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Summary: 1st part: At the beginning of the chapter Lenina thinks about her
summer-holidays, whether she should go to New Mexico with Bernard or to
the North Pole with Benito Hoover. She decides to go with Bernard. And with Bernard she spends the evening, too. They go for
a walk all alone because Bernard does not like crowded places. He tries
to convince Lenina that not being a part of the social body is something
that is worth to try to reach and that the system and the conditioning
enslave the inhabitants of BNW. But Lenina does not understand a word of
what he is saying. Instead, she is offended by the idea. Afterwards they go home and to bed. The next morning
Bernard tells Lenina that he wanted it to end differently, not in bed,
but again she does not understand him. 2nd part: On the same day Bernard visits the DHC to talk about the
journey to the reservation. The director tells him that he once spent a
holiday there, too. He went there with a woman, but she got lost in a
sand-storm, and so he returned to BNW without her. After that he threatens to send Bernard him to Iceland if
he does not do his work properly. 3rd
part: Lenina and
Bernard are on their way to the reservation. When they arrive, they are
introduced into the way of life on the reservation by a warden. When they come back to where a telphone is Bernard calls
Helmholtz, a friend of his, and he tells Bernard that the DHC is
searching for someone to take Bernard`s place. So it is already decided
that he will be sent to Iceland. The next day they take a flight over the reservartion and
to the savage village Malpais.
Themes/topics: 1. differences between people: The scene in which Bernard and Lenina are alone shows
that people in BNW can be very different although they all were
conditioned in the same way. Bernard wants to escape from society while Lenina is
completely convinced of what is told during hypnopaedic lessons. That is
why she does not understand Bernard. 2. concequences of not behaving according to the rules of
society: Bernard is a contrast to the „perfect inhabitant„ of
Brave New World. He does not behave as the controllers want him to, so
he gets transferred to Iceland immediately. This scene shows how someome
who is different is treated. They threaten him instead of accepting his
difference. There is no place for differences in BNW because they
endanger the system that is built up on equality. 3. traditional life: The traditional life of the savages is seen as something
dirty and even disgusting by the inhabitants of BNW. That is because the
savages` lives are different from the Brave New Worlder`s life. And as
already said, there is no place for differences in BNW. Their
conditioning tells them that their way of life is the only perfect one,
so they do not accept others. They see the savages as things they can
laugh about and make fun of. 4. the insignificance of individuals: The individual is absolutely unimportant in BNW. You can
see that when you look at the scene in which the DHC tells Bernard that
he lost a woman in the reservation. The DHC is ashamed that he suffers
from that accident because for him the society is much more important
(„the social body persists although the component cells may change„
p.87) 5.The contrast between Lenina
and Bernard about SOMA, then the utilization or not utilization of the
drugs; is This right or wrong?
Characterizations: Bernard:
In chapter VI the reader gets to know Bernard
better. His opinion of the system in BNW is pointed out. He obviously
hates the society he is living in. He is a man who likes being alone
instead of spending his time in crowds. That is absolutely atypical of
an inhabitant of Brave New World because normally everybody is
conditioned to love crowds and to hate being alone. But Bernard would like it best if he could escape from
the society, to be an individual. That becomes obvious when he tries to
convince Lenina of his opinion (p.81). He is a man who we would call normal nowadays, but in BNW
he is as abnormal as possible. But his abnormality is not accepted. He
is an outsider and because of this he becomes a bit depressive. Lenina:
Lenina is the perfect inhabitant of Brave New
World. She completely accepts her conditioning. She believes everything that was said in the hypnopaedic
lessons. And that is why she loves her life as it is and cannot think of
anything else than working and having fun. Lenina is as numb as the
controllers want her and everyone else to be. But perhaps she just
pretends being numb to get an advantage. And because she is satisfied
she can`t, or doesn`t want to understand Bernard.
Relevant quotations:
„I meant, alone for talking.“ „Talking? But what
about?“ conversation between Bernard and Lenina (p.80) „...as though it were more me, if you see what I mean.
More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a
cell in the social body. Doesn't it make you feel like that, Lenina?“ Bernard during the flight home (p.81) „what would it be like if I could, if I were free - not
enslaved by my conditioning.“ Bernard (p.81) „I still rather wish it had all ended differently.“ Bernard after the night he spent with Lenina (p.83) „It suddenly struck
me the other day, that it might be possible to be an adult all
the time“ Bernard to Lenina (p.84) „It upset me very much at the time. More than it ought
to be done, I dare say. Because, after all, it`s the sort of accident
that might happen to anyone; and, of
course, the social body persists although the component cells may
change.“ The DHC about his time at the reservation where he lost a
woman. (p.87) „I shall ask for your transference to a Sub-Centre -
preferably to Iceland.“ Threat to
Bernard by the DHC (p.88) „What? He`s looking out for someone to take my place?“ Bernard when he gets the information that he is really
going to be sent to Iceland (p.93) „Savages won`t do you any harm. They`ve got enough
experience of gas bombs to know that they mustn`t play any tricks“ (The warden while introducing Bernard and Lenina into the
savages’ life. (p.95) ‘Yes I know’, say Bernard derisively. ‘”Even Epsilons are useful”
! So am I. And I damned well wish I weren’t ! ‘ (Bernard
Marx to Lenina Crowne)
Style: There aren`t many stylistic devices in chapter VI. It is
just one plot with two main persons, Bernard and Lenina. The chapter is
divided into three parts. In the first part the evening that Bernard and
Lenina spend together is described. The following part is about the
conversation between Bernard and the DHC. The third part deals with the beginning of the journey to
the reservation. The three parts are in chronological order and one is
based on the other. One
device I can think of are Lenina`s repetitions. She often says:„I
don`t understand what you mean„ or „I don´t understand anything“
when Bernard tries to convince her of his opinion.
function? function of the
chapter: The first part of the chapter is an introduction into
Bernard's life and opinions. The relationship between him and Lenina is
described and during their conversation Bernard`s standpoint becomes
obvious. To understand the middle-part the following chapters have
to be read because it gives the reason why Bernard takes John with him
to the „civilized world„. He does it because he hopes that he will
not be transferred to Iceland then. In the third part of the chapter the reader gets an
introduction into the savages‘ lives, which is important to understand
the problems John has later in the book. Apart
from that this chapter shows the influence of
HYPNOPAEDIA on Lenina’ s Ego. Because we can find in the chapter the
way of reasoning due to hypnopaedia , deep-seated on Lenina; in fact
during the dialogue between Lenina and Bernard, Lenina uses sentences
directly coming from her hypnopaedia education and Bernard addresses her
indignantly
Comments: To my mind this is a quite interesting chapter. It gives
a lot of information about Bernard and a short introduction into the
savages‘ lives, which will become important in the following chapters. For me it was very interesting to see how everything that
is different is treated in Brave New World because in some kind it is
already the same today. We do not accept people who are different, we
try to change them and that’s exactly the same in BNW. It was not a surprise for me that Bernard had absolutely
no chance to influence Lenina because she is completely happy with her
life and to my mind she did not even try to understand Bernard although
she says that she cannot understand him. ( -> is she able to think
about tings like that and to understand him?????) In short the 6th chapter was full of news
about the persons and about the whole society of BNW.
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