Brave new world Chapters 7-9
Chapters 7-9
Lenina and Bernard are led to a village by the Native American guide. Lenina is horrified by what she sees when they reach the village, the uncivilized and uncleanliness leaves her stunned, and Lenina realizes that she hasn't brought along any Soma. Bernard comments about the mothers feeding their children at the breast and believes that society may have missed something in replacing such a powerful reaction. Lenina and Bernard watch as the people of the village go through a bizarre ritual involving snakes, the cross of Christ, and Native American music. At the end of the ceremony, a young man circles the center as he is struck with a whip. After the ceremony is finished, a man with blond hair and blue eyes comes to Bernard and Lenina. He explains that his name is John, and he had wanted to be the one that was struck by the whip but he wasn't chosen because his skin complexion differed from what the others had. John explains that he was born to Linda, who like Lenina and Bernard had come to the reservation from the civilized world. She had been pregnant with him at the time, and she had been accompanied by the man who was his father, but Linda had gotten lost and had been rescued by the hunters from the village. Bernard is excited by this, as he believes that the father of the boy is the Director of the Hatchery from Central London. Soon Linda arrives, and she is overcome by the very sight of the civilized Lenina. Lenina on the other hand is horrified at the sight of the fat and old Linda, who smells of alcohol. Linda explains how she had become pregnant despite following all the procedures that women were taught in the World State. She tells Lenina about the horrors of living in this place. How there was no Soma to be had, and no means of cleaning. Linda was persecuted by the village women when she began to sleep with the men from the village since the people practiced monogamy, and she confesses that she thinks John too has been corrupted by the insanity.
Bernard is unable to understand life in the village and he asks John to tell him everything that he remembers about his life from the very beginning. John remembers that the other children in the village used to make fun of him, for he was always dressed in rags. Linda didn't know how to mend clothes, and so John always wore torn clothes. The children in the village also called Linda other names, names that he didn't know but that he understood to be bad. The women from the village came to their home one night and beat Linda with a whip. John tried to help Linda, but he was very small. John tried to comfort Linda, and she told him that the women had beaten her because she had been with men that these women claimed as their own. She lashed out at John, hitting him, and telling him that it was his fault that she was left to live with savages for she couldn't have gone to the warden when she was pregnant.
She taught him to read by drawing things on the wall with charcoal but she only had one book for him to read, and it was related to her work from the fertilization room in the Hatchery. Linda tells him stories of the civilized world, and he learns of all the beautiful things in the world, but John also learns of religion from the men in the village.
One day John returns home to find an old book, nearly eaten away by rats, it contains the works of Shakespeare and Linda explains that Pope brought it from somewhere and although she felt it contained nonsense, it still might be a good means for him to practice his reading. John read the books, and they transformed him, they gave his emotions words and materialized his feelings. One day he saw Pope lying with his mother, and verses from the books began to run through his mind that labeled Pope a villain. Pope often brought his mother mestcal, alcohol. Pope and Linda were asleep, drunk from the mestcal, and John wanted to kill the pope so he grabbed a knife and snuck to the pope and attempted to kill him but failed.
John remembers how the men in the village had hit him with stones when he had tried to participate in an initiation rite that the other boys in the village had been sent for. Bernard and John empathize with one another because they are both outsiders in their cultures and consequently alone. Bernard wants to take John to the civilized world, an idea that he had been toying with in his head since he learned who John's father had been.
Lenina returns to the rest house and promptly doses herself with a lot of Soma, so much so that she is unlikely to be woken by anything for the next 18 hours. Bernard on the other hand lays in the darkness deep into the night, but before he goes off to sleep he has determined a course of action. The next morning, when the pilot returns to their rest house with the helicopter, Bernard heads off into the city, leaving Lenina at the resthouse for a short duration. Bernard reaches the city and contacts the world controller's office, and is having a conversation with Mustapha Mond himself very soon. Bernard believes that the case of John and Linda would be of scientific interest to the World Controller and he agrees. The requisite permissions were sent to the warden of the reservation, and after a short time in the city, Bernard is flying back to the reservation with all the required permits.
John waits in front of the resthouse and calls for Bernard but there is no answer, and when he tries to open the door, he finds it locked. John is horrified, because he feels like he has been betrayed and that Bernard and Lenina had left him. He looks into the window and notices a bag, impulsively, he takes a stone and breaks the window and vaults inside. He opens the bag to find Lenina's things and is instantly immersed in her smell. He rummages happily and hungrily through her things but is interrupted by a sound. He stuffs back all the things inside and goes across to the other room to find Lenina in a deep sleep. He crouches close by and stares at her, and thinks of Juliet and how Lenina's beauty is beyond anything he had ever seen. Soon, the sound of the helicopter breaks his reverie and he goes out to discover Bernard returning.
Analysis
John and Bernard are both outsiders but the difference in their experience serves to contrast the cultures that they belong to. John's personal history is central to his character, the series of unfortunate events that he was exposed to make him who he is. Bernard on the other hand has never experienced intense situations like John because the world state was created specifically to contain the development of such characteristics. John draws on the works of Shakespeare for understanding emotions, a writer whose work no one in the civilized world is aware of. This aspect of John's character foreshadows his conflict with the morally corrupt world of the civilized world.
Lenina and Bernard experience the ritual without the aid of Soma and are overcome by the spectacle, while the natives can process it without the aid of substances like Soma. And when Lenina returns to the rest house, she immediately takes an extra- large dose of Soma because she has been conditioned to suppress such strong emotions. On the other hand, Bernard, the individual, who doesn't completely conform to the ideals of the world state, stays awake to plot revenge.
