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.
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In chapter 13, all the kids are seeing Linda dying and they say things about how hideous and ugly and fat she looks. This is related to the problem of our society where we judge people based on their appearances. I think Huxley is telling us that this is a shallow way to make our judgments and that we should be ashamed of ourselves for being so narrow minded. I think that Huxley would like it if nobody judged anyone else. If we can't be free of judgment, I think Huxley wants us to at least get to know the person really well before passing judgment on their character. "Let he among us without sin be the first to condemn" (La Vi Boheme, Rent).
ReplyDeletePeter Diliberti
These are just some of my reactions to the reading:
ReplyDelete-"A doctor a day keep the jim-jams away," which is similar to our "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Because this society is so advanced with technology, this could be something that people actually live by. To us, it seems crazy, but then again so does test tube babies and the caste system.
-Lenina was dying at such a young age-22 years, eight months, and four days (just to be exact:) you would think that this society would want to show their amazing scientific skills and have people live forever, but if that were true, the people would start to think and therefore rebel.
-Malthusian Belt--Thomas Malthus and the population theory. Birth control
-I thought it was funny when the Savage was trying to get into the Death Hospital to visit Linda that his excuse to see her was that she was his mother. Well... wrong. There are no "mothers" in this society but the state. The woman working there would have been extremely shocked.
These chapters were very sad, but we start to see people in the community rebel.
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In the reading when John was at the death hospital witnessing the workers receive their soma ration, John decided that he was going to save them. He tried to take their soma ration from them. He started trowing all the soma, and making it out of reach for all the workers. The workers attacked John. This emphasizes the societies dependance on drugs, and it shows what lengths the people will go to, to make sure that they receive their soma.
ReplyDeleteHuxley would think this behavior is animalistic and demeaning to humans. It shows how addictive drugs can be and the level people will stoop down to, to satify their addition
The scene in which Lenina tries to force herself on John and then John becomes upset and angry with her...
ReplyDeleteHuxley is pointing out a societal trend of promiscuity. He believes that this is wrong. Specifically, he is highlighting the fact that promiscuity leads to superficial relationships. He continually juxtaposes Lenina's misunderstanding of John's expressions. She simply does not understand the concept of love, because it is at odds with her conditioning. Moreover, her promiscuous attitude has likely rendered her ability to love useless. If society says everyone can have everyone else, and Lenina has had dozens, then her ability to love or to have serious feelings of affection is seriously hampered.
A few allusions I noticed...
The Malthusian Belt which relates to Thomas Malthus' theory of population. Also, "A doctor a day keeps the jim-jams away," alludes to the popular saying " An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Lastly, there were a few Shakespeare quotes in the text. For example, The Savage alluded to Julius Caesar when he said, "lend me your ears..."
Patrick Kinley
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ReplyDeleteWhen john is trying to explain to the delta children what freedom and being men is like, he is looked at like a fool and the crowd becomes angry at him. Then the police come and reinstitue controll, but john and the other two dont come peacefully, so the police used none lethal force to stop them.
ReplyDeleteThe connection to todays world is how people who are differnt or voice a differnt opinion are; put down, reject, shunned, and even punished. This may not be as big of an problem in America as the rest of the world, but in places like North Korea or China people are thrown in jail for their thoughts on subjects. In North Korea you can be killed for just going out of the country. In huxleys view this would be unexceptable and far beyond his streched ideas in BNW. I guess you truely do have to be BRAVE to live in a brave new world.
An allusion i found where police. This is an allusion because in the brave new world you shouldnt need police if everyone behaves well and acts on their conditing. I found this to be funny, because the police had water pistols and soma guns. Far differnt from the lethal guns modern police use.
Huxley was really mocking this society in the scene where the police came to the hospital to save the day for all the Delta workers. After John and Helmholtz threw all the soma out the window, it had seemed as if they had really made their point. Although the workers may not have felt free at the time, they would eventually lose their dependence on the drug and become more like men and less like "mewling and puking" infants. John and Helmholtz were almost victorious, and if they had been successful, perhaps the novel could have ended there, but Huxley had to point out that these people have gone too far down the slippery slope and are pretty much helpless. The police arrived and pumped soma vapor into the air while playing a peaceful, soothing voice from a synthetic music box. It's almost disgusting how much like infants these people really are (perhaps it's not just a metaphor). These people can't control themselves when they're deprived of just one day's soma ration. I found it ironic that to keep society in order, the police give the people drugs instead of keeping people drug-free as in today's world.
ReplyDeleteOne allusion I noticed was the Super-Vox-Wurlitzeriana, a TV music station. Vox refers to vocals or music, and Wurlitzer was a company that made pianos and organs.
Elliott Lawrence
The scene where Lenina tries to force herself on John is an example of how sometimes in our world sex is abused. In the book huxley turns it around where a girl forces herself on a guy rather than a guy on a girl. He is still pointing out that to much sex an rape are terrible things and shouldn't be done. John has some guts standing up to her and not just giving in because it would be really easy to do. This scene also shows how some relationships bring out physical abuse. John though was mostly to stop Lenina but in our world people are so adicted to sex that they will result to violence.
ReplyDeleteThe scene where John tries to tell Lenina how he truly feels about relates to today's society. It relates to today's society because Lenina doesn't seem to really care about what John is feeling as long as she can have him. Society today seems to want to have sex before marriage a lot more than in the past. This seems to happen because people aren't in love but just infatuated with another person. John feels sex is a sacred act and should happen only when two people are married. Lenina is like our society by only caring for the physical and not the emotional. It is quite amazing how Huxley could see our world turning into a world where sex isn't as sacred and performed much more especially outside of marriage.
ReplyDelete-Bobby LeWarne
In this section, i feel like there is a theme of the harmful effects of soma. Soma is killing Linda, and all anyone can think about is how bad she looks. Kids talk about how ugly and fat she is. This is related to a problem that we have. We base our first impression and judgment on how they look.
ReplyDeleteSoma is killing workers who get it from the caskets. No one seems to care that they are dying; no one seems to even notice that they are dying. This problem in our society is like the genocides and social cleansing that go on in Africa, and that happened in through out history. I think that Huxley would have mocked some of the same things, if he was alive,but the mockeries would be even more severe. The problems that were around during Huxley's time are still around today. This shows that, even though we have made 'leaps and bounds' in society, we still have some of the same fundamental problems that have been around for hundreds of years.
-Vince Driscoll
In the scene when the Deputy Subursar was handing out the soma ration to the Deltas and they got to rowdy and he threatened them with no supply of soma. "The Deltas muttered, jostled one another a little, and then they were still. The threat had been effective. Deprivation of soma-appailing thought!" I think Huxley is trying to show that if this society didn't have its daily ration of soma that the people of BNW would go crazy. This is also a problem with people in our society becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol. These addicts will go crazy if they don't get their needs of drugs. Just like what the Deltas did when John was throwing the soma out the window. They attacked him viciously and were prepared to kill him if he didn't stop.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Battani
I think that while John is making fun of the Brave New World citizens he is also subtly making fun of John too. While he doesn't like the fact that people use Soma and that Linda is killing herself with Soma, he doesn't try to do anything about it. He waits until it effects his life personally before he goes and tries to do something about it,(throwing it out the window). I think that this shows how people in our society may give sympathy to the troubles in the world, but don't actually act on those unless it effects us personally.
ReplyDelete-Zach Duff
When John And Lenina are together at the beginning of the reading, she wants to sleep with him whereas he wants to make himself 'worthy of her.' The two of them are un such extreme levels of difference that they end up in a fight where john strikes Lenina so hard that she has a hand print left where she was striked. In today's society we often let our anger and jealousy overcome our emotions. We tend to say rude things to people we love and we end up hurting them. We even let our anger lead us to physical fights with other people. Another thing about this scene is that John let his lust for Lenina take over his emotions as well. He thought he was in love with her when in reality he hardly even knew her. He only wanted to talk to her because of how visually appealing she was to him. And he ended up shoving her away [literally] because he found her to be a whore [at least that's what he says in the book]. Our world is so full of lust. Every time we turn on the TV, open a book, or plug in our headphones, we see and hear things about sex and drugs and alcohol and lust and all of the corruption and evils our world has made so accessible to us. Maybe we should start to work backwards in this area instead of forwards? Just some food for thought.
ReplyDeleteMary Kate Leister
The scene through out chapter thirteen, where Lenina is forcing herself constantly upon John, can relate to problems we have in our world today with easy promiscuity, and in a way, our society even promotes a little now one of Linda's core beliefs, that everyone belongs to everyone.
ReplyDeleteThroughout this scene, we see John confessing his true feelings to Lenina finally, and her taking it completely the wrong way. Society has blurred her judgement of the phrases "I want you", and "I love you", to make them seem like they mean the same thing. So when John is professing his love for her, all she can think about is how he wants her, when John understands a much greater picture of love than just the physical aspect of it. John even tries quoting Shakespeare a little to teach her that there is more to love than just the physical aspect, and him telling her this just leaves her feeling much more angry and confused.
Lenina starts out this scene by telling Franny how she only wants John, and Franny completley doesn't understand that. But I think that, in a way, John is making a little bit of progress with Lenina, because she is singling him out, and she sees him as more than just a play toy for her to fill her physical longing when she feels like it, (which is how she has seen men up until this point).
Eily Brett
When Lenina figures out John likes her she goes ahead and tries to force herself on him. I think Huxley is trying to point out that people are willing to be promiscous and be with anyone who shows them a little affection. I think he's also pointing out how Lenina does not have the capability to understand what a real relationship is and keeps misreading John's actions. John wants to have a relationship with Lenina, and Lenina cannot comprehend this.
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of questions again:
ReplyDelete-Why do you think that Lenina argued with Fanny about John so much even though she doesn't really love him?
-Why do you think that the nurse was more concerned with the children and their "death conditioning" than Linda?
-And what exactly is "death conditioning"? I didn't really understand it.