Chapter 7 brave new world summary

Brave New World Chapter 7 Summary



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Lenina and Bernard are left at Malpais. Lenina is being whiny— she doesn't like it here, and she doesn't like their Indian guide (mostly because he doesn't smell good).

The guide leads them, amid the sound of beating drums, to the bottom of a three-hundred-foot precipice.

Lenina doesn't like this, either, because it makes her feel small.

Following behind the guide, she and Bernard proceed to climb upwards, finally emerging on a flat deck of stone at the top. Two little Indians come running along, naked and painted, which totally freaks out Lenina. They're also carrying snakes, which doesn't help her comfort level.

When they get to the pueblo, the guide leaves to go in and ask for directions. She can't deal with the general dirtiness, since "cleanliness is next to fordliness."

Bernard reminds her that these people haven't heard of Our Ford, and that they are used to living this way.

The two of them observe an old man climbing down a ladder. Lenina is horrified: she's never seen such an old man before. Bernard explains that they (in the controlled world) have learned to keep people "young" until they're abou


A critically important plot development is seen in these chapters. This is the moment at which Bernard meets John. John has lived his entire life as an outcast. He has long had the dream of living in the World State. Bernard is a misfit in the World State who wants to find a way to fit in. When the two meet, we see set in motion a series of events that lead to significant consequences for both characters.

Huxley uses a flashback, a type of literary device, to make both Bernard and the reader aware of John’s background. This use of flashback lets Huxley put forward a group of images from John’s childhood that would in any other circumstance make an awkward fit into the overall structure of the story. If the story had been told using strict chronological order, the narrative of John and Linda would have been conveyed first. Presented in the middle of the novel, John and Linda’s story makes a more significant impact because the reader is already aware of the huge differences between the World State and Reservation culture. The fact that Linda has failed to fit in on the Reservation, as well as John’s difficult upbringing, is only able to make sense when taken in the context of the


Chapter Seven

HE MESA was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust. The channel wound between precipitous banks, and slanting from one wall to the other across the valley ran a streak of green-the river and its fields. On the prow of that stone ship in the centre of the strait, and seemingly a part of it, a shaped and geometrical outcrop of the naked rock, stood the pueblo of Malpais. Block above block, each story smaller than the one below, the tall houses rose like stepped and amputated pyramids into the blue sky. At their feet lay a straggle of low buildings, a criss-cross of walls; and on three sides the precipices fell sheer into the plain. A few columns of smoke mounted perpendicularly into the windless air and were lost.

"Queer," said Lenina. "Very queer." It was her ordinary word of condemnation. "I don't like it. And I don't like that man." She pointed to the Indian guide who had been appointed to take them up to the pueblo. Her feeling was evidently reciprocated; the very back of the man, as he walked along before them, was hostile, sullenly contemptuous.

"Besides," she lowered her voice, "he smells."

Bernard did not attempt to deny it. They walked

Brave New World Chapter 7 Summary




Lenina and Bernard travel with their Indian guide to the pueblo. Lenina doesn't like the mesa, the dust, the walking, or their guide. As they approach Malpais they hear drums beating. A path takes them to the bottom of a cliff, which looking up is the mesa. They climb up a steep path to the top of the mesa. Soon they hear people coming, they see two Indians who are bare to the waist and have white lines painted on their necks and torsos. They run by Lenina and Bernard, one Indian carrying a feather brush and the other four snakes. This is distressing to Lenina.

At the pueblo entrance, their guide leaves them to go inside and receive instructions. Here Lenina and Bernard encounter the dirt, garbage, dust, and flies that make up the living areas of the Indians. Lenina cannot comprehend how anyone can live like this. Bernard tells her that since they have been doing it for five or six thousand years, they are probably used to it. Lenina repeats one of the phrases ingrained in her mind, "cleanliness is next to fordliness." He points out that the Indians had not heard of Our Ford and are not civilized. Lenina wishes she had brought her soma. Be