BNW Journal Ch. 18

Ch. 18

Summary:

            Helmholtz and Marx say goodbye to John and go to their island. Before they leave, Bernard apologizes to John; they make amends. and that is the last of them we see. John swears to both of them he will not be used as an experiment any longer. He planed to run away and be a hermit.

            The place he chose to live was a lighthouse, with comfortable furnishings and a marvelous view. To punish himself for choosing the best one he would voluntarily crucify himself by holding his arms out and pray for hours on his knees. The reason for all the dramatics is he feels he is not worthy to be in the sight of god and escape the filth civilization had brought upon his soul. This lighthouse was near a small village named Puttenham, some woods, and the beach.

            John planned to live off the land with only basic start-ups such as seeds, blankets, rope, and nails. He would garden and hunt to sustain himself. As he was making a bow to use in hunting, he realized that he was happily singing. This was unacceptable and not what he had become a hermit for.

            The same day three Delta Minuses saw John whipping himself for some sort of punishment. They told a reporter who was intrigued and went to interview John.

After asking John a few questions, which he did not answer, the reporter was literally kicked away from John’s new home. More reporters came, but after a couple bouts of violence, they stayed away for a while. A reporter named Bonaparte staked out the lighthouse for seventy-two hours placing cameras and microphones all around to capture a moment of the Savage’s day. He was rewarded when the Savage whipped himself.

            Hundreds of people came to view him, egging him to whip himself. “We want the whip!” they chanted.

            In the midst of this John saw Lenina stepping out off a helicopter and his fury boiled to the top. The audience wanted the whip and they got it. He whipped Lenina, himself and started chanting/throwing out words. Soon the audience mimed whipping themselves as well because they were trained to go along with everything the group did. Then someone shouted orgy-porgy and it became just that.

            The next day when John woke up he realized just what had transpired the day before and was ashamed. He hung himself because he saw it to be a fitting punishment.

Lit Elements:

            The strongest metaphor and symbol in this chapter was the very last paragraph of the book. It compares John’s hanging body to compass needles. This is a metaphor for obvious reasons, but it holds a lot of meaning symbolically. Compasses are used to locate something, John was looking for a way to exist in such a cruel world. The existence had to allow him to feel adequate in life. It reinforces the outcast idea; he was forced to wander away from his home and never found a place. Even in his original home he was considered strange and did not really have friends.

Vocabulary:

Coccyx –noun- a small, triangular bone at the base of the spinal column in humans (tail bone)

Panglandular - help

Turpitude -noun- depravity