Summary and Analysis of Chapters 13-15
Chapter 13 Summary: Lenina's crush on John Savage becomes more uncontrollable for her. At one point Henry Foster tells Lenina that she appears sick and asks what is the matter. While he is talking, Lenina begins to get annoyed at him, and she finally tells him to shut up. Later, Lenina discusses her sole desire for John Savage with Fanny. Fanny, her ever practical friend, tells Lenina she must either forget about John and sleep with other men, or take the initiative and go directly to John's room. Lenina realizes that Fanny is correct. She therefore takes some soma to bolster her courage and goes to visit John. After she arrives she tells him that she likes him. John, with images from Shakespeare in his head, tells her that he feels unworthy of her, and begs her to somehow make him become him worthy. Lenina is soon very confused because John constantly quotes Shakespeare and talks about his feelings. It is only after John tells Lenina that he loves her that she thinks she understands him. Lenina's response to being told that John loves her is to strip off her clothes and try to kiss him. Her reaction is perfectly natural given her cultural upbringing. John, however, reacts first with shock and then with rage. He screams, "Whore, impudent strumpet" at her and flings her away. While John tries to slap her, Lenina runs into the bathroom and shuts the door. She then has to beg him to return her clothes and belongings. Luckily, the phone rings and when John answers it pertains to Linda being sick. John rushes out of the room, leaving Lenina, terrified, in his room. AnalysisSince Lenina has no conception of other cultures and traditions, let alone the Indian traditions, her conception of being in love is for a couple to have sex. Thus, when John tells her he loves her, she logically assumes that he must want to have sex with her. The entire scene of Lenina going to John is a first and final assertion of individuality on the part of Lenina. After her stripping naked causes John to erupt in violence, she immediately reverts back to the sociological ideals which are her security. Thus Lenina quotes her hypnopaedic learning to John while she is in the bathroom. His reaction and their subsequent struggle has the sad effect of destroying Lenina's move towards individuality. John's actions are enigmatic at first but logical in light of the story he tells in chapter 8. John tells how he used to become furious at his mother because she would have sex with so many men. Since his ideals are those of the Indian tribe, namely monogamy, John has a great deal of pent up anger towards his mother. Thus when Lenina strips for him she suddenly becomes everything he hates about Linda. At that moment, Lenina also strips away the power she held over him, namely the power of being desirable. In the baseness of nudity Lenina becomes an object which embodies his mother's base attributes. Thus John takes all of his rage out on Lenina and drives her away from him. A more philosophical interpretation of this scene is to view Lenina's nakedness as the unveiling of the Utopian society. The society is described in terms of beauty, happiness and perfection. However, when stripped of its garments the society appears just as base and human as the Indian society which John left. Thus, Lenina's nakedness becomes a catalyst in making John realize the gross imperfections of the Utopian society. He realizes at that moment that he cannot survive in this society any better than he could survive in the Indian village. A subtle irony is that in the Indian village John struggled to belong to the social structure, whereas in Utopia he now struggles to avoid it. Chapter 14 Summary: John Savage goes to the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying to see his mother Linda. He first encounters the head nurse, who is astonished that anyone would want to see the dying or dead. Since society has abandoned individuality, dying is considered to be beneficial to the society. John finds Linda in an unconscious state and tries to rouse her. Meanwhile, the head nurse then leads an entire Bokanovsky group (a large group of identical twins) into the room for their death conditioning. The boys act as if they are in a game room, and the head nurse encourages them to have fun. The idea is that if death and fun are always intermingled then people will lose their natural fear of dying. When the boys notice Linda they make fun of her ugliness and fatness. John angrily picks one of the boys up and tosses him away from her. The head nurse is upset that John interfered in the death conditioning and warns him to behave. When Linda returns to a state of semi-consciousness she asks for Pope. Up until that point John had been remembering the positive memories with her at Malpais (the Indian village). Her mention of Pope, though, convert his memories to bad ones. Out of frustration he starts to shake her in an effort to get her to recognize him. Linda suddenly becomes cognizant of John's presence, but before she can speak she begins choking and fails to breathe anymore. John realizes that he shook her too hard, and he runs to get the head nurse. When she arrives they see that Linda has already passed away in her bed. The head nurse, more concerned about the death conditioning of the young boys, returns to them with an offer of chocolate eclairs. John sits by the bed and cries over Linda's death until he is again interrupted by the boys, at which point he silently strides from the room. Analysis: The two concepts of individual death presented in these chapters are starkly different. John's conception of death holds that each individual represents a whole unto itself. Therefore each individual should be mourned when they pass away. The Bokanovskied children are being taught to view death in precisely the opposite way. They are learning to view death in a societal context, where the individual has no meaning. Thus death is merely something that happens, and since it does not harm society, it is not something which the people need to fear. The transition between the good and bad memories that John has is a sharp foreshadower of the upcoming events. John initially remembers the good times he had with Linda. But when she mentions Pope's name, he is only able to recall the bad memories, such as the time he tried to kill Pope. This parallels John's vision of the Utopian world, which had been unsullied before he actually arrived in London. However, now that he is actually there, all that is left for him in Utopia are the negative events. With the passing of Linda, John must come to terms with the fact that he is now alone in the Utopian society. All of the "benefits" which the society was meant to confer have turned out to be things which John is morally repulsed by. In his quest to maintain his own individuality, John will soon realize that he cannot live as a sane member of the society. Chapter 15 Summary: Stepping out of the elevator on the ground floor of the hospital, John confronts one hundred and sixty-two Deltas divided into two Bokanovsky groups. They comprise the menial staff of the hospital and are waiting to receive their soma for the day. The Savage watches them line up to receive their daily ration and starts repeating the phrase "Oh brave new world" to himself. He suddenly decides that the phrase is a call to arms, a challenge to make the world a new place. John Savage pushes his way to the front of the group and starts preaching to the Deltas. He tells them that the soma is poison and that he has come to bring them freedom. The Deltas are by definition mentally stunted, and they begin to get upset at not receiving their soma. Soon they start to press closer to John, who manages to seize the soma box filled with the rations. Bernard and Helmholtz get a call from the hospital telling them the Savage is there. They rush over to find John dumping the soma out the window with one hand while punching the Deltas who are attacking him with the other. Helmholtz laughs at this and immediately joins in, yelling, "Men at last!" Bernard hesitates about joining in the fray, becomes scared and waits instead. Soon the police arrive and spray the air with soma, thus subduing the mob. Bernard tries to sneak out, but is caught. John, Bernard, and Helmholtz are put in a police car together and taken to Mustapha Mond. Analysis:John's struggle to maintain his individuality is compromised by the Utopian society. Thus his struggle becomes one of destroying the "sameness" of the society. For John, "sameness" becomes visually embodied in the Bokanovskied twins. The physical appearance of multitudes of twins, all replicated and all doing the same job, represents the total eradication of individuality. John logically blames soma for this elimination of individuality. Soma is most often used to suppress emotions, which are the defining characteristics of individuals. By trying to force the Deltas to act as individuals, John attacks the roots of the society. He sees the difference between the social order and individuality as one of freedom. In the process he is acting individually as well. Helmholtz realizes this and it is why he joins the Savage with the cry, "Men at last!" The irony at this point is that although John and Helmholtz seek to force the Deltas to act as individuals, the result is diametrically opposite. The Deltas instead begin to act as a unified mob, a classic example of people who have lost all ability to make personal choices. Huxley is pointing out that not only does a mob rob its members of their individuality, but that the Utopian society is in reality a carefully orchestrated mob. Bernard represents a pathetic individual for whom the reader can only feel sympathy. Bernard is so fearful of fully acting as an individual that he is still seeking to be accepted into the society. Thus Bernard is unwilling to join his friends because he is afraid that he will be permanently rejected from society, not realizing that he already has been. This is represented by Huxley in the scene where Bernard tries to sneak out of the hospital with the multitude, but is prevented from leaving by the police. He is then ushered into the car with the Savage and Helmholtz, firmly implicating him as an individual.
ClassicNote on Brave New World
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