Personal Impression
Following are the personal impressions of five impressionable (well, maybe), Yucca Valley High School students. There are opinions on the each chapter of the resolution as well as an overall impression on the novel.
Chapter 16
Chapter 16 was pretty philosophical if you let it be. I was not surprised to see that Mustapha Mond, world controller extraordinaire, who exhiled Bernard and Helmholtz for thinking unorthodox thoughts, was he himself familiar with all the forbidden text. One might even call him an admirer of Utopian taboo. This is also the chapter where I think any reader who was a fan of Bernard Marx sees how much of a sniveling pansy he is when he gets down on his knees and begs not to be sent to Iceland, which, I hear is very nice, and to top it all off he points the finger at John and Helmholtz for making him think the thoughts that he thinks..huh?!
Out of all the characters I identified most with Helmholtz. Like Bernard he's thinks differently but unlike Bernard, it's sincere and unselfish.He along with John are really the only free thinkers in the novel. I like how he takes his punishment in stride; even making it worse by poetically choosing to go to the Falkland Islands instead of a tropical island.
~ Erin Sutherland
Chapter 17
I liked this chapter because it was controversial. It dealt a lot with God and how He helps man. I am a Christian, and I liked the way it pulled me around. When the controller talked with John and he was saying, okay, do what you will, that's not what he meant. Anyhow, I did like this chapter and if you plan on reading Brave New World, I recommend reading it.
~Krystal Jacobs
Chapter 18
Overall, the book left something to be desired but since Im givin' my spiel only on Chapter 18, my opinion is a bit altered. Chapter 18 was well written BUT I did not like how it ended. I do not think John should have killed himself. Now, I like the way his suicide was portrayed..(the feet swaying), and how it didnt have to point out what happened. I just think he should have had other alternatives; perhaps he should have been allowed to go back to the reservation.
Of all the characters I identified most with John. He was looking so forward to something, (in this case Utopia), and when he arrives is so completely dissapointed that at the end of it all, he has no choice but to take his own life.
~Jermaine Evans
Overall
In the novel Brave New World, you find yourself in a world far different from our own. I found the world itself to be based on science and sex. This is far different from our own world. The characters I got to know in this story were dull. I could not connect with one person in the book. This probably comes from the fact that the only person in the entire story with any emotion was John the Savage. And this person was not right for the story. He ran into many emotional problems every time he opened his mouth to speak his mind. I believe that if he were in our time, he would be in a hospital for the mentally insane. In the end of the book, every person who tried to befriend this one man ended getting hurt. This story did want to put one thing across and that was the point of revolution against change.
~Howard Snow
I thought the book was interesting as well as strange. I could have never thought of such a society. Huxley's imagination is fascinating; it makes me wonder if in the future if there will ever be such a society. It's strange to think that the way science is going wiht cloning and fertilizing, that one day such a thing may exist; that we will be able to make many babies off one woman.
~Tawny Muggelberg