Chapter 11 – 14

Chapter 11 is the beginning of the fame that John gains as ‘The Savage’. As John gains fame Bernard also gets fame since he naturally became his tourist/guardian in the civilized land. From chapter 11 to 14, it shows some character development of Bernard drenched in his new fame, and John’s interaction with the civilized land. Chapter 11 is more towards the introduction to the new situation. The new environment where not only John is introduced to the new civilized land, but Bernard is also introduced to something called ‘fame’ for the first time in his life. This is a turn over for both characters John and Bernard and it is also a good source for a new character development for these two characters. One big thing that appears in chapter 11 is the change in Bernard’s characteristic. Bernard used to be the different and right character that was fighting against the ‘evil’ citizens. However through this change in his characteristics the readers were able to see his bad side. Though the disrespectful reactions of Bernard we can see how he was only rejecting the society not because he purely disagreed with its policy but because he was treated badly in the society due to his physical disabilities. If we happened to have been born in a high place within the society like Helmholtz, he would have had no problem living in the civilized land, rather he may have even defended its policies. All these fames fade away as John refuses to attend to Bernard’s important meeting in chapter 12. In this chapter the fame that Bernard gained from John’s specialness is lost because John begins to be uncooperative. In this chapter Helmholtz’s good personality is also emphasized by the action of forgiving Bernard’s rudeness and accepting him as a friend again. Chapter 13 is about Lenina’s passion for John and the contradictions between two characters’ idealisms. At the same time Lenina’s deep passion for John is revealed in this chapter, through the conversation with John, her love is described to be non-‘true’ love. She is still stuck in the civilized way of thinking. We also see John’s other side in this chapter. We see how John can not tolerate people who have different opinions than him. Lastly in chapter 14 John’s view on the civilized society is fixed. If the last three chapters were about the interactions between John and the civilized society’s way of thinking, chapter 14, where John’s mother dies and he meets children that talks about death indifferently, is the decisive chapter where John fixes his opinion about the civilized society to be a bad society without freedom and emotions.

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