BNW FINAL JOURNAL!

The motif of pneumatic continued to change throughout the end of BNW. In last third of the book, pneumatic is used to describe objects, rather than women in a sexual way. While talking to one of the world controllers, “Helmholtz rose from his pneumatic chair” (229). “Pneumatic chair” is a repetition in the last part of the novel because it is frequently repeated. Pneumatic, as I found out during the middle of the novel, means plump. Being plump or pneumatic, I realized after a group discussion, is the “ultimate compliment” because being the right size or comfort is conforming to the “machine,” which is BNW’s version of a ‘perfect’ society. People who are conditioned well and conform to the society long to be called pneumatic because it means they are filling their rule as a citizen. Calling an object, such as a chair, pneumatic is very appealing and a great compliment.

The last part of BNW takes place in the Controller’s study and the lighthouse. The Controller’s study had a secret “large safe set into the wall between the bookshelves” (230). In the “safe” the Controller, Mustafa Mond, had many books including “The Holy Bible” (230). The references to religion and the discovering of Mustafa having a “Bible” shows the hypocritical views of the leader of the society that is so targeted on making everyone happy and creating a “perfect” world. If world controllers can handle religion and history and like it, then society should have the ability to access the books as well. Later, after some discussion, John decided to “[claim] the right to be unhappy,” (240) and chose to move to the lighthouse outside of the society. The lighthouse is the final resting place of John and is where he could express himself and his “unhappiness”. Upon first arriving there, John feels it is “almost too civilizedly luxurious” (244) and feels he needs to give himself more “self-discipline” (240) to purify himself for having such a “luxurious” place when he felt like he didn’t deserve it.

Huxley uses syntax to help show the change in John after leaving civilization and living at the light house. While “he was digging in his garden - digging, too, in his own mind, laboriously turning up the substance of his thought. Death - he drove in his spade once, and again, and yet again” (254). Although he was physically digging, he has an interruption of his thoughts realizing that he was , “- digging, too in his own mind,” which shocks him because he usually talks using Shakespearian language and seems sure about what he is saying. His thoughts shift to “death-,“ again his thoughts are interrupted which is shown by the syntax of the dash. Death unsettles him and makes him angry and causes him to forcefully “[drive]” the spade into the ground repeatedly.

Shakespearian language continues to be referenced in the final part of BNW. “[John’s] face lit up” (218) when he heard Mustafa speak Shakespearian. He “lit up” out of happiness from someone understanding the “beautiful” (219) language. Mustafa informs John that it’s prohibited because it’s “old” (219) and the controllers “don’t want people to be attracted by old things” (219). John disagrees with people being able to have Shakespeare, but he has no power to allow people to have it. John continues to speak regularly using Shakespeare such as yelling “’strumpet’” (257) because he feels like he can only fully express deep emotions with Shakespeare’s language because it contains passion, which the BNW society lacks.