Brave New World

[JMPS]

Hello,

I want to start with a quick introduction:
I'm a 17 year old student who lives in Belgium. I'm in my last year of secundaire school. And for my language classes I need to read a rather difficult book in a different language. And then write a whole essay and more about it. I choose Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Seeing as how English is not my first language, I'm having a bit of difficulty with it. I've already read the book twice, and I understand most of it. But there are a few rather important scenes that i don't fully understand. More specificly the very last chapter, chapter 18. The chapter were John Savage leaves London and goes to live in an abandoned lighthouse. A few of my questions are: ''Does John actually kill Lenina?'' (Because it is never really said that she is dead) and ''What do the last few lines mean?'' (Do they have any meaning).

Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east.

Seeing as how this last chapter is very important, I was wondering if someone could explain it to me a bit better. Does Lenina start to love him, for real?

Thank you,

JMPS

[larryF]

He hangs himself in shame of the previous night's orgy. His body is slowly twisting.

[chamightlike]

@JMPS what's the thesis of your essay? you should get people here to help you with it, not write it for you exactly, but to give you ideas to prove your point and structure your essay properly. using intro-part1-part2-part3-conclude structure...and some good transition sentences for each paragraph. What's the minimum word length of your essay? Considering you're in the last year of secondary school, I'd say 1500-2000 words?

Anyways, good luck.

BNW, man that was a good book. Brings back memories...

[JMPS]

Well, maybe essay was the wrong word to use. You can't really call it an essay. Yes, it does have an intro, different parts and a conclusion. But the thing is, is that I have to write it in all 3 languages: Dutch, French and English. So for example, the inrto is in english, the parts in dutch and the conclusion in french. I know, wierd right. But I guesse we are known for making everything as difficult as possible.
Anyway, instead of a thesis, we need to kind of build our text around one question. I kept mine simple: Is the vision of the future that Huxley had in 1932 comparable with the society we live in now? And an exact word count was not given to us yet. But I assume it will indeed need to be quiet long.

And yes, help would be nice. But I'm still wondering about that last chapter. Does Lenina die?

Thanks

JMPS

[OrphanPip]

My recollection is that he simply beats her. It's been a fairly long time since I read it though.

[Voivod30]

I'm sorry I can't help you with your question because it has been a long time since I read that novel. I'd just like to add that A Brave New World from what I recall was an amazing read and perhaps my favorite book of all time. I suggest reading Ape and Essence also by Huxley. Again it has been a long time since I read that novel but I recall both novels being really tedious at the beginning but once things became more interesting both were great.

[Mr_Tristen]

Can anyone ehlp me with some more insight into Brave New World?

[Vota]

Can anyone ehlp me with some more insight into Brave New World?

Several things spring to mind, having recently read and enjoyed the book.

1. Aldous Huxley's love for Shakespeare.
2. Sexual morality or lack thereof displayed by many characters.
3. Genetic manipulation and it's potential abuse.
4. Caste system based off genetic engineering and psychological programming.
5. How controlling information, especially history, controls the present and future.
6. The many predictive qualities of the work. You can draw parallels between the different stimulants in use in the book and modern day Prozac, birth control, speed, and more.
7. The control of the masses through the use of mindless entertainment, consisting of intense visual, audial, and olfactory stimulation providing base entertainment. Think modern reality shows, much of the current popular music, and more.
8. People on the fringes of society and the lack of acceptance shown to them. Think of the on-going issues troubling women, gays, minorities, people with disabilities etc etc.
9. Lack of privacy and the infringing of personal privacy by social media and the ability to make it everybody's business nearly instantaneously.