Chapter 12-18: Actions and Causes of BNW

I kicked my butt into gear this past week and read seven chapters which pretty much ending the story portion of the book. The next is part is the revisiting of BNW.

There is a lot to sum up in the book so I'm going to put it in bullet/sentence form.

-John wouldn't come out of his room to meet some important people who had been nice to Bernard just so  they could see "Mr. Savage."
-This caused Bernard to be lowered back into his normal social ranking like he was before John.
-Lenina got it into her head that she was going to have John no matter what.
-But, when she try to do this John became very angry and started calling her a whore because she was causing him so temptation.
-He almost killed her.
-Quickly following, he got a call that his mother, Linda, was dying.
-He went to the hospital to see her where she died.
-John was so full of grief and misery that he tried to show the people of the BNW that they did not see the truth.
-He ended up throwing soma out the window which caused a lot of fighting.
-This is where Bernard and Helmholtz found him, Helmholtz then joined in the fight.
-The police came and drug them all with soma.
- The three man were taking to the Controller where they discussed the meaning of the BNW and consequences for their actions.
-Bernard will go to Iceland and Helmholtz will go to another island with lots of storms.
-These islands are meant for the people who can't adapt to BNW, so it's more like a gift than a punishment.
-John is not given this option because the Controller wants to see how he does here for awhile longer.
-After their long discussion of philosophy, God, and purpose; John leaves and goes to find a place where he can live alone with his sorrow.
-John has chosen the path of truth instead of happiness.
-He lives there for a time, punishing himself with a whip when he sings or thinks of Lenina.
-He is seen whipping himself by other people and that causes a lot of attention for him.
-One moment he is alone, the next, tons of people are around him saying "Whip! Whip! Whip!"
-He does and then he sees Lenina.
-He's so full of temptation and rage that he runs at her and whips her and then himself over and over.
-Everyone begins in this fighting charade and it turns into what John never wanted full of sex and soma.
-In the morning after everyone is gone and he wakes up he cries "Oh my God, my God!"
-I don't think John killed Lenina.
-But the final part is finding that he hung himself.

Image from http://stallsandwalls.com/

Anyway, that's the sum up of the book. I thought that maybe it would turn out all good in the end, but that was naive and this is ending is more realistic for a futuristic novel. I feel very little connection with this book and its characters but I enjoyed reading it anyways. I believe that the Controller keep him in the BNW world because he wanted to see the truth and what it does. And for that he did find out and it costed John's life.

More on what I think of this book and the revisiting of it in the next couple blogs.