Saturday, October 9, 2010

Huxley's "Brave New World"--Response 3 of 4

Hey my fellow bloggers! Again, I'm continuing with my responses, so feel free and comment! Play with these responses and tell me YOUR response to my responses. (Hahaha, your response to...oh, never mind. I laugh at my jokes. This is me desperately waiting for someone to comment. Anyone? **ECHOOOOOOOOOOOO** cue: sound of crickets at night.)


Reading Response #1
Huxley's "Brave New World"--Response 3 of 4
Pgs. 153-207; Chapters 11-14

There are two parts that stood out most to me these four chapters. The first part was when Lenina and John had an argument. Lenina came over to Johns place with the full intention of telling him how she felt. She wanted to tell him that she really liked him. She wanted to know how he felt. I found this whole hullabaloo comical due to the fact that they had a major misunderstanding. Of course John wanted her; it was just that he thought himself unworthy for her. She wanted him just as much and was getting irritated because she couldn’t understand what he was rambling on about. He wanted to prove to her that he was worthy enough and she was bewildered thinking that he didn’t need to prove anything to her.
Then, he became really upset because she just wanted to have him right then and there. Again, I thought this was funny. Shouldn’t it be Lenina’s position be where a man should be; where a man wants to have a woman, but she refuses, deeming it wrong without marriage?
When she began to take her clothes off, he called her a whore and “impudent strumpet.” I really must confess that this was just hilarious. He confessed his love to her and said that he wanted to marry her, but she did not understand and just furthered her irritation towards him. She didn’t understand what he meant when he said “love” and “marry.” Of course she wouldn’t know. She believes that “everyone belongs to everyone else.” So, they end up neither “having” each other with Lenina in the bathroom, putting her clothes back on, and John, muttering words, which to Lenina’s ears are insanity. John stomps away, after receiving a phone call about his dying mother. I guess, that’s that, I suppose. My sidesplitting laughter is evidence to how comical this particular scene was for me. Come on, this is extremely funny and sad at the same time. The feelings developing between the two opposites are being thwarted by their beliefs. Now, doesn't this sound quite familiar? Clashing beliefs prevent two people from "getting together." We can say that society nowadays plays a strict game of dodgeball. Maybe once in a while, two people get together regardless of their beliefs because love prevails! Or so I though.
The death of John’s mother is the second of my favorite part of these four chapters. Why? This is because this scene played a very significant part in the story. Death, in this brave new world is not taken with grief. People were conditioned to see death as a normal thing and to not be afraid of death. The nurse does not know that John was the savage and gets cross with him for almost “de-conditioning” the children because of his open display of loss, grief, and sadness. I realized that John, the savage, and the “humans” (you can hardly call them humans) are opposites. Where “real” humans grieve for their loss, these brave new humans were conditioned to accept the loss and move on. Why do you think it doesn’t bother them? I again numbly realized; it’s because they do not feel any love or attachment to anyone because “everyone belongs to everyone else.” What a sad-happy imperfect perfect world. What an oxymoron. What a paradox.

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