Ending

In the ending of Brave New World I thought it was interesting that John killed himself because of his own self disgust which was formed when he interacted with a society in which he originally yearned to be apart of. On the reservation where he was born, he did not fit in, and because of his civilized mothers the other boys and men would not let him do the normal activities on the reservation - he was always left out. Now, when he was in civilized place, he couldn't fit in either because of the values that were instilled in him. He didn't want to belong to everyone - he just wanted to belong to Lenina, but she belonged to everyone else as well. John is the character that is in between - he fits in neither society because he has mixed beliefs. I think that he is more representative of the people today who live and have mixed beliefs. I really think that John acted like an American when he said "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin" (240).  John seems to recognize that in order to have a society in which everyone is perpetually content and subservient to the government, they are required to give up rights, rights that they didn't even know they had. In order to have a stable society, the people had to give up their freedom, their emotions, their independence, and their beliefs. They had to give up everything that made them who they were in order for the society to work. John, while excluded, grew up being free, having independence, and allowed to have his own set of beliefs. He is not willing to give them up, even if it would mean eternal happiness often brought on by a drug. Instead he goes out into the wild to be on his own, but, because Civilization is obsessed with him, they follow him and end up making him join the festivities. After, he is so ashamed of himself that he kills himself. He had claimed the right to be unhappy, and unhappy outside of society he became especially because society wouldn't leave him alone. In order to have a stable society one has to give up everything that could make it unstable: truth, science, religion, anything that could create conflict.
I think that Controller is the most interesting character because he, like John, understands perfectly what everyone has to give up in order to live in this society. Instead of going to an island or moving into the wild, he becomes a Controller (he earns a Controllership) and helps other people live their lives and makes sure the society remains stable. He chose a different path than John and managed to live. He reads his odd books and does his own thing in private and acts like a Civilized person in public. I thought it was particularly intriguing when he said "Sometimes... i rather regret the science. Happiness is a hard master--particularly other people's happiness. A much harder master, if one isn't conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth" (227). He sees both sides of the matter - he understands the yearn for truth, but also the necessity of happiness. John does not understand the necessity of happiness because he can't see past the need for independence and his own beliefs. He tries to change it by throwing out the soma, but he can't. Civilization is stability built upon happiness, and eventually, by claiming his independence and his right to unhappiness it will kill him.

Emotions in Dystopian Literature

In many futuristic stories, a corrupt government exists that has some method of controlling its people. Often this government will monitor people's actions, preventing them from engaging in rebellious behavior. Other effective methods include breaking strong connections to isolate people, and making people oblivious to their own lack of control. In The Handmaid' Tale, the intimate relationships between a parent and child or husband and wife are destroyed as the family unit is broken up into its most simple parts. Without these strong connections, people are less likely to disobey on the behalf of a loved one. A mother will do anything for her child, but if the pregnancy and birth are not even credited to her, and her baby is taken away immediately, she no longer has anything to fight for. The society in Brave New World also safely eliminates the family by growing humans in labs rather than relying on old fashioned reproduction. The very idea of a mother is scandalous, and the closed intimacy of a family is seen as antisocial. Rather than cultivating singular personal relationships, the people in Brave New World are encouraged to share themselves equally among the entire society, and are conditioned to believe that "everyone belongs to everyone else". This ensures that no one will become devoted to another, that they will remain focused on their own trivial pleasures. This eliminates strong, dangerous emotions and replaces them with safe, shallow happiness. The societies in both The Handmaid'sTale and Brave New World attempt to create a passionless population who will be complacet and obedient, but each takes a different approach to removing the romanticism from sexuality. In Atwood's novel, sex is used exclusively for reproduction, and the strange formality of the Ceremony removes all sensuality from the situation. The society in Brave New World takes a different and more effective approach. People are encouraged to fulfill their sexual needs so long as no special singular relationships are formed. Casual sex is normal and encouraged, while monogamous relationships are not allowed and are considered anti social. This removes all aspects of emotion while still giving people what they want. People in Brave New World are happy, so they see nothing wrong with their situations, and yet they have no real emotion or passion to make a change even if they wanted it.

The ending

The ending of this novel is like previous works we have read and watched in this class so far. It is in some ways undetermined and up to the reader's imagination to decide wether it is hopeful or hopeless. The novel ends with this: "Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east...." (259). The ending describes and visualizes the death of John. He hangs himself because of the shame he feels for having given into the World State for the night before. Is his suicide hopeful or hopeless? Does is show the reader that there are individuals who end their lives as an act of power and to show the World State that is it not in control of their bodies? Or, does is show that anyone rebelling against the World State is doomed to fail? Personally, I believe that the ending is hopeful. It demonstrates how free John truly is. He is free in the sense where he was not told what to do, he acted only on his individual beliefs. John died for something he believed in: rebelling and freeing himself from the World State. John tries so hard to retain his individuality since he arrives at the centre from the reservation. Unlike Bernard, John does not want to conform to the customs and expectations the World State has. He tries so hard to not give in. Even with Lenina, he doesn't end up sleeping with her because is it not how he believes it should be done. John doesn't care about how the World State wants him to act. He doesn't want to be solely an extension from this civilization; an extension without any real significance and one that can easily be replaced. The horrific scene of his mother's death really effects John. After the way he sees the children looking at Linda and calling her "fat" and "ugly," he gives up any hope he has for this society. He begins to realize and later when he talks to Mond that the World State revolves around consumerism and new materialistic things. John can't stand this. Mond truly believes that this is real progress, but it isn't. John throws away the soma portions as a way to help the others realize the oppressiveness of the society, which they never quite understand.

Bernard or the Savage -- Who Wins?

Looking back on the novel, our group has been trying to distinguish who we think is the main protagonist of the story. The three possible characters are Lenina, Bernard Marx, and the Savage, John. At the beginning of the story, it would appear that Lenina and Bernard Marx are the two protagonists, and one seems almost to be the other one's foil. For example, Lenina is more carefree in the civilized world, and embraces all that the society has taught her to, while Bernard is perpetually upset by the way his life is turning out and rejects all that is forced upon him by the society, like taking soma. But it is through these opposite character types that we learn more about the two. We would not have seen Lenina's uptight nature if the rebel Bernard hadn't taken her to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico, and this trip revealed a lot about both characters as I talked about in my previous blog post. However, the ending of the novel, which is focused entirely on the Savage's actions and ultimately ends when he kills himself, leads the readers to believe that Huxley intended the Savage to be the main character. Huxley's character development is very interesting in this way, because the Savage is not even present in the first half of the story, but is the prominent character in the second half. We discussed a bit in class today how Huxley probably intentionally paired Bernard and the Savage as the main characters in order to show the two ways a society can turn out. Bernard, although he doesn't necessarily believe in the control the civilization places on the citizens, represents controlled happiness, and how the people of the civilization "prefer to do things comfortably." On the other hand, the Savage feels obligated to live his life the way he desires, even if that means that there might be strife and conflict in his life, and in the society; he is "claiming the right to be unhappy" (240). Through contrasting these two characters and their beliefs on happiness and society, Huxley is able to show the readers his point; men will naturally act in a disrupting and conflicting manner that will bring unhappiness, unless every aspect of their lives, and happiness, is controlled. But ultimately, who wins? Does Bernard because he is alive, "comfortable" and has the ability to be blissful with just one tab of soma? Or does the Savage because he was allowed to live the way he wanted, to believe in what he wanted,  he got to "learn to put up with [everything unpleasant]," and ultimately choose freely to be unhappy and take his own life? (238) In my eyes neither wins. Bernard is oppressed, pushed down and forced to live his life in a mold. He was fit to a certain caste and conditioned so he could no longer think for himself. He has no discomfort, but at what cost? And the Savage, while yes, he had the freedom to choose the route of his life, was plagued by hardship as he grew up in the Reservation and seemed unable to escape his free thoughts at the end of the novel and was forced to take his life.

What's Next?

Our most recent reading ended with a bit of a cliffhanger- Bernard manages to bring Linda and John back from the Reservation, and reveals that the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is John's father. Bernard's act has immediate consequences- the authority of the Director is gone with this revelation. In this futuristic world, the notion of a mother or father is completely taboo and strange, and when the Director of the artificial baby-making factory is found to have made one the old fashioned way, his employees burst out laughing. We are now left to wonder what will happen to the Director, to Linda and John, and to Bernard and Lenina. Linda has dreamed of returning to her 'civilized' life ever since she was lost on the Reservation, but now that she has returned, she may not find it welcoming. Linda is old and unattractive, already undesirable, and the fact that she had a child is completely unacceptable in this society. She "was a Beta", and now she is an outsider: disgusting, shameful and out of place. John is also completely out of his element here. Having grown up at the Reservation, John learned useful skills and truths without being conditioned. In some ways, John is the most separate from the other characters, because he was not trained with hypnopaedia as they were. While Bernard resists his conditioning, some of it still holds as he shies away from dirt or disease with disgust. John is interested in Lenina, however, and will stay in this strange, unwelcoming world despite his terrible encounter with his father. Bernard fashions this little stunt because he has nothing left to lose- his unorthodox behavior has come to hurt him as the Director is getting ready to send him to Iceland. Bernard is clearly trying to shake things up and to put the Director in a bad light in front of his employees. What will happen to him next is unclear - will he actually be sent to Iceland? Will the World Controller Mustapha Mond vouch for Marx and his "scientific interest"? Will Lenina follow her attraction for John, or is his difference too much for her?

The Uncomfortable Unknown

I was struck in one of our recent meetings, about how uncomfortable the unknown and new experiences were to Lenina. When she was traveling to New Mexico and the Savage Reservations with Bernard, she could not enjoy the vacation because she was so overwhelmed by her surroundings. Even something as simple as an old man is enough to make her reach for her soma in discomfort, and exclaim, "But it's terrible ... It's awful. We ought not to have come here" (111). This shows how the only thing she wants to do is leave and return to the ease of her life in the "civilized" world. This is interesting because it isn't like this is her new life that she is rejecting, she just doesn't want to see it and I wonder if that is because she doesn't want to admit to herself that a place like this exists and everything is not happy like it is in her world controlled by conditioning and soma. This is also interesting I think because she has been conditioned so intensively, and without individuals having to learn and discover things for themselves, they are unable to cope with new things that are presented in front of them. She did not learn from experience, she was brainwashed and all of her thoughts were inserted into her brain. Thus, it is exhausting to be presented with something that was not conditioned into her brain, and "Lenina felt herself entitled, after this day of queerness and horror, to complete and absolute holiday" (140). For her, something new and "horrible" pushes her back to soma and makes her crave that happiness and control that is in the "civilized" world, but Bernard has a different reaction. He is much more open to what he sees in the pueblo and even says "What a wonderfully intimate relationship .. And what an intensity of feeling it must generate! I often think one may have missed something in not having a mother" (112). These ideas are considered to be incredibly inappropriate in their world and I think in part that is why he is saying them. This trip, and his happiness and curiosity towards what he is experiencing is a form of rebellion against his society at home which he does not like, and feels like an outcast in. I wonder if he will continue to rebel and push back against the rules, and if Lenina's experience will eventually make her a little rebellious or will continue to push her back to what she's comfortable with.

Character Development up to page 56

In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, all of the babies are conditioned to be a certain way, to like certain things, and to be in a certain caste. In this world so far, we have not met anyone who was raised by parents - the students have no notions of what families, mothers, fathers and siblings are. They are created in a lab and are taught in their sleep, play outside with each other sexually from a very, very young age, and are conditioned from conception by different substances and once a baby often shocked using electricity. The Director, who is the most informed is even a product of this fertility center. He is an alpha (the highest caste). At first, It didn't appear he was created using the machinery, but then he reacts just like all of the other alphas. The controller appears to have not been created in the center. He has a certain aggressiveness, that does not really seem to fit in with this system. He (the controller) even says to the students "our ancestors were so stupid and short-sighted that when the first reformers came along and offered to deliver them from those horrible emotions, they wouldn't have anything to do with them" (45). He strongly believes in the cause of how this universe was started, and more importantly understand it. He seems to understand it more than the Director. The students, the workers, Lenina, Fanny, and Henry Foster all seem to be just paper cut outs of the system: people with no troubling emotions, with only the responsibility of doing their work and pleasing themselves. They have no responsibility or emotions for anyone else. This society is an oddly selfish society and yet utterly cohesive because no desires are unknown and each one is provided for, and everyone belongs to each other.
The only character who seems to not completely understand the system yet still resent it at the same time is Bernard Marx. He keeps to himself and is deemed odd by the other members of the society. While most behaviors have changed, the most petty ones have stayed the same. Henry Foster and his friend bully Bernard Marx, and Fanny tells Lenina that "they say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle-- thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood surrogate. That's why he's so stunted" (46). Bernard Marx is different from the others in the way that he seems to want to be on his own, and he doesn't "belong to everyone else", and he hates Henry Foster and does not like the way he talks about Lenina. He does not seem to fit the mold that everyone else fits, and he will have to be watched as the book continues.