In this chapter, the character Lenina and Bernard Marx become further developed. It appears the Lenina is slightly interested in having a relationship with Bernard even though she is involeved with another character named Henry . However Bernard feels very inadequate and feels that Lenina isn't interested in him although he is infatuated with her. It amazes me how in this novel that these people know nothing of a real family like in our daily society yet they're still interested in matching themselves with others but not to reproduce, purely for sexual reasons. The people of this novel resemble the people of our society, but our world is light years away from their world. I have began to get the impression that these people have a vestige of a humanity similar to ours, but it has been forced to remain dormant through the conditioning of society.
In later events in this chapter, Bernard Marx is having a conversation with a friend, Helmoltz who spoke of how he sometimes feels a strange feeling inside of him. A feeling that he can say more than he does but doesn't know how to find the words. He says that sometimes he thinks that he could do more with himself. To me, this sounds like his creative side is becoming active. Somehow he has opened it in his mind and is slowly reversing the conditioning that has been done on him. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that as I continue to read this book that I will learn that what the scientists in this book block out of the minds of children and the nonsense blasted into their ears will keep certain aspects of who they are dormant and not erasing them forever. Maybe some people can overcome what has been done to them, and rebel against the norm of their current world to change it.
I think that no matter how much conditioning one is given from society, instincts will always prevail over what has been taught to that individual. In this novel it appears that Helmoholtzs is beginning to experience his true instincts from within. What he does with them will only unfold as I continue to read.
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Do you mean that the "Brave New World"'s society or the real world's society has been conditioned in order to suppress humanity? To me, it seems like both have been, but in different ways. In our society, sexuality, a basic human instinct, is suppressed to a large extent. In their society, certain human traits which we would consider to be more indicative of "civilization", such as family and the desire for truth (aka science), are suppressed completely.
I think that the reason for this is that sex is, in our society, an absolute necessity for the survival of our race, but only for that. This is why almost every religion in the world condemns all forms of sexual activity except for sexual intercourse, because sexual intercourse is what allows us to reproduce, while all other human sexual activities are simply "byproducts" of sexual instinct that serve no biological purpose. Our society is "civilized" - we want to make progress as a species and become better than all other species, through the development of science, art, etc. Therefore, we discourage such useless activities as non-reproductive sex, because they do not further our goal of becoming the superior species, and because they represent our evolutionary ties to other animals, who we believe ourselves to be above.
However, in their society, sex no longer serves its natural purpose, because they are able to create children through technological means. In fact, because their society does not want to develop as a species, and stand out above all other species, they have nothing against useless animal instincts. Instead, in their society, other natural human instincts, such as creativity (art) and the desire for truth (science) must be suppressed because they do allow society to develop. In order to suppress these instincts, sex is promoted because it is a totally pointless yet enjoyable waste of time. Because everyone is so busy having sex, nobody has time to write literature, or study the universe, and so their society stagnates. I personally think that the "Brave New World" is like one huge science experiment, run by the world controllers, while the rest of the population is being used like lab mice in their experiment. The desire for family, truth, etc. are only annoying traits in the lab mice which must be worked around in order to prevent them from interfering with the experiment. (This is also similar to the Matrix, in which it is the unpredictability of human thought, and therefore the need for choice, which must be worked around.)
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