Bethany #5
In
answer to your questions, I agree with you on the soma rationing for the lower
castes. I believe the government has programmed the alphas to take soma and
have also programmed them to know that it is dangerous to take too much. They
extend control over the lower castes by controlling everything about them. In
chapter 17, the ford mentions that an “alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he
had to do Epsilon Semi-moron work…Alphas can be completely socialized” (222).
This shows the difference between the two castes. Alphas are programmed to be
different and they think they are superior to everyone else. That is why I
think they can handle the soma rationing on their own, because it’s been
programmed into them.
I
also agree with you about Lenina liking men who are different. I think she is a
representation of those who follow the guidelines of society and do not want to
stand out but is not satisfied with the way society actually is. I also think
John does in fact love Lenina. When he’s with her, he tries to do something
heroic so that he is worth of her and states “some kinds of baseness are nobly
undergone. I’d like to undergo something nobly.” (190). In today’s standards, a
man doing something noble for a women is starting to diminish. It is starting
to become abnormal for men to be gentlemen. This shows the values of the time
period. If he only loved her for her looks, then he would try to have sex with
her and he wouldn’t want to do something noble because his feelings for her are
shallow.
The
death condition was horrible because it reminded me of my grandmother’s death.
In this book, they make death seem so normal and unimportant. The fact that
John’s own mother could not even recognize him in her death broke my heart
because I believe one of the greatest things about being a human is being able
to have close relationships with others and depending on each other. Just like
most people who lose someone they are close to, he tries to recall her words “How
beautiful her singing had been! And those childish rhymes, how magically
strange and mysterious.” (201). Even the things he remembers about her are
manufactured things that are not meant to have any emotional meanings.
The
end of this book was so intense! All the things that society is made of came
out in chapters 17 and 18! All the questions I had about why things are the way
they are were basically answered! Because this is a consumer-based world, The
Controller states that “Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be
attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones.” (219). This idea
that the government wants the people to be attracted to what they give them
shows their need for control over the situation. Mustapha Mond goes on to say that
“We believe in happiness and stability” (222). They give up things like beauty,
emotions, love, and science so that society can be stable. I see the benefits of
a society like this but it’s not reflective of reality. I’m reminded of what
Mr. Dyck said a couple of days ago. He mentioned that when he is counseling
clients, he describes a perfect world and then he describes a world filled with
mistakes. He then asks them to choose which world they want to live in and they
always chose the “messed-up” world because the perfect world is unbelievable.
That is what is happening here. What do you think about the world that we live
in and the world that they live in.
Finally,
a lot of stuff happens to John in the end. What do you think about it and why
do you think the author writes the ending this way?
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