4th Group Discussion- ch. 16-18

Theme: The Pursuit of Happiness

Important Quotes:

1. "'But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art.'" (pg.194)

Importance: It shows how much people have to sacrifice one thing for the other. In this case it is happiness versus stability (comfort).

2. "'One would think he was going to have his throat cut,' said the Controller, as the door closed. 'Whereas, if he had the smallest sense, he'd understand that his punishment is really a reward. He's being sent to an island. That's to say, he's being sent to a place where he'll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world. All the people who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit in community-life.'" (pg.200)

Importance: It seems like Bernard is too focused on having false-happiness and he doesn't realize how lucky he is to be an individual and to be different from everyone else. His idea of happiness is something that doesn't really satisfy someone, but instead leaves one empty.

3. "Universal  happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't." (pg.201)

Importance: They got rid of real happiness and created false happiness to make everyone think they were happy. However, this could be what people see as true happiness.

4. "The Savage nodded, frowning. 'You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it...But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy.'" (pg.210)

Importance: Life isn't meant to be easy. The government opposed against unpleasant things in life to create paradise. However, paradise is like sleepwalking all the time, never really realizing what's around you and growing to your full potential. Everyone is cut off.

5. "'God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut. People would be shocked...'" (pg. 207)

Importance: Many people believe that religion cannot co-exist peacefully on earth because it causes many problems amongst people. Others believe religion is the root of happiness. This quote shows how people in Brave New World don't really get to choose either way what their opinions are because they have been conditioned.

6. "' Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.' There was a long silence. 'I claim them all,' said the Savage at last." (pg.212)

Importance: It explains how pain and the negative aspects of society are a part of humanity.  This quote shows how imperfections are a part of life and help them to learn from mistakes and to grow.

Summarizer:


Key Points:

1. John (the Savage), Bernard and Helmholtz were sent to the Controller’s office after John’s demonstration against soma and in support of real happiness-without given mock happiness in the form of a pill.

2. The reader realized that Mustapha Mond (one of the world Controllers) was an individual and apart from the overall crowd. He was very well educated in science and literature, subjects which are forbidden to learn in depth.

3. John (the Savage) argued against the false happiness forced upon the citizens of the city and tried to understand the logic behind the modern world.

4. John was prohibited to go into isolation on the northern islands with Bernard because Mustapha Mond wanted to keep the Savage to further experiment with him to see how he would cope with the civilization, however the Savage tries to escape by creating himself a home in the countryside in an abandoned lighthouse.

5. John the Savage hung himself in an attempt to escape modern civilization and its confusion. Reporters and journalists had been provoking and irritating the Savage for they were fascinated by his unique personality and belief.

Investigator:

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov: He was born in Russia in 1849 in a small village. He passed away in 1936. He studied chemistry and physiology at the University of St. Petersburg. His entire career was to research digestion and blood circulation. Ivan experimented with dogs to investigate the interaction with salivation and the digestive system. After doing many experiments he concluded that the dogs could be conditioned to salivate. Therefore a "conditioned reflex" occurred instead of a innate reflex.
This relates to the book because the people in the book are sleep-conditioned. This method derived from Ivan Pavlov's experiments.

B.F. Skinner

B.F. Skinner: Was born in 1904. He received his PhD in 1931. He took an academic work position at the University of Minnesota. He wrote a fictional Utopian novel and he also began creating the "baby box"; which was a controlled environment chamber for young infants. He then used pigeons as experimental subjects for "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior".He gave rewards to pigeons if they completed certain tasks or until they achieved a desired behavior.
This is related to the book because the children are conditioned in this way. Such as in the Conditioning Rooms where they learn to behave a certain way and to do certain things. In Brave New World instead of using rewards they used electric shocks to discipline the children; to scare them away from certain things. In this way they are psychologically shaped to be a certain way.

Illustrator:

Significance: The bird in the picture represents how the society in the book may have viewed John, an animal. To end his turmoil John committed suicide by hanging himself; as in the picture.