It's Not The Numbness In Your Heart

Summary

After getting the necessary permissions, Bernard and Lenina are able to take both John and Linda back to the civilized world. When they get there, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning threatens Bernard with expelling him to Iceland due to his unorthodox lifestyle, to which Bernard responds by publicly embarrassing him when he lets John call the Director his “father”. The Director immediately resigns from his position and Linda decides to go back to taking soma, a drug that everyone is expected to take in order to relax or be happier, which keeps her away from John. Luckily for Bernard, everyone treats him as a celebrity for a while, but it all comes to an end when a bunch of authorities come to meet the Savage (John), and he does not want to meet anyone, embarrassing Bernard in front the authorities. In addition, Lenina started liking John, who does not see her in the same way, which leaves her heartbroken and alone.  

Quote Analysis

“ ‘What fun would it be,’ he thought, ‘if one didn’t have to think about happiness!’ ” (Huxley, 177)

This is something said by Mustapha Mond after turning down a “brilliant” paper that sadly defied society’s rules on its theories of biology. I guess I doubted this since Brave New World’s society is already one that does not encourage individual happiness. Its plot is based on the crazy idea of running a society with people who are taught to feel happy if others are happy, and sad if others are sad. That said, they cannot experience true happiness or sadness because they are not feeling it for themselves, but for the community.

On the other side, the Director, thinking that he knows happiness, is able to understand that without sadness we wouldn’t be able to feel happiness. Which is something that I have been taught by both my mom, at home, and teachers, mostly while reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver, that we can't feel pleasure without pain or love without hate. We can’t have one without the other.

"Life is a balance."

“One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.” (Huxley, 179)

What I like most about this quote, is that it references love and friendship in a world where people are numb but consider themselves to be “happy”. This references Bernard's complicated social interactions after he brings John to the civilized world, which somehow affects Bernard’s already complicated relationships with other people. What I first thought of after reading this quote, is the pain that we can cause to the people that we love. The best example that I could think of for this quote is when you don’t get along with someone so you don’t treat them as well as you should, so then you start behaving like that with the people you do get along with, and eventually you hurt those people for trying to hurt someone else. Are we entitled to hurt people that we love? Or do we just don’t consider it pain when we cause it on someone we love?

Conclusion

I honestly think that this book is just getting started. Even though most (?) of the characters have already been introduced, there has already been a lot of problems that have yet to be solved. The man vs. society conflict that has been present in other dystopian fictions books that I have read has not been introduced yet, which I think is definitely weird since I am more than halfway through the book. There are still many questions that have to be answered. For the next couple of chapters, I hope that Bernard reflects a bit on his newfound fame and doesn’t let it get to his head (which he definitely has). I am also curious on what will happen with Linda and John, since they have been pulled apart ever since they came to the “brave new world”.