Eng. 12 - Nov. 13 - BNW Fishbowl Notes

Dont' forget to check your class notes and personal feedback

Double sided quote sheet

Goal of literary essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today."

- Look up any secondary quotes about the topic - can quote philosophical quotes on quote sheet (eg. Happiness)
- Freedom, individuality, emotions - do they come up in every topic?
- Focus - could be on Soma
- Think of a thesis which could work with any of the three topics



John the Savage

Individuality - contrast with how there's no individuals in the BNW - how would an individual survive - John shows how this is not a concept in BNW
- John stands out on the reserve and BNW
- No one else is allowed to show different ideas - free will, morals
- "don’t' take that horrible stuff, it's poison" (185)
- Kills himself to maintain his individuality
- Ironic because "community, stability, identity" - not individual identity
Freedom- a lot of stuff BNW can't do - [do they even think about it? - Bernard does]
-ties into happiness - for John - he wants joy, tears
-people in BNW don't know what freedom is - but they're "happy" in their own lives
-freedom and happiness are tied together [for us]
-(186) "Do you like being slaves?"
-contrasting John with BNW
-are people free in the reservation? [there's no real form of government - there's anarchy -good to see how a place with no rules or infrastructure fares]

[always can compare to our world - extend the theme - this novel comments on our world]

Utilitarian Happiness
- (210) - "getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it"-
- Points out that happiness with no contrast isn't worth much
Compare to Pleasantville
-consciousness vs. unconsciousness - Lenina is unconscious - doesn't even think to change

-John is closest to a "real" human being

Ignorance

- Shakespeare - real happiness comes from having unhappiness

Emotion
- Not a range
- John's range of emotions when Linda dies - contrasts with the Nurse making sure the children are conditioned to accept death
- People are disgusted by John's emotions
- [Having no family or even a romantic bond = no unhappiness, sorrow]
- Shakespeare shows the range of emotions - Romeo and Juliet - and Othello - show a range of emotions that people in the BNW don't even know exists
- [Soma takes away emotions - like our drugs, alcohol, and addictive behaviour shelters us from emotions]
- [look up Soma references]
- [Why does John dislike Soma so much?]

[What about religion?]

Science and Technology
- When Linda gets unlimited Soma
- John is disgusted by all the twins - violently retching (139)

Individuality

- Not present - frowned upon in BNW - "if one's different, one's bound to be lonely" (126) [is true in our world?]
- Bernard, Helmholtz, Mustapha Mond and John are all individuals
- Individuality causes unhappiness
- Bernard is isolated - likes to feel emotions
- "when the individual feels, society reels" - Lenina gets mad at Bernard for having emotions - this is one of the mottos of BNW
- Conditioning doesn't have as much as an effect - on alphas
- "I want to look at the sea in peace, it makes me feel more me… not just a cell…" (78) - Bernard says this
- Happiness = having a lack of emotions - BNW is attainted by the absence of love, freedom [think about what having children does - think about any totalitarian regime - threatening people's children makes people do anything - most people aren't willing to sacrifice their kids - in BNW - no one has to make this choice - suffering has ended]
- [today - what is individuality - think of preferences - "likes" on social media]
- "murder kills only an individual, and after all, what is an individual?" (128)
- Everyone's the same
Approach to topic - could talk about three different characters
-[look at Lenina and Fanny - not really individuals - reflect BNW's hypnopaedia, philosophy, conditioning]
-John reflects what individuality can be - BNW is afraid of it because it's a different viewpoint
[would be interesting to contrast to Linda because she has conditioning that she cannot seem to get rid of - can only really remember things to do with her job as a beta (minus?)]
-"Free! Free! Do you like being slaves?" - John
- [what does Soma do for individuality]
- Choose between happiness and what society used to call "high art" - this is Mustapha Mond
- No one is supposed to spend time alone
- John goes to the lighthouse to think and pray and get away from society
- [How can anyone have a thought in their head if they are always with people - answer - they can't]
- BNW think they're happy, but don't know anything about truth and beauty
- Individuals are harder to CONTROL
- "Actual happiness looks squalid" "Happiness is never grand" (Chapter 16)
- Self denial
- "if you had a god, you would have a reason for self denial" - John (Chapter 16)
- [in our society is delaying gratification - most people have trouble with this - but it's been proven people who can delay gratification are more successful]
- [anti progress = stability]

Discuss the irony behind BNW's motto: community, stability, identity.

- Community
- - the world is made up of many communities - BNW - tore them apart to make one GIANT one
- Family is the strongest form of community - but this does not exist in this world
- Love is replaced by sex and drugs (true feeling = love)
- BNW - can't choose one's community - the deltas and epsilons are not socializing with alphas and betas
- Alphas seem to have more community - more awareness of self
- [do people have to have individuality to have true community?]

Identity
-people are mass produced = no identity
-individuality is the biggest part of identity
-no one gets to choose their identity [is this a large part of individuality>]
-[interesting that the controllers get to choose their identity to some extend]
-"the nightmare swarming in indistinguishable sameness"
-mass production = people are made this way as well - Ford is their god
-

Stability
-Soma - fills in the gap - on the outside the BNW seems stable [but they aren't intrinsically stable]
Society gave up suffering (after the Nine Year's War)
-no true happiness, can have contentment
["Happiness is a hard master, especially other people's happiness"]
-"The world is stable now, people are happy now, they get what they want and they never want what they can't have" - Mustapha Mond (194)
-

How does this tie into our world?
-reservation = unstable - fend for yourselves
-can see where government doesn't have much control - things are chaotic [also the other extreme because people want freedom]
- "I don't want comfort, I want god, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want goodness, I want sin" (211) - John the Savage
- [comparing John the Savage to the terms of the motto shows the satire]
- Macbeth - kills the king and the whole country goes into war as a revolt - he is a dictator - doesn't listen to anyone in the end - causes people to revolt

Emotions - 7 deadly sins accompany - greed [doesn't come into play in BNW]
-Indigenous people in Canada - residential school tie in - taking children away = community loss - taking away identity
-Indigenous people lost their identity by government control
- When John enters the novel - he shows how fragile the society is - comfort and stability are suddenly threatened
- Emotions aren't genuine
- Synthetic (Soma) - manufactured
- John is genuine/authentic - has a mother
- The reader sympathizes with John because we identify with him
- John is not programmed to understand the motto - shows how stability may not be a good goal
- One of mottos doesn't work = collapse