BNW Journal Ch. 3

Chapter 3 is important to the story line because it shows a few things. Since I haven’t read the full story yet, I can’t say what is most important. However, I can make conjectures about what will be valuable to know. The first part of the chapter focuses on children in this society. The D.H.C. explains how the government essentially brainwashes children. The process starts before they are decanted, their  word for born. They repeat messages over speakers thousands of times to drill in into ‘em young.

We are introduced to Mustapha Mond, one of 11 world controllers. He holds power over Western Europe and is much respected by the D.H.C., a man in control of the baby =-making facility,  and everyone. Mond tells the story of family and certain signifigant events in history. This is important because it shows you the views of their society on certain subjects. This viewpoint can make foreshadows and nuance or abnormalities more apparent throughout the story. A young lady, 19 years old or so, named Lanina is introduced. She is described as a perfect specimen of human and we can conclude she is an alpha.  Her and another nurse, Fanny, are talking about Lanina’s “love” life. We observe the normal protocol for amourus relations and how detached they are from each other.  Henry Foster, the man Lanina has been going out with, is completely normal for that society and just regards Lanina as a thing. This angers the last seemingly important person, Bernard Marx. He has a crush on her, weird for a society of detached people, and thinks that the other people are disgusting and stupid. He is an outsider within a community of like-minded people.

There are truly to many allusions to name in any sort of timely manner, so I will write about a few that I thought were most important. All of the main characters introduced so far have allusions or possible meanings behind them. Mustapha Mond refers to a influential Turkish politician/war leader. Henry Foster might be an allusion to Henry IIX, a former King of England notorious for his wives, or rather the number. Karl Marx is the person behind Bernard Marx. “Lanina” could mean two different things. If separated La nina refers to a girl, this is saying that she is young yet and will grow and develop over the story. Lanin is Lanina without an a, this could be a reference to Vladmir Lenin, a Russian politician.

One foreshadow I noted was when Lanina and Fanny were talking about Bernard Marx in the showers. Lanina say “as though she were a World Commander and he a Gamma-Minus machine minder.” (pg 45, line 9-10) This indicates that sometime in the future Lanina will have massive power over Marx.

Previously unknown  vocabulary:

Boskage: noun a mass of trees and shrubs; thicket

Maudlin: adj. over-sentimental

Discarnate: adj. not having a body ; viviparous: adj. live birth with live babies

Pneumatic: adj. of or relating to the spirit

hypnopaedia: learning by hearing while asleep or under hypnosis

Ectogenesis: noun the development of embryos in artificial conditions