they will have for lunch, instead of focusing on God.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that when John and Lenina are in the room and Lenina is throwing herself all over John, John says, “the strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honour into lust. Never, never!” John realized that this was lust for Lenina and not love. John had to stop her and the only way he could think to stop her was by abusing her.
At the very beginning of Chapter 13, Henry Foster is talking to Lenina. Henry Foster keeps talking to her and trying to get information out of her, but Lenina refuses to talk. I think that Huxley is trying to show how people often try to get involved in someone else’s business, when they really don’t need to be. Huxley believes that this is very wrong. Trying to get involved in someone’s business can lead to anger, frustration, and invading that person’s privacy and it is very wrong.
well...
ReplyDeletejohn was with Lenina and and as she was dismembering her outfit, he was struggling to say no. This is a problem in our society. Two people meet and then jump into bed together without thinking. Huxley would be appalled by this act. He was against it during the late 50's when it was minuscule compared to now. Today we have been so sexualized from T.V., movies, and books that we have turned into this Pre-Enlightened person that cannot think before acting. It will be a problem in the near future as well.
parallelism: the zipper in the scene
why did huxley have John snap?
First off I would just like to say that John failed miserably at his attempt of "freeing" society from there poison. I found this part very amusing because the crowd was subdued by soma over a dispute about soma. We see Huxley doing his thing right there. Another interesting thing that I saw through these couple of chapters was the contrast of two different societies and thought processes especially when we see Leinna trying to make her move on John, this doesnt work at all. We see John going crazy and at this point I feel that although John has the right moral convictions to be the hero of this society I do not see how he can possibly save this society due to the fact that he has no composure which is deffinately a neccessary trait to be the hero of a story like this. Also this book got more disturbing when they were doing the death conditioning and I actually felt sickened by the process, congratulations Huxley.
ReplyDeleteWhen the nurse makes comments like oh and what seems to be the problem here and other things i cannot even begin to comprehend this level of insensitivity towards death. I can understand how people can be insensities to hearing about death because our society has a lot of this. But to be in the same room as a person that is in there final moments and be poking and prodding them and playing games and eating chocolate, that is just one of the lowest things I have ever imagined. We see Linda gasp her her final breathes and the nurse does nothing that is deffinately messed up.
SO my question is really how can Huxley possibly imagine a world like this, i mean when i imagine a terrible place it is like candy land in comparison to this wretched place. At this point i feel that there is no hope for this world.
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ReplyDeleteSorry I had messed up on the previous comment. There is a scene in chapter fourteen where John is at the hospital visiting his dying mother. After she dies he falls on his knees beside her bed and begins to sob. The nurse tells him to behave because she doesn't want all the death-conditioning she has done on the children to go to waste. In a way our society does this as well. We try to protect our children from feeling sad and we try to hide them from death. We don't do it the same way as their society does but we do try to keep them from feeling upset when a death occurs.
ReplyDelete-Dani M.
Bwahahahahahaha.
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs. Holesapple.
Have a nice day.