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.
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During these chapters it is apparent that John doesn't quite fit in with the Brave New World. 1. In the beginning of chapter 11 the doctors keep giving Linda a lot of soma which makes John upset because he knows that it must be shortening her life.
ReplyDelete2. Then when they are touring him around, he doesn't seem to be very interested or amazed by anything that they are showing to him.
3. On another tour he started to be sick when he saw all of the low class people working who all looked the same as each other.
4. Then when him and Lenina go to the movie thing he thinks it is horrible and Lenina thinks it it was great.
5. To John, soma isn't something that is important. Instead of taking soma to escape his problems he was in his room reading Romeo and Juliet.
Claire Hagedorn
John finds the Brave New World to be disturbing in many ways. 1. when his mom starts taking large amounts of soma every day to feel good and to be out of it, john gets mad at the doctor for allowing this much soma to be taken because its shortening her life. 2. john finds the movie to be awkward and weird, especially how this society can be so different and focused only on the physical. 3. john acted differently then most people do in the BNW after a night out with some one, he merely said good night and left lenina on the helicopter pad. 4. john also didn't like how there were hundreds of copies of identical people working identical machines, it made him sick to his stomach. john grew up in a world of one person with one name born one at a time, he couldn't handle why they would do this to a person. 5. lastly john is not used to all this because he is not conditioned to be ok with what is going on
ReplyDeleteWhen john gets to the Brave New World, he finds so many things surprising and repulsive. 1. When Linda decides she wants to be on Soma holiday all the time, John says he doesn't think its right to shorten her life that way, Whereas everyone else in the society says its perfectly moral. 2. He is also virtually unimpressed by most of the things going on in the new world. He merely looks at their accomplishments and doesn't exclaim anything. 3. He doesn't engage in his sexual desires openly and easily, he is ashamed of them and tries to avoid them as fast as possible.
ReplyDeleteI think John's reactions are due to his upbringing in the savage reservation. He has a respect for others, for others' self dignity, and even for his own self dignity...Which is something completely different from the other characters in the book who are conditioned. I think he acts morally on impulse and thought restriction.
Mary Kate Leister
When John arrives in the Brave New World, I think he sees that it's not as great as he thought it would be. Some examples of this are with his mom Linda taking soma. John finds this repulsive and revolting that the doctors would let Linda take the soma when they know it is shortening her life. Another example is when he goes to the movie with Lenina and says he doesn't enjoy afterwards. Also, after the movie when he drops Lenina off, he doesn't spend the night with her. Instead he goes against the norm for the Brave New World and just leaves her.
ReplyDeleteI think John reacts the way he does because of the way he was brought up. Linda taught him to read and told him all these things about the Brave New World that she thought were wonderful. However, when John got to the BNW he realizes that nothing was the way his mother explained it. Rather, most of the society is fake.
A question I have is why does John refuse to have a physical relationship with Lenina?
- Peter Diliberti
John must be a bit disappointed with the "Brave New World". Most of the things that he sees make him ill, both physically and morally.
ReplyDelete1)He does not like the fact that the doctor is essentially letting Linda kill herself on soma.
2)When they try to impress him with technology he brings up his religion and says that it's more impressive than their technology.
3)John threw up when he saw what they had reduced people to. The fact that they looked like one another and all acted like machines was a perversion of individuality that repulsed John to the point of being physically sick.
4)John finds a popular movie repulsive and tries to protect Lenina from it's corruption.
5)John starts to wise up to the fact that Bernard is using him so he locks himself into his room and refuses to let society probe him.
-Zach Duff
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ReplyDeleteIn the brave new world, John does not quite fit in. He has differing moral beliefs than everyone else. He behaves differently in society. For example: 1) He is upset by the doctor giving Linda large doses of soma, that will shorten her life.
ReplyDelete2) He believes that religion is the most important thing.
3)He does not have sex with anyone he pleases, like with Lenina.
4) He is not impressed with all of the technology.
5) He refuses to continue to let Bernard use him as a mean for social gain.
-Vince Driscoll
As previously mentioned in other responses, John doesn't like the Brave New World because everything is so unnatural and man made. Many people don't really like John (or Bernard) for his social awkwardness - according to society. John is very "old fashioned" in his ways of abstinence, drugs, and for the most part technology. He believes that religion trumps all, not science or "Ford." The only world that John knows is from the reservation and from Shakespeare and his writings, which again, are very old fashioned.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Which do you think is more important, Humanity or Social Stability?
John is very much out of place in the brave new world. It begins with John being upset with the fact the doctors are going to give linda so much soma that she overdoses and that really bothers him. He also is troubled with the movie, he doesn't think it makes much sense and it wasn't meaniful, like Lenina thought. He was nervous about Lenina and doing anything with her. He eventually just leaves her standing there crying b/c he didnt feel he was worthy of her. The one person i think really relates to John is Helmholz. They both are into the type of ryhming and flow of words. Thats y they are into Shakespeare. But Even though they do this Helmholz conditionig is still noticed by his outburst of laughter over the contraversy of a girl being forced to have a guy she doesnt want but wont tell her mother and father about the guy she does want.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Peter's question I think that John refuses to have a physical relationship with Leinna because like people have been saying he is old fashioned. He came from the savage reservation where people fell in love and got married and then they had a physical relationship. But he also lived with his mother who had physical relationships with alot of the men in the savage reservation but mainly with Pope, and he didnt like seeing his mother with Pope. But he is also a romantic. He reads Shakesphere and he wishes he had a relationship like that where he could just profess his love to Leinna instead of going straight to a physical relationship. So I think that he refuses to have a physical relationship because he wants to fall in love first and give speeches of his love. Also he doesnt want to behave like his mother did at the savage restoration.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Battani
John is very disappointed in a lot of things about the Brave New World when he gets there, and I think the thing he is most disappointed in is just the overall depth of the society as a whole. Even though he lived in a less "civilized" society as a savage than these people live in, the savages seem to have better morals than the civilized people do, and this disappoints John severely.
ReplyDeleteWe see this when John gets upset about how much soma they are trying to give to his mom. He knows in his gut that it's not right that they are trying to basically drug her so much, she misses out on life. The doctors don't see anything morally wrong with this, yet John realizes the importance of human emotions, even emotions such as grief and pain.
John also sees what love is, and the civilized people do not understand that. He reads Romeo and Juliet all the time, and he has a firm belief in commitment between a man and a woman, and he understands the idea of love, and the kind of commitment and loyalty it really requires.
-Eily Brett
It's interesting that John is so against Linda taking soma because it will take years off her life and cause her to be unconscious, when on the reservation it seemed he was only abused by Linda and was looking forward to finding his own way in this new world. On the reservation he felt so alone because he was different, it is surprising that he would associate himself so much with Linda in the new world, which again would cause him to be very different than everyone else. I think John's feelings that are revealed once he arrives in the brave new world show that he has formed a relationship with Linda and that although it is very different from any other relationship, it is still very strong and he cares very much about her.
ReplyDeleteThe Brave New World is not what John expected it to be. John feels soma is a terrible thing epsecially since his mom takes as much as she wants which is just shortening her life. John refuses to take this drug as well. It seems like John is an adult amongst children in the Brave New World. He actually thinks about life and doesn't worry about having as many girls as possible unlike the rest of the world. John shows restraint by not having Lenina and wants to have an actual relationship, not just physical. This restaint shows his adult actions. John doesn't get lost in the ways of the Brave New World and still applies what he learned from the Reservation while living in this much different place.
ReplyDeleteBobby Lewarne
John's morals are constantly compared with those of the Brave New World's, and the aspects of their culture that upset John show how flawed the people and their Society really are.
ReplyDelete1. John doesn't feel that it's right to overdose Linda with soma. Even though Dr. Shaw was initially against it, he eventually gives into her demands while John stands by his beliefs but is later forced to give in against his own will.
2. John finds it repulsive that the workers in the factory are identical. John is not used to the lack of individuality in the Brave New World, especially with the extreme case of the Bokanovsky groups. To a "Savage," seeing people being reduced to a subhuman state by performing the same menial tasks over and over again would be especially upsetting.
3. John refuses to take the soma, probably because he has witnessed the effects of this drug on the people in the Brave New World and his mother. After seeing how intoxicated Linda had become from taking soma, John may have been afraid to take it.
4. John absolutely hated the feely and he could not stand how much emphasis was placed on sexual promiscuity. He even considered the film "base" and "ignoble." This is an example of the juxtaposition of the Brave New World and the Reservation (which is very much comparable to our society on this topic). In the film, the negro was ridiculed when a concussion caused him to forget his conditioning and become monogamous, but to John, being faithful to one person would definitely not be a reason for humiliation.
-Elliott Lawrence
John is at odds with the Brave New World. For example, when he and Lenina watch the movie, he thought it was bad, while she enjoyed it very much. He reacted this way, because he is not as easily entertained as the people of this society. He actually has emotions and thinks about the deeper meaning of life. He doesn't need a bad movie to stop this thinking. Also, he dislike's the doctors supplying of soma to his mother. He doesn't understand this euthanasia, because he actually loves Linda and values. As a result, he refuses soma, probably out of fear of its effects. Lastly, John finds the identical factory workers repulsive. On the Savage Reservation, he is use to hand-made pots and other creative works. To see the reduction of the human condition to a single mundane jobs must have been difficult to see for the first time.
ReplyDeletePatrick Kinley
The first thing that John is upset by in chapter ten is the doctor giving Linda so much soma. He didn't understand why he would do it when it is taking away so many years of her life.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I would have found upsetting if i were him was how everyone openly called him 'The Savage'. I don't see how he would allow his 'friend' Bernard treat him the way he does either. Bernard just uses John for status. I think John will get sick of this later in the book.
On the bottom of page 162 they are in the room where the Malthusian Drill is being taught. John finds it odd that the children are laughing at the movie they are watching about other peoples past religions.
I think he also finds the promiscuity of the Brave New World upsetting. I think this because at the end of chapter 11 Lenina practically invited him to her room but he just left without going inside.
It is very aparent that John dosen't fit into this society. One thing that John is upset about is the reliance on drugs such as soma. He has grown up in a society that showed emotion, and so he dosen't understand why so many people rely on it. Also, he is upset about how much soma the doctor allowed Linda to take. Another difference between John and the brave new world is the way that they react to things, for example, John and Lenina react to the movie differently. John thought the movie was terrible while Lenina thought the movie was wonderful. John and Lenina also have a hard time trying to figure each other out. They like each other, but because of the different cultures it's hard for them to tell whether the other person likes them. After the date, Lenina got out of the helicopter and wanted John to go to her house with her, but John didn't come. Lenina was hurt by this, but John thought he was being respectful to her.
ReplyDeleteI have a question..
ReplyDelete-Do you think that Bernard/John will do anything to save Linda from overdosing or will they let her die?