As I ended the eigth chapter of Brave New World I found myself thinking about the words of the character John, "O brave new wolrd, O brave new world that has such people in it. Let's start at once."
Bernard's responce to this is, "...And, anyhow, hadn't you better wait till you actually see the new world?"
I thought about this and came to the conclusion that, although John had had a terrible childhood until that point and was thrilled to be given the chance to be free of his ill treatmen, he had no idea of the controlled world into which he was eager to enter and had no idea of the treatment he would receive from this new society. This act of despiration shows that he did not stop and think: If Bernard, a person FROM that "new world", was treated badly by his peers and disliked for his differences would he, John, also be treated as someone who's "different"?
His eagerness to rush into a society of which he had not the faintest idea about was not "brave" but possibly insane. This "new world", as we have seen, is a "perfect" place where "everyone belongs to everyone" and everything is controlled by social class. John is already "different" because he has a mother and a father, he was not brainwashed from birth to learn "right and wrong", he was taught that there is only one woman for one man, and not the twisted "everyone for everyone" way of life and finally, he was raised in a place where you had to get tough or die.
Dispite all of this not a single one of 4 characters, (Bernard, Linda, John and Lenina), stopped to think: Would these differences not prejudice the people's oppinions about John and Linda in this New World?
I can see why these people would want out of their lifestyle, but still they didn't stop to think it through before jumping in with both feet!
Vectorbeam Doom
1 hour ago
1 comment:
Actually, "brave new world" wasn't really John's thoughts on Bernard's world, he was merely quoting Shakespeare's work.
Post a Comment