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Unit 19: Aldous Huxley—Brave New World: Detailed Study of Text-II

elites to visit and meet the Savage. However, he foolishly criticizes society and even goes so Notes
far as to lecture Mustapha Mond in a letter on ways that society could improve. The letter
amuses and angers Mond, who nevertheless chooses not to punish Bernard for his hubris.
Helmholtz Watson tells Bernard that he disapproves of Bernard’s boastfulness and pride.
Watson and the other social elites agree that Bernard’s behavior will one day lead “to a bad
end.” After a brief disagreement with Helmholtz in which the latter expresses his disappointment,
Bernard becomes angry and vows never to talk to him again.
John the Savage, meanwhile, receives a tour of a local radio tower and of an elementary
school, Eton, while Bernard acts arrogant and important the entire time. At the school, John
watches a video of Indian savages performing ritual worship while all the school children
laugh at them. John asks why everyone laughs and learns that the children laugh because the
scene is ridiculous and funny. John’s sense of displacement grows.

Lenina convinces John to go on a date with her. She takes him to a feelie show about a black
man who falls in love with a blonde-haired woman. In the movie, he abducts her, and after
three weeks, three strong Alpha Plus males finally rescue her. She then becomes the lover to
all three of them, and the black man must go to reconditioning. John finds the movie’s morals
offensive. He takes Lenina back to her place but leaves her before having sex. She becomes
upset because she had hoped to sleep with him and only recovers by taking soma. John goes
home and starts reading Shakespeare’s Othello because he recalls the presence of a black man
in the play.

Analysis

This chapter focuses on Bernard and John’s shifting behavior and attitudes. When Bernard
becomes important, he begin to like the society more, a change that reveals his baser side.
Pride and arrogance are Bernard’s tragic flaw, the personality trait that causes his downfall.
As long as Bernard felt inferior and out of place, he hated his society and explored the
meaning of human emotion and individuality. Because he did not accept societal norms, he
acted in an individual capacity and could identify with John’s plight back in the village, a
characteristic that John and Helmholtz Watson.

However, as soon as he becomes popular, Bernard rejects his previous hatred and starts to like
what society has to offer. Thus, he tells Helmholtz that he had six different women in one
week. Bernard emerges as a shallow and self-absorbed character who fails to realize that
selfishness is merely a different form of individuality and that he still has no place in a society
where individual lives are subordinate to social stability.
John’s attitude towards this “brave new world” changes as well. By visiting work sites and
participating in the world’s social elements, John becomes increasingly disillusioned with his
surroundings. Bernard notes that John often does not feel awe the technology around him,
which he considers strange for someone from the reservation, which has no technology or
science. John, however, holds onto something else: myth and story.

In the novel, myth is an attractive element in the human character. When Bernard attempts to
point out the advancement of his society, John remarks that the gods of his world also accomplished
such feats. Huxley thus suggests that the power of myth is as important to human character
as is the power of science. While the savages have no science, they survive and thrive on the
power of myth.
Throughout the chapter, John reads Shakespeare whenever he feels upset or confused. Shakespeare’s
literature and Linda’s previous life in civilized society have always been John’s only sources
of information about the other world. Since Linda is permanently under the influence of soma,

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