Ch.1 Commentary:
In this chapter you are just starting to get a feel of what the society is like and how the society starts off. By making the babies in hatching, then conditioning them, and then teaching them how to live in this childish society the reader finds that the World State is very different from our own.
Ch.2 Commentary:
The reader gets a taste of the conditioning room and how they babies are taught to act how they act. By a terror method of teaching the babies they head people in the society can control them and influence their lives.
Ch.3 Commentary:
Outside the children are playing and the students get to see what happens to people who do not obey the rules of the society through the little boy. They also meet Mustapha Mond who is one of the World Controllers and he describes the history of the World State. this gives the reader more background information.
Ch.4 Commentary:
This is the first time the reader sees Bernard’s conflict with not fitting in with society. We also learn more about Henry and Lenina’s relationship. More society’s expectations are told through the dialog with the characters.
Ch.5 Commentary:
Bernard’s conflict is very evident in this chapter. Lenina and Henry go on a date and we get to see what the characters relationships are like and soma is a big part of how the characters cope with situations.
Ch.6 Commentary:
Bernard falls to his morals and takes lots of soma and sleeps with Lenina. This is something he regrets but it makes him more relatable to the reader because nobody’s perfect. The Director hears about Bernard and he tells him if he does not start following society them he must be exiled to Iceland. These shows how serious the society is and how individuality is not an opinion in the World State.
Ch. 7 Summary:
In chapter Seven, Bernard and Lenina travel outside of London and visit the Mesa Reservation. Lenina, being the character of the ‘new world’, detests her time there, while the more open Bernard seems open-minded and makes a friend of a native, John, whom despite being born of the Reservation, draws his physical appearance to that of the new world. It is discovered that Linda, his mother, was the lady that the D.H.C. had lost some time ago. John talks about his broken childhood, which involved social isolation, and no parental supervision. He tells Bernard that he wishes he could be like his peers.
Ch. 8 Summary:
John goes into further discussion on how he tried to fit in, yet failed. John tells Bernard on how he had learned much through reading, yet didn’t truly understand the greater meaning. John also mentions to Bernard a time in which he was forced from his peers, and alone in his pain, he found an animal guardian. Bernard, convinced that this is the son of the D.H.C., offers to take John to the new world.
Ch. 9 Summary:
Bernard secures John a spot home, while he breaks into Lenina’s room. Touched by her visible beauty, he is to shy to talk to her in person. John instead, decides to resolve to spy on her while she sleeps.
Ch. 10 Summary:
John confronts his father, and finds him aghast of his existence. The D.H.C. is forced to resign and is humiliated.
Ch. 11 Summary:
Lenina finds a fancy for John, yet fails during a date to tell him so, likewise, John finds himself incapable of showing Lenina his love for her. Their date ends up with Lenina confused and John even sadder than he was. Bernard is enjoying fame for his recovery of the dubbed Savage, John.
Ch. 12 Summary:
John in effect from their date shuts himself in his room, causing Bernard to lose his newly acquired respect. John and Lenina both show some anxiety as both cannot determine the others motives. John becomes good friends with Helmholtz, Bernard’s consultant and friend. He reads to them Shakespeare, and despite finding the conflicts ridiculous, Helmholtz is able to successfully draw meaning, perhaps the meaning that he felt he lacked from them.
Ch. 13 Commentary:
The society that Lenina and Fanny have grown up in is far different than John’s. Lenina is trying to explain to Fanny that she only likes John, but Fanny will not listen. Their society believes that people don’t have long relationships, but, that they date everyone. John is startled when Lenina undresses herself because in his society people do not always have sex with eachother. Lenina is offended because it is common in the new world to have intimate relationships with everyone.
This chapter shows a big difference in the societies. While john is more modest, Lenina is open and careless. Both characters are somewhat offended because the person they care for has such a different view on sex and life in general.
Ch. 14 Commentary:
The new world is far different than what John is used to. He begins to change his view of the new world in this chapter. When no one cares that he is upset over his mother’s passing, he decides the new world isn’t so great after all. This yet again shows the differences between the two societies.
Ch. 15 Commentary:
John has fully altered as a character. At first, he was just going with the flow of things in the new world and never voiced his opinion. Now, he is sick of the way things are and wants them to change. He is fighting for his freedom, and no longer wants to be the new shiny experiment. John realizes in the community the citizens are not treated like people, but more as numbers. The leaders even go to the extremes of making all the epsilons look alike. John wants to be an individual, and is tired of blending in.
Ch. 16 Commentary:
If the truth is revealed, the power will be overthrown, and everything will be chaotic. The leaders are in control, and things are good the way things are, and if anything changes things might turn around for what they think is the worse.
Ch. 17 Commentary:
The society can’t give them novels because if they get too smart they might realize what they are missing, essentially freedom, and understand what is going on. If the truth is revealed the leaders could be in a lot of trouble, and they wouldn’t have as many people following their orders any longer.
Ch. 18 Commentary:
Sometimes perfect is not really what makes individuals happy. Having the nicest house, people acting all the same, and having a back up plan (soma) to go to when things go wrong isn’t living life to the fullest. People should not be forced to change, nor should one’s whole life be mapped out for them before they are born. Happiness is having the good, the bad, and the ugly. Individualism is what people truly crave, not being so “perfect” that one is afraid of making a mistake. Living life how one wants to live it is the definition of happiness. If things ever get out of hand, people have their families to lean on. In the society, there were no families, so a soma vacation was invented. All of the things the society did was unhealthy ways of dealing with pain. Life is awesome, but there are some downs. Learning to accept that and move on will really make someone happy, not avoiding life altogether.
