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BRAVE NEW WORLD. WRITTEN BY ALDOUS HUXLEY. Chapter 7. SYNOPSIS.
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BRAVE NEW WORLD WRITTEN BY ALDOUS HUXLEY Chapter 7
SYNOPSIS Lenina and Bernard go to the Savage Reservation, where Lenina faces poverty and low standard of life for the first time. She is shocked by the way of life the savages have adapted. Neither of them have any soma so they are forced to consciously observe everything around them. Later they watch a ritual, involving a man being whipped voluntarily please their Gods until he collapses. Lenina is horrified. A savage called John meets Lenina and Bernard speaking. He says that he wanted to be the sacrifice, but the town would not let him. He takes them to his mother, Linda, and tells them she came from the outside the Reservation. He says his father, also from outside, was named Tomakin. Bernard realizes that Tomakin is the DHC. Linda disgusts Lenina because of her appearance and state of health. Linda says that John was born because something went wrong with her contraceptives. She tried to condition John to live like people of the civilized society but failed. Linda misses the civilized way of life.
THE COST OF HAPPINESS At an Indian dance, Lenina at first likes the drums, but is shocked when a young man comes out and is ritually whipped until he collapses. Link to theme -> the dance includes extremes of pain and feeling that the WS has eliminated from people’s minds.
INDIVIDUALITY When Bernard questions John, the man reveals that his mother was from the place outside the reservation, but got separated from the man who was his father. Bernard soon finds out that the DHC is John’s father, and invites him to return to London with him. Link to theme -> Bernard sees a chance to take revenge on the DHC. This is quite an abnormal desire for most members of the World State.
TECHNOLOGY AND CONTROL When John takes Bernard and Lenina to his mother Linda’s house, Lenina, seeing Linda’s appearance and state, is disgusted as she does not have help of medication, health and possibly the fact that she is a mother at all. Linda is overweight and does not have the help of medication. Link ->The World State eliminates the physical effects of aging. Physical aging makes people feel they are losing something which can create a sense of isolation and sadness – this is removed. Having a mother, or anything else family related is found profane, so Lenina is uncomfortable being in the presence of a mother and son. This shows the power of conditioning.
STYLE Aldous Huxley uses very specific facts and a detailed concept to write this novel. In this chapter he uses similes in particular to emphasize the alikeness of the society. It also compares this modern society with our environment. This language feature is begun in the first line of chapter 7 when he says: ”The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust.”
IMPORTANT QUOTES • “But the director is old, lots of people are old, they’re not like that.” • “… nobody ever taught me to do anything like that.” • “It wasn’t my business” • “Filth, just filth.” • “It’s like living with lunatics”
LENINA CROWNE She is quite astonished by this new society which has just been introduced to her. Lenina is especially cautious of the old man who has scared her as she has never seen anyone get so old . When the boy is being whipped she is heartbroken because she has never before experienced such brutality. This is why she asks for her soma twice or thrice in the same place. But when she sees John, she forgets the desire for the soma as she is shocked by the fact that the beating was taken voluntarily.
BERNARD MARX Bernard Marx is a Alpha Plus citizen but is rather odd. Some people think that he had alcohol put in his blood by mistake. Also he faces reality in a more sincere way and is one of the only few who have escaped the conditioning of this new world. Because of his job Bernard is one of the few who is allowed to visit the savage reservation. This is why he knows more about the place than Lenina who is here for the first time.
JOHN ---- THE SAVAGE As soon as Bernard meets John and is told about the mishap, he is sure that this is the son of the Director. He soon tells Bernard that like Bernard’s life he is also treated like an outcast as he had come from outside. But even afterwards he doesn’t forget the ways of the savages. All he has read about in his life is based on Shakespeare so he has no other knowledge and has based his life around Shakespearian life.
LINDA This is the director’s missing girlfriend who the director had lost when he had come to the savage reservation with her. She is also John’s mother and a Beta. Although Linda has lived here for so many years, she still feels that the people in the reservation are “lunatics”. But she was unable to return to the World State as she had given birth and become a mother. So she had to live here even though she detested every sight of the place. Although it has been a long time she still remembers everything about the World State.
