John sits with Linda in her hospital room, thinking of when he was young and her descriptions of London made it sound like heaven or paradise. In this simile, John shows that he still thinks of the place in his memory as heaven, although the real London is quite different.
Ace your assignments with our guide to Brave New World! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why are Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson friends? Why does John quote Shakespeare? What is soma? How are the castes different? What are the sexual norms of the World State? Why are Lenina and Bernard attracted to and repelled by each other? How do the Solidarity Service and the Indian ceremony compare to each other?
How does Bernard take advantage of John? What happens to John before and after the death of Linda? What issues does John debate with Helmholtz and Mustapha, the Controller? Linda and he—Linda was his mother the word made Lenina look uncomfortable —were strangers in the Reservation. Linda had come from the Other Place long ago, before he was born, with a man who was his father.
Bernard pricked up his ears. She had gone walking alone in those mountains over there to the North, had fallen down a steep place and hurt her head.
Some hunters from Malpais had found her and brought her to the pueblo. As for the man who was his father, Linda had never seen him again. His name was Tomakin. He must have flown away, back to the Other Place, away without her—a bad, unkind, unnatural man.
The squalor of that little house on the outskirts of the pueblo! A space of dust and rubbish separated it from the village. Two famine-stricken dogs were nosing obscenely in the garbage at its door. Inside, when they entered, the twilight stank and was loud with flies. In bowls on the floor were the remains of a meal, perhaps of several meals. The door opened.
A very stout blonde squaw stepped across the threshold and stood looking at the strangers staring incredulously, her mouth open. Lenina noticed with disgust that two of the front teeth were missing. And the colour of the ones that remained … She shuddered. It was worse than the old man. So fat. And all the lines in her face, the flabbiness, the wrinkles. And the sagging cheeks, with those purplish blotches.
And the red veins on her nose, the bloodshot eyes. And that neck—that neck; and the blanket she wore over her head—ragged and filthy. And under the brown sack-shaped tunic those enormous breasts, the bulge of the stomach, the hips. Oh, much worse than the old man, much worse! And suddenly the creature burst out in a torrent of speech, rushed at her with outstretched arms and—Ford!
She broke away as quickly as she could. A civilized face. Yes, and civilized clothes. Because I thought I should never see a piece of real acetate silk again. The nails were black. Though, of course, the acetate has all gone into holes. But such a lovely white bandolier—though I must say your green morocco is even lovelier. Not that it did me much good, that bandolier.
What I had to suffer—and not a gramme of soma to be had. And I was so ashamed. Just think of it: me, a Beta—having a baby: put yourself in my place. Is it still down in Chelsea, by the way? Lenina nodded. Great tears oozed slowly out from behind her tight-shut eyelids. And then a hot bath and vibro-vacuum massage … But there. I remember how it used to upset me, all that dirt, and nothing being aseptic. I had an awful cut on my head when they first brought me here.
Filth, just filth. How should they? And in the end I suppose I got used to it. And look at these clothes.
It lasts and lasts. Besides, it never used to be right to mend clothes. Everything they do is mad. Mad, I tell you, absolutely mad. Lenina nodded her averted head, let out the breath she had been holding and managed to draw another one, relatively untainted. They hate and despise you. Once a lot of women came and made a scene because their men came to see me.
Well, why not? And then they rushed at me … No, it was too awful. Mad, mad and cruel. And yet John was a great comfort to me. Even though he did get so upset whenever a man … Quite as a tiny boy, even. Because I never could make him understand that that was what civilized people ought to do.
Anyhow, John seems to have caught it from the Indians. Because, of course, he was with them a lot. Which was a good thing in a way, because it made it easier for me to condition him a little. What are you to answer? Skip to main content. Aldous Huxley — Search for:. They walked on. A blubbered and distorted face confronted her; the creature was crying. Silvia in Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona , 5,4, Huxley uses at least 46 direct quotations from Shakespeare in the novel.
Licenses and Attributions. Lenina finds the incessant drumming very familiar — just like a lower-caste community sing — and her recognition draws attention to the underlying similarities between civilized and uncivilized worlds. In both worlds, music can suspend inhibition and drive people to unity and to action recall, for example, Bernard's Solidarity Service. Whether dressed in rough wool or shiny viscose, Huxley reveals, people are still people, open and vulnerable to powerful suggestion.
Communities of all sorts — whether in Malpais or in London — use similar methods to enforce conformity and so promote social stability. Note especially the introduction of John, the outsider born on the reservation who emerges as a contrast to Bernard in rebellious thought. Huxley dramatizes the conflict that will develop between John and the expectations of the "Other Place" in his first exchange with Lenina, a bizarre trading of Shakespearean verse and hypnopaedic suggestion.
From this chapter onward, John and his struggle become the focus of the novel. Good-morrow old-fashioned greeting, used in Shakespeare's time, to mean "good day. Previous Chapter 6. Next Chapter 8. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title.
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