1. Brave New World
Chapters 7-10

2. Malpais: The Savage Reservation
Uncivilized
Gauge the imagined progress of the “civilized” world
Age changes people
Unchecked by chemicals and hormones
Women give birth and nurse their young
Natural process of decay produces sights and smells
Appall Lenina
Pains of birth and death exist
Essential facts of human life
“Civilization is Sterilization”
Fordian London clean
Birth and old age swept away entirely

3. Lenina and Linda
Linda the woman Lenina might have been under different circumstances
Linda’s unspeakable fate
To become a mother and grow old
A horror, and obscenity to a Fordian mind
An object of blasphemy and revulsion
Linda represents enormous power
A power that Bernard will use later to regain his position

4. Theme Huxley’s careful description of the flagellation ritual
Lenina finds the incessant drumming very familiar
Like a lower caste community sing
Her recognition draws attention to the underlying similarities between civilized and uncivilized worlds
Music can suspend inhibition and drive people to unity and action
People are still people
Open and vulnerable to powerful suggestion
Communities of all sorts use similar methods to enforce conformity and so promote stability

5. john Outsider born on the reservation
Emerges as contrast to Bernard in rebellious thought
Conflict will develop between John and the expectations of the “Other Place”
From this chapter forward, John and his struggle become the focus of the novel

6. Chapter 8

7. John Genetic Fordian Raised in Malpais
Represents potential combination of civilization and tradition
Life has been lonely and heartbreaking
John is the true individual Bernard sometimes longs to be
Huxley makes it clear:
Being truly individual means living in pain
Suffers rejection and humiliation
European appearance
Mother’s promiscuity
Banned from initiation into manhood
An old volume of Shakespeare’s plays becomes his guide to life

8. Shakespeare vs. hypnopaedia
John absorbs Shakespeare’s poetry through repetition
Just as young sleepers in the dystopia absorb hypnopaedic wisdom
In both cases
Words form perception
Shape behavior
Inspire direct action
John’s violent attack on Popé

9. Irony “O brave new world/That has such people in it.”
The difference between John’s awe of the “Other Place” and the reader’s knowledge of the dystopia
Hints at the disappointment that awaits John
Gives coherent focus to Huxley’s satire
The reality behind the fairy-tale “Other Place” his mother once described to him

10. John’s Own Experience with Conditioning
Associates the reality of sex with:
Absence of his mother
Fear
Humiliation
Intense physical pain
John displays strong, persistent aversion to sex
Despite his longing for Lenina
All people are vulnerable to powerful suggestion
Civilized and uncivilized

11. Chapter 9

12. Bernard and John Presented in unexpected positions of power
Allows reader to compare the two in similar circumstances
Bernard is a shameless opportunist
John reveals the complex, mixed feelings of his idealism

13. Bernard Beams with triumph
Bringing John and Linda to London
Revenging himself on the D.H.C.
Making arrangements with masterly briskness and efficiency
Patronizing tone and expectation of deference contrast sharply with his usual hesitancy
Power already gone to his head
Becomes an unbearable phony
Destined ultimately for a great fall

14. John Visit to the soma induced sleep of Lenina Child-like wonder
Explores her clothes and cosmetics
Bathed in her scent
Approach to the bed where Lenina lies contines mood of wonder and enchantment
Speaking in Shakespeare’s poetry
Looking on her with awe and longing
A character in a fairy tale

15. John is not an ideal knight
Chivalry or Repression?
Expression of respect and poetic delicacy
Early conditioning against sex
A young man raised as an outsider in the harsh conditions of Malpais
Haphazardly educated
Linda, elders, Shakespeare
Nothing in London or Malpais will ever be simple to such a complex, conflicted character

16. Chapter 10

17. The Fall of the D.H.C.
D.H.C. plans to chastise Bernard publicly for his unorthodox behavior
A necessity for social stability
Hypocritical
Really worried about Bernard revealing his unconventional feelings for Linda
Dramatic introduction of middle-aged Linda and her son
Brilliant counter-attack
A public humiliation that undermines the D.H.C.’s moral authority
Vision of pompous, hypocritical D.H.C. shocked into silent terror and revulsion
Bernard will avoid punishment
Improve social status

18. Linda and john Return home
Does not meet high expectations
Linda
Appearance seems to be ultimate punishment for motherhood
Aging, bloated, coarse
Workers shrink from her in horror
Never be accepted back into society of Fordian London
John
“My Father!”
Met with laughter
Young and handsome
Conforms to Fordian expectations
May be accepted as an exotic curiosity