Brave New World Discussion Part 2

A few examples of people being reduced to near-inhuman states would be:

• There's a "hatchery" in Chapter 10. That's where humans are "hatched." This is so different from how we kind of respect childbirth and love babies now. In this dystopian world, childbirth and mothers and fathers are snickered at and a cause for embarrassment in conversation. Just to go a little further, it's kind of like a major show of immaturity that they're all so comfortable with sex but so uncomfortable with the idea of being mothers and fathers and even the barest mention of childbirth. So anyway, humans are compared to animals who come out of eggs when born and are hatched instead of born. 
• I'm not exactly sure what chapter, but when, near the end, John is at the place where people go to die and he dumps all the soma out the window, the workers that come in just sort of unethically put everyone down with really strong doses of soma and then, "with the cautious tenderness of one who strokes a notoriously vicious animal, he patted the Savage's arm (211)," they literally describe John just like that. And then they just sort of take him down. Like an animal. 
• When Lenina goes to seduce John or whatevs, he is represented as an animal freaking out and Lenina won't let him in to give her his clothes and all that. 

There's a lot of animal imagery. Just in general, the way that any given person is treated at any given time is usually terrible. Everyone is treated as a child or an animal.

Next you asked about Ford. Like I said, I really did not understand his part in this at all. But, I took the initiative and looked it up and I understand it now. Ford is representative of technology and moving forward. This makes sense because of the time period it was written in and the fact that this society is entirely based on consumerism. They replace any use of religion with Ford.

Let's compare! You asked if I could please compare the "savage" civilization and our current civilization, and then say whether or not it was really as bad as it was made out to be.
They have a lot of mentions of God and other deities in the savage society. In our own cultures, we have a lot of mentions of religions because a lot of people believe in religions. They also drink a lot. We drink a lot. Another thing would be that they are mostly monogamous. In this society, Linda doesn't fit in because she sleeps with ALL the guys and the ladies don't like that much. So they go and beat her up. They also have rights of passage and exclusion and little groups of people and FAMILIES and DEATH and OLD people. It's very similar to our own, but I think it's a little less structured. This could be because it's not allowed to grow, though.

I think it's not really that bad, based on every characters reaction. But it would be pretty horrible for them, I mean, look at Linda! I don't know which is preferable. If you were born and raised and part of the culture of the savage society, I think it would be better. However, you would have a lot of hardships. I think they both have their pros and cons. But the high-tech society is really scary and there's no such thing as free will and even though it's clean it's just creepy.

Next up: Bernard and Lenina. I think Bernard goes after Lenina specifically because she has some crazy ideas like wanting to stay with one person for a longer time than a few dates. She also mentions about no one else wanting to say yes to Bernard because he was a little odd, so maybe Bernard is just kind of clinging to the one person that will pay attention to/not make fun of him. But I also think Bernard is having all these strange ideas and he hasn't ever been able to share them and he thinks maybe he can finally do so with Lenina because she's shown some strange habits/ideas too.

Back to Ford. So again. Still not really sure what the heck is up with Ford. He was just really confusing to me and every time they mentioned him  I didn't really understand what was happening. But again, as I looked up before, I think maybe he just represents technology, which you can refer back to about how this represents the technological society and abandonment of religion.

Confusion: I just thought some of the ways that he phrased things were really strange. Like he would talk for hours on things like the hatcheries and then just barely pass by things like what the women used for contraception or what the activities were that they played. I don't know if this was kind of intentionally saying that they were so unimportant they could hardly remember them, or what? Also, they talk about the Bokanovsky twins and like WOW that could've been super interesting to actually see and talk about how they managed to do this, but then again, I guess no one in the society really knows WHY they're doing the things they're doing or HOW just how to do the things. I guess it makes sense why it's a little confusing, as it kind represents the general ignorance of society, but then again, I wish some things would've been cleared up a little. Ford was probably the point of most confusion for me because they always mention him in passing and I didn't understand if he was real or a mystical thing or what in the world was happening.

More Questions!!!!

1. Who is the main character, in your opinion, and why?

I think that the main character is probably John. At first you think it might be Bernard or Lenina, but then once you happen upon the chapters about John and we learn soooo much background information on him it becomes kind of clear that he's probably meant to be the main character. The book also ends with him so that could be an identifier that he is supposed to be important. I just don't really see any of the other characters going through so much or really learning anything/sticking to their morals. Bernard becomes corrupt and Lenina is portrayed as typical lady for most of the book. How annoying.
   
     2.What in the world is up with that weird formatting in chapter three and what do you make of it?

I think it was just kind of about how no one entirely knows everything, so everyone has to interject something in. Also, no one can stay focused enough on one subject to continue talking at length. Also, they're talking about Lenina having her strange ideas and "homes" and "families" a lot of this chapter which is a really uncomfortable subject for everyone in this society so of course you'd shy away from it and want to talk about something else for a bit if you were actually a person of this society writing this book.