Maddie’s Thoughts on “Brave New World”
When I first started reading Brave New World, I was confused and even a little disturbed. I think reading about them making babies in factories was definitely something I have never heard of nor thought about before. The first several pages really led me to believe that I wasn’t much going to enjoy it. Though, the book became more intriguing during Lenina and Fanny’s initial conversation. Lenina and Fanny were discussing Lenina’s relationship with Henry. The ideals of this world are much different, and even opposite, to the ideals in our own world. From then on, I was interested in reading the rest of the book, though it seemed weird.
My favorite character in Brave New World is John. To me, he is the most relatable. He is definitely the most similar to what we would call a common person in our world. I think he is passionate, but in a different way than Lenina or Bernard Marx. He doesn’t have to take soma to be happy or feel good, and I think that’s interesting for the setting he is put in.
My least favorite character is Bernard because I think his mind is all over the place. Sometimes it seems as though he doesn’t want to partake in the world he lives in, and other times it feels like he wants to have all the control and power. Although, I did think that it was funny when he brought John and Linda out of the reservation simply to embarrass somebody.
My favorite scene of the book so far is Lenina and Fanny’s conversation in the beginning of the book. It was very intriguing to learn more about their society and ideals. I found it quite funny when Fanny told Lenina she needs to start seeing more than one man so that people don’t start to think bad things about her. This is something completely opposite to how our world runs today so to me it was funny to think about it being the other way around. I also liked the scene where Lenina is talking to Bernard in the elevator in front of everybody and Bernard seems embarrassed. I think that a girl asking out a guy is something opposite than what would’ve been normal at the time this book was written, so I thought it was funny that a woman asking out a man was including in this alternate world.
My favorite character in Brave New World is John. To me, he is the most relatable. He is definitely the most similar to what we would call a common person in our world. I think he is passionate, but in a different way than Lenina or Bernard Marx. He doesn’t have to take soma to be happy or feel good, and I think that’s interesting for the setting he is put in.
My least favorite character is Bernard because I think his mind is all over the place. Sometimes it seems as though he doesn’t want to partake in the world he lives in, and other times it feels like he wants to have all the control and power. Although, I did think that it was funny when he brought John and Linda out of the reservation simply to embarrass somebody.
My favorite scene of the book so far is Lenina and Fanny’s conversation in the beginning of the book. It was very intriguing to learn more about their society and ideals. I found it quite funny when Fanny told Lenina she needs to start seeing more than one man so that people don’t start to think bad things about her. This is something completely opposite to how our world runs today so to me it was funny to think about it being the other way around. I also liked the scene where Lenina is talking to Bernard in the elevator in front of everybody and Bernard seems embarrassed. I think that a girl asking out a guy is something opposite than what would’ve been normal at the time this book was written, so I thought it was funny that a woman asking out a man was including in this alternate world.
I felt similar emotions of confusion when I first started reading Brave New World. The first chapter about the baby-making factory was really bizarre, and I was thinking the book wasn't going to be my cup of tea. However, I think as I read further, the interactions between the characters drew me in, as you mentioned above with Fanny and Lenina's conversation. It was really interesting to see what a person living in this type of bizarre society would actually be like, rather than just reading about the technicalities of how their society works.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree BNW was a lot weirder than I had really expected but I think that the society itself was really intriguing and made me wonder if BNW's society was better than our own. Pondering about how I would function in this society or how people in general would live was a measure that I used to judge the benefits and downsides to each society. I guess as an alpha in BNW's society, life would be nice. You're at the top of the hierarchy and can live on the contentment of being "superior" to all of the other castes. I also wondered if being a lower caste would be nice too. If your intelligence has been stunted would you still be happy since you don't actually know you've been manipulated. Anyways, I think that even though BNW's society is weird, it would be nice to live in
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree BNW was really strange and very very different from what I was expecting. Even though it was so weird and often kind of disturbing, the way we got to see into characters heads and see them interact with other "civilized" people definitely made me want to find out what was going to happen to them and made me more interested to read the book.
ReplyDeleteI also did not like Brave New World in the beginning but liked it more as we went further into the novel. I also found Fanny really interesting, especially when she said that she needed a "pregnancy substitute." I thought of how different the New World is from our society because we view teen pregnancy as a negative thing but in the New World it seems like girls want to be pregnant, especially since many of them can't.
ReplyDeleteI also found John to be my favorite character because I saw him as a representation of our society's ideals. In addition, I hated Bernard because of his weak spine when it came to anything social. He was so easily swayed to conform when he was popular which made me extremely angry. I especially enjoyed reading about some of the freedoms women had in this society because it seems that old division of race and gender no longer exists in BNW .
ReplyDeleteI agree it was a little surprising, however a happy surprise, to see the women described as so sexually free and not just the men. I wonder if in the situation with Bernard it was just because we later learn that Bernard doesn't like to comply with the New World order as much as he is meant too. Or perhaps that this is just how society works.
ReplyDeleteSame! When first starting to read the book I didn’t really enjoy the explanation of the making of babies. I felt like it was disturbing but also meant to set the tone for the rest of the book so I didn’t enjoy it... John was also my favorite character because he strayed away from the society. Good blog post!
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