BNW- blog 19

Chapter 18



Summary:
Helmholtz and Bernard go to say good bye to John. John wanted to go with them to the island, but Mond wouldn't allow it. He said John had to finish the experiment. John is then taken to a secluded area to live in a lighthouse. He chose this lighthouse because it is far away from people and theoretically, he will be alone. Once he gets to the lighthouse, he feels he doesn't diserve to live in such a beautiful place. His first night there, he holds his arms out in a mock crucifixion and begs for forgiveness. The next morning he still feels he is unworthy. He starts to plant a garden and make a bow and some arrows. He is having a good time carving, until he realizes he is having a good time and immediately starts thinking about his dead mother making himself miserable. 


John continues on with his strange masochistic routine everyday until three Delta-Minuses drive past the lighthouse. They see him whipping himself and can't believe it and go back to the society and tell everyone. A few days later, reporters flocked to John. The first reporter to show up got dropkicked and every reporter after that was a little more conscientious about trying to get an interview. After awhile it seemed like people had left him alone. 

One afternoon, John begins to think about Lenina. He thinks about the time she confronted him about her feelings, naked. To keep himself from thinking impure thoughts, he runs and jumps into a thorny bush and thinks about his dying mother. He still can't stop thinking about a naked Lenina and starts whipping himself. 

There is a reporter hiding in a bush films everything. He is a very important famous reporter. He makes a feely out of the footage and everyone swarms John. People throw peanuts at him, and start chanting, "We want the whip!" John picks up his whip and starts advancing toward the crowd and they back up. A helicopter decends and out walks Lenina and Henry. John looks at her and runs at her and starts whipping her. The crowd imitates his action and everyone starts singing Orgy-Porgy. 

John wakes up and remembers everything that happened. Awhile later reporters show up to interview him and finds him hanging from the rafters swinging back and forth. 


Vocab:
Viscose ~adj~ Sticky; Thick; Adhesive


Lit. Terms:
Simile ~ “…like turkey buzzards settling on a corpse, the reporters came.”
Allusions ~
"Maiden of Mátsaki"

Americans of Malpais

Jesus Christ

Shakespeare~

Measure for Measure ~ Thy best of rest is sleep and that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st thy death which is no more."

Othello ~ "Impudent strumpet!"

Antony and Cleopatra ~ "Eternity was in our lips and eyes."

Troilus and Cressida ~ "Fry, lechery, fry!"

Hamlet ~ Sleep. Perchance to dream. […] For in that sleep of death, what dreams…?"

~ "A good kissing carrion."

Macbeth~ "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."

King Lear~ "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. Thunder again; words that proclaimed themselves true – truer somehow than truth itself. And yet that same Gloucester had called them ever-gentle gods."



Chapter Importance:
John is a freak; he isn't a part of society. He wants nothing to do with the society, so he kills himself. Not only that, but by killing himself, he allows society to win. When you don't fit into this society, they send you away so you don't mess with the stability. This society was messing with John's mental stability. He just wanted to be left alone.

BNW- blog 18

Chapter 17

Summary:
After Helmholtz left the office, Mustapha and John continue to talk, but the subject shifts to religion. John tries to explain the religious views of the people on Savage Reservation, but there are no words to describe them. Mustapha has always been interested in God and pulls out The Holy Bible, The Varieties of Religious Experience and The Imitation of Christ. John asks Mond why all of these books and religion are band and Mustapha tells him they, like Shakespeare, are too old. No one would understand them because God doesn't exists anymore

Mustapha reads out of some of the books and then goes on to explain why there is no God today. John asks Mond what he thinks. Mustapha believes that there probably is a God, but he manifests himself in many ways. In a Brave New World, God happens to take an absent form.

John says, "Isn't it natural to think there's a God?" Mond says that thinking there is a God is just conditioning. Well it may have been instinct in the past, in Brave New World; they create instinctual feelings by conditioning. The citizens of the new world's 'instincts' are to not believe in God.

John tries to contradict Mustapha by bringing up the point that being in solitude often brings up thought of a higher power. Mond reminds him that they have essentially gotten rid of solitude.
John, trying to prove his point, quotes lines from King Lear.

John's next point is that maybe God is punishing today's society to live like they do. Mond tells him that man hasn't been demoted; he is happy and perfect. Mustapha realizes that from John's point-of-view as an unconditioned person, the state of society now is terrible. By the standards of Brave New World, the people of even the lower caste have free will.

They continue to talk and John decides that while society prefers to be comfortable; John wants God, poetry, danger, freedom, goodness, and sin. He claims the right to be unhappy.


Vocab:
Neurasthenia ~noun~ an obsolete technical term for a neurosis characterized by extreme lassitude and inability to cope with any but the most trivial tasks


Lit. Terms:
Allusions:

"The Holy Bible"

"Maiden of Mátsaki"

Thomas à Kempis ~The Imitation of Christ

William James ~ The Varieties of Religious Experience

Cardinal Newman ~ Sermon No. 6 of his Plain and Parochial Sermons, Volume 5 

Shakespeare ~
King Lear ~ The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us…

Hamlet ~ "[A philosopher is] a man who dreams of fewer things than there are in heaven and earth."

~ Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them…"

Troilus and Cressida ~ But value dwells not in particular will. It holds his estimate and dignity as well wherein 'tis precious of itself as in the prizer."

Othello ~ "If after every tempest came such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death."

~ "All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."

The Life and Death of King John ~ "I Pandulph, of fair Milan, cardinal."


Chapter Importance:

In this society there is no old age, misery or suffering; all of which are things that would cause people to turn to God. There is no God to turn to in Brave New World, people are conditioned to not believe in one.

In this chapter is it said that 'Christianity with out the tears- that's what soma is.' People are now dependent on soma to make them happy, whereas people in the Savage Reservation turn to the Gods when they are sad and hurting. 

In this chapter we learn why there is no religion in the society. If there were religion, that means that there is something to be sad. Which would cause people to turn to a God for help. Sadness means instability which means the downfall of society.

Book Review/ Personal Response NOTES

• Book Review
• Summary of Book
• start with what the book is about 
• this is going to be your thesis statement
• think about the theme
• Personal View of book
• what you liked 
• what you disliked
• Would you recommend  the book
• Why or why not?
• This should be fairly easy 
• Don't summarize the book chapter by chapter
• Talk about the book as a whole
• Pick a theme
• Summarize the book based on things that have to do with your theme
• Don't focus on too many people for your summary
• Plot
• Expositon
• Introduction of:
• Society
• Bernard
• Director
• Lenina
• John
• Linda
• Mustapha Mond
• Inciting-
• depends on who you think the main character is
• Going to the Reservation (Bernard)
• Leaving the Reservation (John)
• Rising
•  
• Climax
•  The riot over soma
• Falling
• Resolution
• John hangs himself

BNW- blog 16

Chapter 15


Summary:
John is leaving the hospital as 162 Delta workers are going out to get their soma rations. John starts preaching to the Deltas about how soma is dangerous to their health. The Deltas don't really understand anything that he is saying. John then starts taking handfuls of soma and tossing it out the window. This, the Deltas understand and are outraged and start charging John. Helmholtz and Bernard show up just in time. Helmholtz rushes to John's side to help him fight off the angry Deltas. Bernard however, contemplates whether or not he should help, and is rendered useless to the fight.


The police come bursting through the door armed with water guns full of soma and a synthetic music player, which holds the 'Voice of reason'. Everyone gets doused with soma and all of the Deltas start crying and kissing each other. Even John and Helmholtz are moved and tell the police they are going to cooperate.  Bernard is caught sneaking out the door and is told that he needs to go with the police because he is friends with John and Helmholtz.


Vocab:

Dolychocephalic ~adj~ having a head much longer than it is broad

Ardour ~noun~ great warmth of feeling
OR
Ardour ~noun~ intense devotion, eagerness, or enthusiasm


Lit. Terms:
Allusions:

The Tempest ~ "...O brave new world that has such people in it..."

Julius Caesar ~ "Lend me your ears..."


Chapter Importance:
People are conditioned to depend on soma to get them through the hard times. John discovers that no matter what he tells them, the Deltas aren’t going to listen.

BNW-blog 17

Chapter 16


Summary:
Bernard, John and Helmholtz are brought to the Controller’s office. Mustapha Mond enters and starts asking John questions. They begin talking about science and how he had the option to go to an island like Bernard and Helmholtz and destined to. When he mentions this, Bernard immediately starts groveling. Mustapha sends him away to be given soma to calm down. The rest of the men continue to carry out their conversation about what Mustapha had to give up to become a World Controller. Mustapha tells them all of the things the society had to give up to become stable, such as science.

Helmholtz asks Mond if he can be sent to an island with terrible weather because he thinks it will be easier to write. Mustapha thinks this is fair and agrees to it. Helmholtz goes to check on Bernard.



Vocab:
Parenthetically ~adj~ characterized by the use of parentheses



Lit. Terms:

Allusions:
The Tempest ~ "Sometimes a thousand twantgling instruments will hum about my ears and sometimes voices."

 Macbeth ~ "But they're… they're told by an idiot."

Othello ~ "Goats and Monkeys"




Chapter Importance:
We discover what the society had to give up to become stable.  They had to give up art and limit the ability scientists have to discover new things. Science leads to change, which leads to instability. 

We also learn how Mustapha became a World Controller. He used to be a physicist, a very good physicist. He was almost too good; he was doing things that only the ‘head cook’ should be able to do. The government asked him if he would rather go to an island to be isolated from society or to possibly become a world controller. He chose World Controllerism. He decided to put other peoples happiness before his own, which he sometimes regrets.

BNW- blog 15

Chapter 14

Summary:
John shows up at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying and goes to see Linda. Linda is sitting in her bed barely awake watching tennis. The nurse that had greeted John rushes to meet in the identical Delta children.

John then starts thinking about all of the good memories he had with his mother. The children have flocked to Linda's bed because they have never seen anything like her. John hits one child and the nurse distracts the children with a game on Hunt-The-Zipper. Linda, who had fallen asleep, starts to wake up and mumbles something about Popè. John is so furious that she would think of Popè. Now all John can think about is all the bad memories surrounding Linda and the Reservation. John shakes his mother out of her sleep. Linda realizes its John but in her mind she is with Popè, and John is intruding. Linda starts gasping for air and dies. John yells for the nurse and starts crying. The nurse doesn't understand why John is freaking out. A little boy repeatedly asks John if Linda is dead and John pushes him over and walks away.

Vocab:
Moribund ~adjective~ in a dying state; near death.

Lit. Terms:
Simile: "...the little figures noiselessly darted, like little fish in an aquarium."
Irony:
~ The Hospital has no visitors. Hospitals normally have visitors. It is usually encouraged  to go visit the sick.
~ John is freaking out about his mothers death and the nurse asks him to behave. Usually when someone dies like Linda did, it is normal to freak out. John thinks he killed his mother, and he can't understand why the nurses aren't caring.
 
Chapter Importance:
We see how the society views death. We see the difference in how John sees death and how the society views death. Where John comes from, death is considered sad and when someone dies they are to be morned. The society views death as a happy thing. When someone dies, they are cremated and the ashes are used to help plants grow.

The way Linda dies is a little unusual for the society. Most people go peacefully; but when Linda is taking her last breathes, there is a look of absolute terror in her eyes. She was clawing the air, like she was checking to make sure it was there. When he had finally died, her face was distorted and her lips were blue.