Brave New World Blog 2

In The Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, a scene that caught my attention and made me ponder was the event that takes place where Linda and Lenina meet and Linda tells of her perpetual sadness and overall deterioration that happened to her after being left on the reservation with the uncivilized people. Her depression of no longer having her soma, turning to “mescal” making headaches and sickness follow. Her birth control regimen turning ineffective, causing her to give birth to a baby boy whom she had no instinct or knowledge of caring for- not feeding him, mending his ragged clothes, taking care of him while sick, or even playing with him. She would only speak of a time she knew so long before, and when questioned about how this “beautiful, happy world” worked, she could not even comprehend or have any answers. Sleeping with other woman's husbands, in turn getting beaten by them and her son, John, being treated as an outsider and neglected by the community for his mother's ways. She wasted her days away in bed, from “mescal” and holding many men. This type of treatment John experiences from his “mother” is what I think is necessary for his character development, and makes him turn to old books he can get his hands on, reading allowing him an escape and happiness in the world of neglect he lives in. This scene and John's character in general foreshadows the massive role he will play later on in A Brave New World, once he is brought to a completely different, sickening society.