Brave New World: THE END OF IT

“‘I say,’ Helmholtz exclaimed solicitously, ‘you do look ill, John!’
‘Did you eat something that didn’t agree with you?’ asked Bernard.
The Savage nodded. ‘I ate civilization.’ ‘What?’ ‘It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then,’ he added, in a lower tone, ‘I ate my own wickedness.’” (My page 164, the beginning of chapter 18)

At this point in the book, the Savage has just had his discussion with Mustapha Mond about how he wants the difficulties of life. John Savage has previously unimpressed with all that the new world and technology has to offer. He then throws a fit with the Deltas and tries to teach them that there is a world outside their soma and a new kind of happiness. The Deltas, of course, are too dumb to notice and are only concerned with getting their soma rations for the day. The thought of not getting their soma is the only thing that strikes up any sort of life in their spirit. Anyways, John tries to understand why on earth anyone would want to live in a world where there are no choices and Mustapha tries to make him understand why their style of living is so much better. In the end, he leaves and we are brought here to this conversation where John decides that civilization, as opposed to history, is bunk, and he’s going to leave. It doesn’t matter where, “so long as [he] can be alone” (165).

I chose this passage because of its interesting usage of eating civilization. In this civilization, anything that is eaten (or injected) is meant to benefit the taker and give them false happiness, a more youthful appearance, perfect health, and so on and so forth. John, however, can’t get past how all this happiness is a lie, and thinks that civilization is poison. It is such a poison to him in his mind that it even passes to his physical well-being and makes him look ill. He is horrified to even imagine that he let himself be sucked into the society, stating that he “ate his own wickedness.” This all comes back to the theme of what kind of happiness is the right kind of happiness. John seems to think, as I believe most of us do, that you need to be able to decide your own happiness and your options shouldn’t be blocked because they are too hard, or you might get sick or you might hurt yourself. Everyone else in the book isn’t even capable of grasping this concept (except for Bernard and Helmholtz) and is perfectly content living in their soma-fied universe.

Q: At the end, do you think John was exaggerating a bit in his responses to society, or is his view just the opposite extreme of what the rest of the world is living in?

~Susana Naranjo