BNW Journal Ch. 14

Ch. 14

Summary:

            The Savage arrives at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying and quickly locates a nurse to help him find Linda’s room. John is brisk with nurse, offending her feelings by not stopping or wanting to chat with her.

Linda is dying in company, nineteen other people are in the room, all plugged into 24/7 TVs. Her pleasant-smelling room is becoming more than a simple room in her soma holiday. It is a wondrously happy place that she enjoys. John goes to her and sits by her softly calling her name. He looks at her bloated face and remembers a younger version that stood over him in Malpais during his childhood telling stories about the beautiful other place (civilized society). Linda vaguely recognize John through her drugged haze.

This peaceful but sad moment is interrupted by a swarm of khaki-clad twins. “How ugly!”, “How fat!”, these were two of many cruel phrases uttered by the mass of twins. They had never seen an old (or even middle aged) person before and were curious in a morbid way. John is enraged and picks one up, making it yell, bringing the nurse. The nurse tells him to knock it off, they were being death conditioned, an vital part of their lives. John orders her in no uncertain terms to make them leave.

Once alone with Linda again, all he can think of are bad memories, not good ones like before. To compound his bad mood, Linda starts mumbling about Pope’ and how she thinks John is Pope’ in her haze. He shakes her angrily and says that he is JOHN, her son. She starts to reply, but chokes and suffocates, ending her life.

Kneeling by her bed, John is a bad example for the group of twins still in the ward. The nurse is frustrated and asks him to behave, else the children might be put back in their death conditioning. She distracts the group with a who wants chocolate question.

After a few minutes a few twins come back and ask John repeatedly, “Is she dead?”

He just walks out of the hospital, after pushing one down for good measure.

This chapter marks the end of Linda, major character. Although the book has not reached the climax, it is coming soon. Important characters are dying, so it will have large consequences, bringing about a climax.

Lit Elements:

            Huxley used the group of twins as a symbol. Twins represent mysticism and communication in many cultures. This is ironic because they are compared to maggots, which are distinctly not mystical. So many replicas of one person create a monster of sorts. A seething mass of destruction. It also represents how society looses the importance or interesting part of a person by replication.

Vocabulary:

None