Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Brave New World II (Chapters 2-3)

Following the structure of society laid down in the first chapter is a description of the children's indoctrination.  Coupled in stark contrast with "erotic play", it makes for two shocking chapters.  As with the setup of genetic engineering, Huxley's goal here is to create a seemingly ludicrous scenario (in this case, one that most readers would presumably find disgusting) that seems completely fabricated.  Then, he seeks to reveal over the course of the rest of the novel that these abominations are not so far-fetched after all.

This is also mirrored in the dialog, which jumps between characters in different conversations.  The jumps become increasingly rapid until eventually it is just flashed snippets of each line.  The dual conversation reveals an anomaly in the system -- Bernard.  As one group talks about the virtues of everybody belonging to each other, Bernard is painted very clearly as an outsider in another.  A few important things can be gleaned from this.  For one, the society is not "perfect".  There are, for whatever reasons, people that do not quite fit in.  Subsequently this also introduces conflict for the first time.  In a way, this marks the beginning of the plot.

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