Chapter 15

CHARACTERS IN THE CHAPTER: In the chapter there are one hundred and sixty two Deltas divided into two Bokanovsky  groups, one of red women and one of men. There are also the Savage (protagonist) and his friends Bernard Marx and Helmholtz, the Deputy Sub-Bursar one of the Alfas that distributed

Soma to Deltas; finally there are some policemen whit their spaying machines that pumped soma.

SHORT REPORT: During the Savage was talking into the hospital after his mother’s death, he saw the Deputy that distributed soma to Deltas: He was vary discouraged from the death of his mother  because for the society was a normal thing and so all the people around it were very indifferent to it. They like only soma. He wanted that all the human person of the society could be free and so he went to the Deputy took soma and throwed it out of the window. In the same time he tried to teach Deltas his moral opinion, but Deltas went versus the Savage to beat it, but arrived Bernard and Helmholtz to help it and  in a peace of time arrived some policemen and using their spraying machines  ,that pumped soma, and using a Synthetic Music-Box tamed the browl. The Savage, Bernard and Helmholtz were took by policemen, so in a peace of time the little revolution of the Savage finished.

THEMES PRESENTED: The principal aspect of this chapter is the connection between people ,in particular Deltas ones ,and drug. All the people are conditioned by the use of soma and so in all their dream is involved soma. They want soma any time they need it when they are boring , when they aren’t happy, when they aren’t stable people for the society. So every shortage of soma  transform  Deltas or other people in crazy people.

SOME RELEVANT QUOTATIONS: There aren’ t particular relevant quotation only the voice of the machines for conditioning  Deltas like “<<My friends , My friends ……Please ,please be good…..>>”.

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE STYLE: In this chapter there are some description but also dialogues. The style is simple and fluent because there are a lot of actions made by the characters.

When there is the speech of the Savage the writer use a simple language and he write using a revolutionary tone ,(like one of a political man),to realize in the mind of the reader the impression of  reality in the word of the Savage. To realize action he uses verbs and so there is speed narration.

WHAT THE CHAPTER REPRESENT IN THE WHOLE STORY: The chapter represent one of the aspects of life in the new world, actually he represent the aspect of the behaviour of people in relation to drug. So he analysed people during and after soma’s effects but in particular what represent the shortage of soma for people. We can say  that they are always prepared for taming people and for maintaining social stability. 

PERSONAL COMMENTS: I can say that in this chapter is important for knowing what it means for people of the New World a shortage of soma, they become crazy and so I think that to have a good control  of people and to realise a perfect world soma is most important because he tames people in a peace of time. I think also that every person have to be free, but to control the society of the NW only using this one is possible to realise it. In fact  free people aren’t socially stable they can think about their life and build an individual identity, destroying the utopian world. I think that people of the NW can be in it only using drug, because  live in a perfect manner is difficult and very stressful, but also possible only in a utopian world.

Summary:

At the beginning of this chapter, the Savage sees a line-up of the Delta workers in front of the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying. The one hundred and sixty two members of the Delta caste are nearly all similar and wait obediently for their daily ration of soma. This also enrages the Savage, who begins to take out all his frustration here. John cannot stand their willing slavery and thinks to himself, that Linda was a slave and died, that others should live in freedom and that it is his duty to repair the world to make it a more beautiful place. And suddenly it was clear to the Savage what he has to do. At this point the Savage realises his reason for coming to this strange world: to make it free.

Soon the Savage abruptly interrupts the soma distribution and gets everyone’s attention. He

asks them if they like being slaves and babies. Next he tells them that they can be free and begins to throw their packets of soma, which he calls poison, out the window. But the Deltas are too stupid to understand his oratory and so they begin charging him, demanding their soma. Then there is a fight and Helmholtz quickly comes to help the Savage against the mass of Deltas.

Eventually the battle is broken up when the police comes, sprays everyone with soma-gas and the record "Anti-Riot Speech Number Two" is played. The Savage, Helmholtz, and Bernard are taken into custody to see the Controller.

Characterisations:

In this Chapter we can see how blind and stupid the Deltas are. Huxley described them as “maggots” (p. 190), because they look nearly all similar and they cannot think. But they are happy and like their lives. They even sing “oh brave new world”. That is, of course, no wonder, because they get sleep taught every night and made happy with soma every day. Soma is even more interesting than the Savage for them. They are like wild animals when they see the soma. When John tells them to change their lives, they think of him that he is stupid, crazy and inferior. The “insults bounced off their carapace of thick stupidity” (p. 194). These “human monsters” (p. 194) even want to kill him, when he throws their beloved soma away.

John is extremely horrified by that “nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness”(p. 190). He cannot understand how the Deltas can like a life where they are not individuals. He does everything to make them understand what freedom is and that soma is not good for them (of course he blames the soma for this elimination of individuality, because his mother just died by the soma). With this, he attacks the roots of society. Of course they are too stupid to understand him and do not want freedom. They are people who have lost all ability to make personal choices. John does not want to see that the Deltas are hopelessly lost.

Bernard represents a pathetic individual for whom the reader can only feel sympathy. Bernard is so fearful of fully acting as an individual that he is still seeking to be accepted into the society. Bernard is unwilling to join his friends because he is afraid that he will be permanently rejected from society, not realising that he already has been. This is represented by Huxley in the scene where Bernard tries to sneak out of the hospital with the multitude, but is prevented from leaving by the police. He is then ushered into the car with the Savage and Helmholtz, firmly implicating him as an individual.

Some relevant quotations:

  “Maggots again, […] they now crawled across his grief and repentance.” (p. 190/191): Here we can see, that the Deltas have no feelings and that they cannot understand, how someone can be sad about somebody’s death.

“I’ll make you be free whether you want or not.” (p. 194): With this sentence John seems to understand that the Deltas would never change their lives voluntarily and that he has to force them. Of course he has no chance against 162 angry Deltas.

Function of the chapter:

This Chapter underlines the “sameness” of the society. “Sameness” becomes visually embodied in the Bokanovskied twins. The physical appearance of multitudes of twins, all replicated and all doing the same job, represents the total elimination of individuality.

                                                                                                                     BY                                                                                                          DIEGO AND ROBIN