Brave New World #2: Differences and The Tempest

            In this section of the book, Lenina and Bernard travel to the Savage Reservation. It’s fascinating that the people in the reservation are very similar to the Indians that inhabited the Americas before the Spanish and the British came. Funny that even after how long it’s been in the book, and how different the world is, there is still a need to preserve the culture and the people of the past.

            This trip also really emphasizes how different the “savages” are from the modern people of that time. Almost everything that the savages do disgusts Lenina, who is a typical new world citizen. Even Bernard, who views himself different than the other people in the new world, is entirely grossed out by a small scar that John, a savage, has on his head. In the reservation, they seem to be proud of scars and injuries. Also, there is no such thing as marriage in the new world, whereas marriage on the reservation is a huge deal and they don't even have a word for divorce.

            The reference of the title brings me to my second topic. The title is finally mentioned in Chapter 8, when John the savage is told he and his mother will likely be brought back to the new world with Bernard and Lenina. John quotes the line “O Brave New World, that has such people in it” from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The parallel between these two works is uncanny. John is very similar to Miranda, for they both lived their entire lives away from contact with the outside, and get their knowledge about them from their parent’s stories.

            The similarity to The Tempest also goes into the idea of colonialism. Prospero from The Tempest basically colonizes the island he crash lands on and attempts to civilize it’s only inhabitant. In Brave New World, the new world has basically colonized the entire planet, civilizing everyone to their way of thinking and erasing all other cultures and languages. Aside from the reservation, of course.

Brave New World #1: Hypnopedia and Other Pros

From what I’ve seen in the first four chapters of Brave New World, it’s going to be a very interesting book. The whole society is intensely planned out, with artificial birth, social class determined before birth by physical and mental capabilities, and a weird thing called hypnopedia, which influences one’s thoughts by talking to them while they are asleep.

            I think hypnopedia is a genius idea, and one of the best factors in keeping a safe and nicely controlled society. It reminds me a lot of 1984, where everyone in the society is brainwashed, but somehow it seems a little less sinister. They might be teaching unquestioned acceptance, but the people don’t all live in poverty, information isn’t kept hidden, and there isn’t one ‘ruler’ who everyone must ‘love’. Everything taught to children through hypnopedia is for their own benefit, and in turn, the benefit of the whole society.

            Another thing that seems pretty sweet about this world is that everyone is born into their place, but they’ve been biologically altered so everyone is happy with their lives. No one born into the Gamma or Eschelon classes feels like they should be an Alpha because they know they aren’t smart or strong enough. It would be nice to never feel out of place.

            I guess the one problem with this is that you don’t really get to choose your fate. For instance, if you were born to work in the fertilization sector and you don’t want to do that for the rest of your life, there’s not much you can do. But this isn’t a very big issue in the society because people are taught to like their job through hypnopedia.

The Jungle #4: Socialism

Although he abandons any pretext of a narrative and fails to use the indent key in these last few chapters, Sinclair sure taught me a lot about Socialism. I found all of his ramblings quite fascinating even though he did end up repeating himself more than once, and Socialism sounds like quite a nice thing. But it only works in theory, because those who created it forgot about one key thing—human nature.

I guess since this was written in 1906 and WWII hadn’t happened yet, it’s perfectly understandable for the author to miss how easily corruptible Socialism is.

            Socialism is corruptible because it concentrates the power in the hands of a few. True, they don’t get much in the way of material wealth, but they can still control nearly every material aspect of society. Socialism also tends to crush motivation. The greatest motivation is personal gain, but this system wouldn’t allow for one individual to get rich. The good people of the society would contribute because they know it would come back around to them, but there are lots of selfish people out there, and they would take advantage of the system.

            Clearly, from all I’ve seen in this book, pure capitalism is not the way to go either. The same fault in human nature causes this system to entirely exploit human resources, and run the weaker sections of the population into the ground. Not to go all “americuh" on you, but the socialist leaning capitalist economy we have here in America seems to work pretty well.

            It’s also clear why Jurgis was so attracted to the prospect of Socialism, because it was a cure to all that had ailed him throughout his life in America. It would protect the vulnerable citizens of the country from being exploited. He wouldn’t have to work 12-16 hours a day just to survive, and sometimes not even that. A big part of his fascination with this type of economy is probably has some less selfish aspects as well. If he hadn’t been chewed up and spit out by capitalism, the people in his family who died would have had a much higher chance of surviving. 

The Jungle #3: Grief and Opportunity

I don’t really think that Marija had enough money to make her sink into the mud, because just a few coins wouldn’t add enough weight for that to happen. That comment was probably more metaphorical, talking about the weight the money would put on your mind for fear of losing it. The author was probably also making a reference to how greed is bad.

            On the topic of women only getting paid half wages, I’m pretty sure it was like that in India too, if women were even allowed to work at all. That whole mindset of women being inferior is silly.

            In this last section, Jurgis is finally pushed over the edge by the death of his wife and both of his sons. He runs away from those who still remain in his family and hitchhikes on a train to the open country. This really brought to mind how grief often makes people overreact quite a bit. For Jurgis, this didn’t turn out too awfully, because he was able to live the life of his dreams during the summer after he left. I’m still not sure if this was a good decision, because he ended up having quite a hard time surviving the winter after he broke his arm. But if he had stayed on with his family, the conditions probably wouldn’t have been any better. What do you think of his decision?

            Jurgis’ situation after he breaks his arm really makes me grateful that we have decent social services in the country today, not to mention good labor laws. The country has really turned into the land of opportunity, where anyone can succeed if they work hard enough.

The Jungle #2: Capitalism

The consumption is a disease of the lungs, how does a disease make you cough up blood? Wouldn't that be more of someone killing you?

I agree with you, I think the author is talking about how capitalism is evil. He is trying to get this out to the readers to help them understand what was happening at the time. I feel bad for Marija. She loses her job then finds one but gets paid half wages because she is a girl. This must have been horrible for her family. Especially with Ona waiting for Jurgis’s baby, the loss of money must have made it difficult for them to get by.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much mud is on the streets. Marija is worried about sinking in the mud after she sewed her money to her clothes. She must have had a lot of money in the bank. Having your child die from meat when you work in a meat family must be frightening.

The cheep labor and the lack of faith in the women working must have frustrated everyone. Unless they were unaware of it, they could of just thought that was how much they were getting paid. Well, except for Maija, getting paid half as much because she was not a man, only being hired because she had the strength of a man. I suppose others knew about what was happening, they just chose not to say anything in fear of losing their jobs.

The Jungle #2: Capitalism

I think the author here might be trying to point out, albeit in a very roundabout way, how capitalism is evil. Those with corrupt morals are the only ones who can truly succeed. Their success pushes others into the mud, in turn causing their morals to degrade simply because it’s necessary for them to survive. In addition to this, Sinclair points out how it destroys family morals as well. Teta Elzbieta’s child Kristoforas isn’t missed at all when he finally dies, because he was a drain on the family’s resources. In any better situation, there would have been many tears for his death because it wouldn’t affect the others’ chance at survival. Furthermore, those who run the whole system lose all sense of morality as their success greatens. Because they are profiting so much, they end up committing one of the seven deadly sins--greed.
     Having been written at the time when this was actually happening, I think the book was definitely meant to bring the issue of the cheap labor industry to the attention of the everyday American. It’s likely that a lot of people knew about what was going on, but they just chose to ignore it. Other people probably knew about it, but were profiting from the suffering of the people at the bottom of the chain, and so chose not to do anything about it.
     As a random tidbit, I watched Moulin Rouge a few days ago, and the main character died of consumption. So yes, I’m pretty sure it’s a disease of the lungs that makes you cough up blood.

The Jungle #1: Perseverance

I agree with you Maddie, the family seems very optimistic when in America. This surprised me because of what they get put through with the labor jobs. If I was put through that I would be very depressed, not as happy as them. I couldn’t believe how horrible Jurgis’s wedding was. When the people take advantage of the food and make no donations to them. Jurgis is very open-minded. He seems so confident when his new wife talks about not having enough money from people not donating. He says he will just work harder and get more money. How could anyone do that? Perseverance does seem like it will be an important theme throughout the story. This will be especially true if the family never gets a better life. They will have to preserver throughout their whole experience in America. If they do not continue their perseverance their lives would fall apart. This is a possibility of the story ending sadly, having the family fall apart. Consumption, no I am not quite sure what they are talking about there. I think they may be saying something about the family members getting tuberculosis, having some disease in their lungs. That would definitely affect they family latter in the story if that is what they are talking about. The family could die off; this would change the perspective of the story and affect the theme of perseverance. The people would then be persevering to survive rather than fight through the work.

The Jungle #1: Perseverance

It really is fascinating how optimistic this family is when they make it to America. They all get horrible labor jobs, with no mercy of any kind, and yet they are as happy as can be. The perseverance of Jurgis in particular is truly amazing. He can’t even afford to marry, and works 12-16 hours every day wading through blood, but thinks he is privileged because he has a job. In a way, he is privileged, because there are hundreds of other people in the same situation who can’t even find work in the cheap labor industry. His view is understandable, because he hasn’t known anything better than what he has now.

I get the feeling that perseverance will be a theme throughout the story. The only way to so survive is to never give up. If you do, there’s nothing to cushion your fall, and a lot breaks on the way down. From the tone of the book so far, I’m guessing there will be a lot more misfortunes heading towards the families of Jurgis and Ona.

I wonder if the family ever makes it to a more American standard life or if they just end up being the victim of so many different events that they fall to pieces. This seems like the kind of story that could definitely end in a really brutal way. The setting is certainly one of brutality.

            In chapter 6, Grandma Majauszkiene says that everyone who sleeps in a certain room in the house Jurgis’ family bought is sure to get consumption. Have you figured out what that is? It sounds like a sort of lung problem, because it mentioned that someone who had it was coughing a lot. I’m curious as to whether it will affect the family later in the story or not.

            

Initial Post

Maddie Fletcher
Jordan Gardner

Books:

Brave New World  by: Aldous Huxley
The Jungle  by: Upton Sinclair


Schedule:
The Jungle
Chapters 1-7 -- week 1
ch 8-15 --week 2
ch 16-23 -- week 3
ch 24-31 -- week 4

Brave New World
Chapters 1-4 -- week 5
ch 5-9 -- week 6
ch 10-14 -- week 7
ch 15 -18 -- week 8

Comparison 1-2 -- week 9
Comparison 3-4 -- week 10