Brave New World, Chapter 11 by Ethan Kelley, Sage Betko, and Eunseo Son
Summary:
At the beginning of chapter 11, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning resigns after being disgraced by his lost son’s arrival in the World State. John, “The Savage,” becomes loved by the citizens of the State, giving Bernard his long sought-for popularity and recognition by the upper-cast of London.However, his popularity leads him to alienate himself from Helmholtz by boasting to him about his success with the ladies. He also offends the World Leader, Mustapha Mond, by writing in a report his agreement with John’s aversion to the “civilized infantility” which is characteristic of conditioned World State citizens.
John’s disillusionment with the World State grows after he throws up during a Fordian factory tour. He sees factory produced identical twins and quotes from Shakespeare, “O brave new world, that has such people in it.” Later, in his visit to Eton, London, he finds that the library does not offer Shakespeare and is disappointed.
John’s struggle culminates at the end of the chapter when he goes on a date to a feely with Lenina, titled Three Weeks in a Helicopter. In the feely, a black man hits his head and loses his conditioning. The man then kidnaps a Beta plus woman and lives out a monogamist fantasy in a helicopter, somehow. After the feely, John says to Lenina that he doesn’t think she “ought to see things like that” (169). He then leaves for home by himself, refusing to sleep with Lenina; in his room John reads Shakespeare’s Othello, and in her room Lenina takes soma.
In chapter 11, the lives of four characters have changed in massive ways. Bernard is enjoying his own success, sleeping his way through society and milking his discovery of Linda and John for all it is worth. Linda goes from being twenty years removed from soma to being on a trip that will ultimately kill her, while Lenina is troubled by the constant rejection she feels from John. On the other hand, John is unconvinced that anything he finds in this new society is worthwhile.
Analysis:
In this chapter we begin to see John the savage emerging as a more prominent character. Most of this entire chapter was meant to characterize John, and to advance him as the main focus of the story. As he is taken to the various locations throughout the world state, which is all new to him, his emotions and reactions are shown. He feels mostly uncomfortable with the lifestyle of the worlds state. One example of this is when he is taken on a date with Lenina to the movies and he feels very uncomfortable with the movie, and he later rejects Lenina’s sexual advances to him, something that normal men in this society would simply not have done. This behaviour will be a key factor in his actions later in the story.
One of the personality traits we learn about John early on is that he has a great passion for the works of Shakespeare. We can see him at many points throughout this chapter quoting some of his more famous works, such as The Tempest. In fact the seminal phrase of the story, “O brave new world! That has such people in it!” (from The Tempest), was uttered by John as he saw the lower castes of the society. He also mentions quotes from other works such as Antony and Cleopatra, and The Merchant of Venice. His love for Shakespeare embodies his separation from the societal norms, for his creative personality parallels with Shakespeare's works.
Discussion Questions:
- What are the more contradictions between the savage and civilized ways of life? Which more closely resembles our society?
- How did the characters’ opinions of Bernard change after he became John’s guardian? Does this type of change in public opinion happen in our society?
- The concepts of home and family are very different from our ideas of these same things. The Reservation shows a culture that defines these concepts in a similar way to our culture. Discuss how the civilized society differs in their views on home and family and why it was necessary to condition societal views in this way.
- Is John’s Shakespearean perspective on the world simply an alternative form of conditioning? How are his quotations from Shakespeare different or similar to World State hypnopaedia?
(Unsure if this is necessary or not but here are some answers)
ReplyDelete1. In general, there is much more freedom in the savage society than that of the civilized. In America, we were founded on this idea of being "free" (the modern truth of which is up for debate), and this in itself makes our society more like the Savage society.
2. John became quite popular after he came to the civilized society, and in turn this made Bernard more popular. He is seen almost like a public figure. This happens often in the media with celebrities; one releases a new hit song and suddenly their name becomes a buzzword.
3. In the civilized society, it is thought that home and family are things that will threaten their stability. These things only encourage the idea that children should be made outside of a factory, and should be conditioned separately, by anyone. This variance in people creates a diverse society, which is seen as unstable. In order to keep stability as they have it, things such as home and family simply cannot exist.
4. I would say that John's knowledge of Shakespeare is not a result of conditioning. I mentioned during the presentation that the reason behind conditioning is an important factor in its definition, and John was not taught Shakespeare for any reasons similar to those that hypnopaedia was established.