Brave New World Post 2

What is the signifigance of the use of Shakespeare as the one work John receives?

Of all the pieces of literature that Huxley could have used for John to have read he chose the works of Shakespeare. This I believe stems from the fact that Shakespeare is a stark contrast to life that people live now compared to before Ford. When John quotes The Tempest at the end of chapter eight Bernard remarks, "You have a most peculiar way of talking sometimes," (Huxley 139). Thus I believe Shakespeare is used to emphasize the barrier between our world and one with the moral values of Brave New World.

Why have the moral values completely changed in the World State?

In the utopia that Huxley has created, the moral values seem to have taken a huge regression backwords. This is exemplified through how much sex the wemon of the utopia have. What fascinates me is that John, the one who is considered the savage, has more restraint than a person like Lenina. When John finds himself lusting over Lenina while she is passed out on soma he thinks ,"Detestable thought!He was ashamed of himself," (145). The idea of sex has become the idea of an act of pleasure and not intimacy that someone not apart of the society holds more values than someone apart of it. The only exlanation is people no longer need sex because of cloning so they accept it more than someone from our society.

Why do the words father and mother now take on a pornographic connotation?

Father and mother, people we think as caring, loving people have become nowhere short of scandelous in this world. While seeing the director for the first time John shouts out my father which is taken as a gross, smutty word which humiliates the director immensly (Huxley 151). It is understandable that the director would be embarressed for no one has children in this society, but what the author emphasizes is the use of the word father. In this case, being a father is an insult! The most plausible explanation for the negative connotation of this word is that fathers were only present in savage tribes and not "normal."