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

The whole premise of this form of utilitarianism is that people should be happy and live in Notes
a stable society. Therefore, one must ban anything that would interfere with happiness. However,
in dividing the happy from the unhappy, the meaning of individuality ceases to exist in any
meaningful sense, a fact that the Savage cannot accept. He desires to be an individual, which
entails the right to unhappiness as well as to happiness.
Huxley names the banishment of art, science, and religion as the three major criteria that must
occur to create stability. All of these lead to emotional, physical, or spiritual unrest and would
thus threaten society. As a result, one must either eliminate them or use them only when they
promote stability and consequently happiness, as in the case of science.

Chapter 18

Summary
Helmholtz and Bernard go to visit John, who is vomiting in his room. When they ask him
what is wrong, he replies, “I ate civilization... It poisoned me.” John tells the two men that he
visited Mustapha Mond that morning and asked if he could join them on the island. Mustapha
refused his request, indicating that he wanted to continue the experiment of reconciling John
to civilization.
Seeking solitude, John runs away and finds an abandoned lighthouse, which he makes his
home. He spends the first night on his knees in contrition and repentance to his gods so that
he will be worthy to enter the lighthouse and inhabit it. John makes a bow and arrows in order
to shoot game for food. He also sets up a small garden to provide food for the next year. John
starts singing while making the bow, but he recalls his vows to remember Linda and make
amends to her soul. Out of anger at his forgetfulness, John starts to beat himself with a
knotted cord.
Three Delta Minus landworkers happen to see John beating himself. Amazed by this incredible
display, they return to town where they tell everyone about it. Three days later reporters
begin to arrive, trying to get an interview. John kicks the first man to approach him so hard
that the man cannot sit comfortably afterward. The other reporters get the same treatment and
begin to leave him alone. A few hover in helicopters, but when he shoots an arrow through
the floor of the nearest one they too back off.
A few days later, while digging in his garden, John starts to think about Lenina. He immediately
tries to get her out of his mind by masochistically running into some thorn bushes, but he still
remembers the smell of her perfume. He then grabs his whip and begins to lash himself on
the back ferociously.

Unluckily, a reporter named Darwin Bonaparte is hiding in the woods and records the entire
scene. The movie is made into a feel and within a day of its release, several hundred helicopters
arrive at the lighthouse with spectators. A huge crowd forms and they all start shouting for
him to use the whip. While they chant the phrase, “We - want - the whip,” a helicopter arrives
with Henry Foster and Lenina.
Lenina steps out of the helicopter to talk to John, but he cannot hear her over the roar of the
crowd. His confusion turns to rage, and he rushes at her with the whip, beating her repeatedly
to kill the flesh. In this state of hysteria, the crowd starts to chant “Orgy-porgy.” They dance
and sing until John loses himself in the hysteria.
Several hours later, John lies on the heather in a soma-induced sleep after an evening of
sensual frenzy. When he wakes up and remembers what occurred, he cries, “Oh, my God, my
God!” That night, the spectators that arrive cannot find him. They enter the lighthouse and see
feet dangling from the archway. John has committed suicide.

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