Friday, April 6, 2012

Journal #2- Brave New World

Shakespeare is mentioned again and again in this section, brought up by John the Savage, to express his feelings about someone or something. The use of Shakespeare to characterize a "savage" starkly contradicts the  notion that the civilized Alphas, who never read and only repeat hypnopaedic slogans, are the civilized and sophisticated ones. I believe that this was meant to show that we can find great insight from the past, often better than we can find in literature today. Soma was once again commonplace throughout this section, except that now it was being abused by its users. Lenina gives herself a full holiday after she firsts arrives at the reservation, knocking her out for over a day. Once John and his mother Linda are brought back to civilization, Linda is kept constantly under the influence of Soma, with the intention to slowly but peacefully kill her. Soma has gone from being a nice relaxing minute or two of paradise, to a drug that is abused to its fullest extent, cutting its users off from the real world.

The setting in this section greatly expands from that of the first section. The savage reservation is introduced and constantly described as being filthy and disgusting. To Alphas who always say "cleanliness is next to Fordliness", this new environment is a shock to the senses. We are later informed that reservations were any area that was undesirable, either because of its climate and geography, or simply a lack of resources to plunder. This only helps to describe the desolate, rocky terrain that the savages have to endure. Later, John is mainly confined to Bernard's apartment, mostly because he is tired of being shown around like some exotic zoo animal. In fact, He locks himself in his room during one of Bernard's parties, which greatly upset the guests who in turn started immediately antagonizing Bernard. John's room becomes a place of refuge, as he takes to reading more and more Shakespeare there, specifically Romeo and Juliet.

The language of this section doesn't seem to change that much at all. When the savages speak, however, the conversations are about simpler ideas, but the language itself seems just as civilized. The savages talk about bowls, cups, and bowls but still explain things in a manner that is easy to understand. The language of the Alphas, specifically Bernard, seems to deteriorate however, mentioning less and less of the complex fertilization jargon, while becoming more intertwined with his emotions, saying things that are more brash and opinionated. John on the other hand, has continued to immerse himself with Shakespeare and finds a common friend in Hemholtz who also enjoys the sophisticated, and often insightful words of Shakespeare. It seems clear that the author is using language to portray the decline of an alpha, into emotional savagery, while also depicting the true intellectual depth of someone who is seen as an incompetent savage.

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