Blogs that I left comments

Joesph Folta 2
Eric Kang
Machael Shin
Stephen Eun
David Kim

Current Situations

*are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

The caste system of the novel reminded me of India; the country's known for its strict caste system. For instance, a person from a certain caste isn't allowed to marry or talk to other castes, just like people in the novel ignore each other. In real life, Indians are classified according to their parents' classes, however, people from the 'new world' are classified by their appearance.
The soma, which calms people and brings pleasure to them, made me think of drugs, such as marijuana or LSD. Once people take the drug in real life, it's extremely hard to stop. They start to rely on the drug. Just like the drug addicted, people in the new world depend on the soma to cope from stress and difficulties. The novel doesn't suggest any solutions to the situation, instead, it tells the readers that one cannot uproot the whole society by himself. For example, John the Savage who is the main character, chose to commit sucide after struggling with the situation. In addition, the novel didn't tell any specific ways to prevent people from relying on the soma. In a nutshell, Brave New World ends without advising readers how to fix the wrong situations.

The Climax of Brave New World

The climax of the novel is when John whipped Lenina and the crowd who came to watch John hitting himself went crazy. Before the event, John had been stuggling against the whole society; he wanted to make it humane. However, after he rioted in the hospital, he gave up and fled to wilderness. There, he disciplined himself not to stay too comfortable. He also whipped himself for an atonement. However, his actions were recorded by reporters, and caused a sensation in the 'civilized' world. Being curious, people visited John's lighthouse to see him 'abusing' himself. Then John saw Lenina, which simply represented the world he abhored, running toward him. He whipped her, and people started to strike each other, just like John was doing to his body. After the event, John found to be dead, and the novel ends. Although I could foreshadow the ending from the describtion of how desperate and cornered John was, I simply feel somewhat empty, becasue I expected him to overcome such isolation and rebel or overthrow. The way the ending was described was pretty impressive. The phrase 'South-South-west, south, south-east, east...' was more effective to leave deep afterthoughts in readers' minds than directly telling that John hung himself.