Onomatopoeia

"Click, click, click, click... And it was morning. Bernard was back among the miseries of space and time." (page 178)

I think this represents Bernard beginning to revert back to his old self. Although he's not completely back yet, it's a start. Bernard says that he's unhappy that he's not being idolized anymore. That's why he considered the present "misery". Not even soma seems to be able to cure his unhappiness. I feel somewhat bad for Bernard, but then I realize that he brought it upon himself. He is even compared to a "deflated balloon" at one point. Bernard's unhappiness will probably end soon and he will find peace in his solitude, or with John and Helmholtz. 

Oxymoron

"Bernard felt positively gigantic - gigantic and at the same time light with elation, lighter than air." (page 157)

I'm very upset with Bernard at this point. He sold out. He feels like he's on top of the world just because he brought back a savage. I can't believe he's really started acting like the rest of the World State citizens. I'm really hoping Bernard realizes how different he's become. He's even being rude to John; I thought they'd become good friends. Maybe Bernard wasn't the hero I expected him to be.  

Bernard's Expulsion

"The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray." (page 148)

Bernard may finally get to leave the World State, although not on his own accord. I'm not exactly sure what the last straw for the Director was, but he finally confronted Bernard - and the whole community- about his unorthodox ways. I think this could turn out positively for Bernard in the long run. The quote clearly shows that the Director is intimidated by Bernard's individuality and absurd way of life. The Director must know what it feels like to be different. I think he knows how truly special Bernard is, and he doesn't want anyone else to be lead astray by Bernard. Bernard has the intelligence and power to lead an uprising and change to World State forever. I think that is the true reason the Director exiled him.

Lyric Poem

"On the white wonder of Juliet's hand, may seize and steal immortal blessing from her lips" (page 144)

John quotes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to express his feelings for Lenina. He was raised learning to read using Shakespeare's complete works, so John can fluently speak beautiful old english. Lenina may have been asleep, but John got carried away by her beauty and quoted the romantic line. Since the first time they saw each other, John and Lenina had an instant attraction. I may have been wrong about people not being able to love in this book. Even if they don't fall in love, I think it would be good for Lenina to get to know John. The relationship could benefit both of them. I hope Lenina will be able to break out of her current life style.

Sympathy

"If one's different, one's bound to be lonely." (page 137)

This chapter brought about one feeling: sympathy. I feel sorry for John and how he isn't even accepted by his own drunken mother. I feel sorry for Bernard who wants so badly not to return to London. I feel sorry for Linda who was thrown into a new place without any instruction on how to live. Most of all, I feel sorry for the citizens in the World State who have been deprived of romance, family, and love. Bernard and John prove to be very similar while being complete opposites. ( I know that doesn't make total sense, but hear me out.) They are both ostracized and lonely, but John longs to be where Bernard lives and Bernard dreams of being free. I hope they both get what they want; I like them. 

Linda

"There's so much one doesn't know; it wasn't my business to know." (page 122) 

The entrance of Linda's character set of lots of little light bulbs in my mind. I soon realized she was the woman the Director was so emotionally attached to until she became lost in the vast expanse of New Mexico. She had a son with this man; the man who runs a community that considers parenthood primeval and borderline disgusting. No wonder he doesn't like to talk about that whole situation. Linda has been in this "uncivilized" for, I'm guessing, close to 15 years and has still not adjusted. The conditioning, decanting, and fertilizing that happens in Bernard and Lenina's community clearly is meant for long term results. Linda still could repeat some of the verse she learned in her sleep for so many years. She still hadn't comprehended the way people "have each other" on the Reservation. This whole encounter helped to explain the extremity of the practices learned in the World State in London, and how vital it is that at least a few people like Bernard some how learn differently.

Lenina's Similes

"The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust." (page 107)

Lenina uses multiple similes during her visit to the pueblos of Malpais. I imagine that is because she has never seen anything remotely close to the people and culture of New Mexico.  Her descriptions of the mesas show how focused on her own community she was throughout the trip.  Her description of a rock compared it to the "Charing-T Tower". None of these were new or original ideas. They all drew from something she was conditioned to know about or the things she saw every day. Lenina seems to be a person who is completely okay with her repetitive life in London. Her visit to New Mexico made me realize that she had no knowledge of any life outside her own.

Director's Anecdote

" 'I actually dream about it sometimes,' the Director went on in a low voice." (page 97)

The Director tells a story all about his trip to New Mexico with a girl that he was "having" a long time ago. He gets lost in his memory and ends up telling Bernard all about how she went missing, and how he wished so badly to find her. The Director accidentally said too much and made Bernard think that he was emotionally attached to the girl; that, of course, was not allowed in the community. He went on to say that she was nothing special, but I think Bernard realizes that the Director, just like himself, is capable of thinking for himself. I learned that the Alphas are all able to have such thoughts, but they are supposed to conform rather than think for themselves. I find this somewhat ironic, because the verses learned during childhood suggested that Alphas don't have to work nearly as hard as the other castes. However, they have to make a conscious effort to conform until it becomes a learned behavior. The anecdote told by the Director showed that other Alphas besides Bernard did not conform like the rest of the community. 

Rhinoceros Analogy

"You can't teach a rhinoceros tricks," he had explained in his brief and vigorous style. "Some men are almost rhinoceroses; they don't respond properly to conditioning." (page 89)

I think Henry is secretly jealous of Bernard. Either that or he is very very conceited. Why else would he feel the need to defend himself constantly and compare Bernard to a nearly-prehistoric animal? Each encounter with Bernard leads me to believe that he someone was not as brainwashed as his fellow World State citizens. Henry was right, he didn't respond well to conditioning. He may feel like an outsider now, but I think in the long run his individuality will be his crowning glory. I wonder what went wrong in Bernard's conditioning that made him so unlike the rest of the citizens. Was is really the alcohol that got into his blood or something more extreme? Bernard continually speaks of how he wishes he were free from the mundane society and the verses he constantly hears repeated. He's anything but ordinary when it comes to the citizens in his community. 

Awkward Bernard

"There was an awkward silence. Then pointedly she [Morgana] turned away and addressed herself to the more sporting man on her left." (page 79)

I sincerely wish I could find/invent a literary term for when certain phrases are so timeless that philosophical British men from the 1930's and teenage girls like myself both say it in daily life. What exactly am I referring to? 

Huxley may not have come right out and said the words awkward turtle, but I think that is exactly what he meant! Awkward silence, awkward turtle - same thing. Poor Bernard gets shut down by a girl with a unibrow; he just can't win. This is honestly the first time in this book I have laughed out loud. It's hard enough trying to read/comprehend/blog about/journal about the book without attempting to find wit or humor. I don't know if Huxley intended it to be humorous, but seriously - an entire part of chapter 5 is dedicated to how creepy and odd Morgana's prominent unibrow is. Even with her unibrow, she still rejects Bernard. That clearly just furthers his feeling of being an "unatoned" outsider. I'm really hoping that Bernard turns into a wonderful, accepted, loved, hero by the end of this book. I think I've seen too many Disney movies...

Rhetorical Questions

" 'Did you ever feel,' he asked, 'as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out?' " ( page 69)

I realize the quote on the top of this page is not rhetorical, but it conveys the way I believe Bernard and Helmholtz often feel in their backward world. They are so unusual compared to the robotic people that surround them on an everyday basis. However, numerous rhetorical questions are in fact used, including: "What is there more important to say?", "Can you make works really piercing...when you're writing about that sort of thing?", and "can you say something about nothing?". Helmholtz, being an Emotional Engineer, should be able to sit patients down, ask them how things make them feel, and then answer these unanswered questions.  I think he, just like Bernard, is realizing that he is different from the other people in the community, but he doesn't know why. I think he asks all of these questions to Bernard hoping that someone else as individual and independent as himself will be able to give an answer. The rhetorical questions used in chapter 4 of Brave New World made me realize that not everyone in the community is subject to strictly what the Controllers have in mind. Through these questions, I think Bernard begins to realize that his feeling of solitude and mental excess is not as strange as he previously thought. 

Refrain

"But every one belongs to every one else."

I'm not sure if novels can have refrains, but I am going to assume they can for the time being. Repition is an easy and virtually fool-proof way to engrain something into the mind, which is exactly why hypnopaedic practices are so popular in the World State. The mutiple refrains commonly heard include: "every one belongs to everyone else", "ending is better than mending", and "I love new clothes". All of these refrains lead me to believe that the people in this community are being taught to be selfish, promiscuous, and materialistic. This attitude reminds of the citizens of the Capitol in the novel The Hunger Games; the people tend to be self-centered, greedy, and they often feel too entitled . Since the World State citizens have no choice and are being forced into the entire process, just as the non-Capitol citizens in the Hunger Games, their life will never amount to anything more than what they are told to do. The concept that everyone belongs to everyone else is repeated by adults more often, and it accurately represents the erotic, lopsided philosophies of the World State. The first of four times I read that quote, I thought it could easily mean that it was a close-knit community and everyone could count of each other in times of need, but then I put it in context with the rest of the chapter and realized what they truly meant. The repitition of this specific refrain effectively leads me to believe that priorities in this community are much different than our modern world.

Bernard Marx

"I think he's rather sweet." (page 45-46)

Bernard Marx seems to be one of the few sensible characters I have encountered in the first few chapters of Brave New World. The people of the World State have been bred to be a certain way; they think, eat, act, and socialize the way Controllers tell them to. It seems t be that citizens are encouraged from a young age to be promiscuous and put their own personal pleasure first. However, I think they are discouraged to become too attatched to a certain person, which could lead to falling in love; I don't think love exists in their world. I don't know how or when, but I think Bernard has learned a few traits such as respect, consideration, and manners at some point in his life. I think Bernard is one of the very few "exceptions" to the humanoid type people in the After Ford world. Bernard is generally offended when Henry and the assistant talk about Lenina as if she were their property, which is the way most people today would react as well. There is something very strange to me about the way the people in the World State are brought up. What made them believe that mothers, families, thinking, and respecting their peers are so evil? And why did they choose Henry Ford as their role model and god-like figure? I personally think Bernard Marx is the only person with his priorities straight, and I think that will play a large part in the rest of the novel.

Allusion - Pavlov's Dog Theory

"They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives." (page 22)

      Brave New World is definitely not the only work to allude

              to Pavlov's experiment. In this episode of The Office, Jim conditions

Dwight to reach out and receive an Altoid each time the computer reboots.

 By the end of the episode, it's Dwight's reflex to reach out each time he hears the noise.

Jim effectively uses Pavlov's theory to embarass Dwight.

The major allusion in chapter 2 of Brave New World dates back to Ivan Pavlov and his experiments with conditioned reflexes. Without the allusion to the Pavlov's Dogs experiement within the first few sentences of the chapter, I would probably still be terribly confused. The people in this strange Ford-worshipping factory/world train eight month old children by electrically shocking them; this seems a tad bit barbaric to me, but it sets up the principles of the Hatchery. These machine-bred children will be pychologically pushed away from books and flowers. Because of the allusion and how drastically it is practiced at the Hatchery, I am finally starting to understand how the 5 class system works. Although, I still don't understand the point quite yet. Are these defenseless Delta children are writhing in pain just because they got the short end of the stick?  Are the Delta people being punished for a past action? I understand that they were born to be made into Deltas, but why? This Pavlovian experiment seems a bit harsh for children who did nothing to deserve such treatment, but the experiment in fits well with the general idea of extreme and odd practices in their world.

Brave New World -The Very Confusing Order of Operation at the Hatchery

" 'Community, Identity, Stability.' Grand words." (page 7)

I sincerely hope the rest of Brave New World is not as confusing as the first chapter.  So far I think the only thing I have figured out for sure is the very specific and closely monitered order of operations at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. In the words of the Director, it "begin[s] at the beginning" Thank you, Captain Obvious. I don't know what Liners, Meticulators, Decanting rates, or Metres are yet. I don't quite understand the point of mass producing embryos or the significance of 16,000 individuals from one ovary yet. I'm assuming that all will come in time - at least I hope so. I don't think there is a literary term for a sequence of events in a work of literature, but if there were I would use that as the focus of this blog entry. The entirety of chapter one is to establish the initial setting, caracters, and idea - which could be esposition - but I feel like that's kind of a cop out. It's become very clear to me in the first 18 pages of the book, that it does not take place in modern time. Basically, my initial reaction to the beginning of Brave New World is that I'm confused. Throughout the book I'm hoping that things start to make sense and fall into place, but if not I will apologize in advance for rambling about things I don't understand.