Distopian Novel Journal 3: Topic A

“‘Whatever is he saying?’ said a voice, very near, distinct and shrill through the warbling of the Super-Wurlitzer. The Savage violently started and, uncovering his face, looked round. Five khaki twins, each with the stump of long éclair in his right hand, and their identical faces variously smeared with liquid chocolate, were standing in a row, puggily goggling at him. They met his eyes and simultaneously grinned. One of them pointed with his éclair butt.

“Is she dead?” she asked.

The Savage stared at them for a moment in silence. The in silence he rose to his feet, in silence slowly walked towards the door.

“Is she dead?” repeated the inquisitive twin trotting at his side.

The Savage looked down at him and still without speaking pushed him away. The twin fell on the floor and at once began to howl. The Savage did not even look round.

In this scene as well as throughout the whole chapter the characters, especially John, as struggling with both internal and external conflict. The World State “programs” the children to not have to deal with emotions of sadness or pain. Even if their programs are not strong enough they can still take Soma to cope with their troubles. Ironically Linda died from an overdose of Soma and this is the once intense that John has a very hard time coping with the pain of his mothers death. Earlier in the chapter John is faced with another conflict. The children are programmers with physical desires. Lenina tries to seduce him and have sex with him however despite the physical desires he is feeling the immoral pain and knows that he should not do it therefore declines.  There is also a recurring theme throughout the novel; the parallel between John and Othello. Ever since we are introduced to John we learn about his desire to read Shakespeare. Depending on the part of the novel John always seems to be reading a piece of Shakespeare’s work that can compare to his life experiences. For example when John is struggling with the conflict with Lenina he is reading Othello and finds himself to be very similar to him.

Distopian Novel Journal 2: Topic B

In part 2 of Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley we have been introduced to two new characters; Linda and her son John. Linda is a woman with a complicated history. She used to be a child just like Bernard or Lenina. She came from the world state and was taught just like they were however she was lost on a mountain at a young age. Soon after she found out she was pregnant and had a son. John was born and grew up to be fairly independent compared to everyone else. When Linda and John are brought back to the World State John is called “The Savage” because of his desire to be a part of something more then the State has to offer. I found John to be a sort of extreme of Bernard’s character. He can also be compared to our world and how people with different ideas are thought of as different.  Linda is struggling with unhappiness and is taking Soma a drug to help her forget about her problems. This can compare to our drug addictions today and how they can overtake your life and end up killing you like Linda in the novel. The whole novel shifts directions when these characters are introduced. I find their story very interesting and enjoy it equally to Bernard’s story however I feel as though we loose the previous story when these characters as introduced.

Dystopian Novel Journal 1: Topic A

Passage page 6: “The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the planes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic goose-flesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shinning porcelain overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse colored rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables. [...] Rams wrapped in theremogene beget no lambs.”

Based on this passage and used as a common theme during the book the factory described in the story Brave New World is a cold isolated place. By describing the light as frozen and dead it demonstrates the stillness of the factory and how there isn’t a lot of freedom. The color white and the pale descriptions show how cold and powerful the workers are. How everything is programmed and set to be a certain way and do certain things. Every thing is controlled by society and has a specific order in which things occur.  The difference between the people and the workers are substantial and described on color. The workers are described as cold colors such as whit and yellow. Consistent and Primary.  The real humans however are described as pink and warm. They have real life to them and are able to function for themselves and think for themselves before they become involved with the factory. Based on just this first passage we can see the order of society portrayed in this novel.