Thursday, October 14, 2010

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

The last chapters of this book were incredible! The conversation that John had with Mutsapha Mond was really incredible. John questions the Controller’s philosophy and vice versa. John cannot believe that the controller would give up something like individuality, art, God, and science for other people’s happiness. They discussed a lot about how God can be absent even if the Controller himself believes that there might actually be a god. John believes that a lot of what the Controller does is immoral and ungodly. The Controller believes that people believe what they are conditioned to believe. It is just like how people believe God because they were conditioned to believe in god. Again, I really must say that their conversation was invigorating. Why was it invigorating? I really must admit that I am a sucker for the talk of philosophy and anything to do with life in general. It was incredibly fascinating the way Mutsapha Mond shone some light on the subject about why people believed in God. His words were illuminating and as a devout Catholic, it made me see and realize that what he was saying is true. Logically, it is true! I was raised to be a Catholic, so Catholicism is what I believe in. If I was raised as a devout Mormon, then logically, I should believe in the ways of a Mormon. These thoughts made my head spin so fast, I had to take several moments to pause and regain a sense of balance in my mind. It felt like a hurricane just blew in an wreaked havoc amongst my thoughts. These words actually made me stop and think. Not a lot of books have this effect on me, and that is why I fell in love with this book.
Continuing on the story, John has yet again, proven to be one of the best characters in this novel. He believes in how horrifying he has been that he has prepared to make himself suffer for it. He made himself suffer for his mother’s death by purifying himself the Indian way: drinking mustard and boiled water. Then he “forced” himself to not think of Lenina and how much he loved her, even if he thought she was an “impudent strumpet.” I am awed by his passion and belief of what wrong he has done. I cannot believe he brings upon himself physical pain just to get the gods to forgive him. It just goes to show that you cannot expect someone who has been raised and “conditioned” differently to take a whole new way of life with grace, poise, and gusto.
There are many things that I do not get from this book, but it has managed to shaken me to think the unthinkable words, “what if…”
There’s one thing that I don’t get though. I don’t get the ending. What’s with the directions? Why were they so important? What did the last paragraph mean?

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