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.
2 comments:
I agree this event was a climax. But if I were John, then I wouldn't have killed Lenina. How can a person kill another whom s/he loved? Although John was extremely feeling sore because of the people in new world, he should have understood them since they were totally different creatures. I think 'John whipping Lenina' is extremely exaggerated by the author Huxley.
I also agree with the climax that you have wrote down.
This was also the most memorable moment in the book that I could think of.
I also felt something empty, and something sad for John, for his life, killing himself was a bad ending for the book that I have not expected.
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