"And after all," Fanny's tone was coaxing, "it's not as though there were anything painful or disagreeable about having one or two men besides Henry. And seeing that you ought to be a little more promiscuous …"
...Lenina shook her head. "Somehow," she mused, "I hadn't been feeling very keen on promiscuity lately. There are times when one doesn't. Haven't you found that too, Fanny?"
Fanny nodded her sympathy and understanding. "But one's got to make the effort," she said, sententiously, "one's got to play the game. After all, every one belongs to every one else." (p.43) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lenina is having a discussion with Fanny about Lenina wanting to be with Bernard and not wanting to be around other men. Lenina has a strong attachment with Bernard and Fanny is telling Lenina to not have this attachment towards Bernard because in their society, everyone belongs to everyone. This means that Lenina cannot be with only Bernard. She has to be with many different men, because she belongs to everyone and if she doesn't socialize with other men, then she is not following one of the society's motto, and this will make her different from everyone else.
I have been in a similar sitution as Lenina in the way that her environment is expecting her to act a certain way. Lenina wants to do something that her environment doesn't approve of and her environment is forcing her to act a certain way. When I was in my old public school all the students didn't care about learning, and they just messed around during class without paying any attention to the teacher. I was the only one in my class that cared about my grade and about my education. Everyone in class thought I was weird because I was the only one who cared, and they always tried to persuade me to follow in their foot steps. They acted as though not caring about your grades was a "law" that should be followed, and myself not following this "law" made me different from everyone else. Just like how Lenina is different from everyone else by only wanting to be with Bernard.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Lenina's Situation
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I completely agree with you. I like the way Lenina is different. I also commend you for being brave and not following the crowd. However in Brave New World it could be particularly dangerous to be different. In our world you might get bullied, but I don't think you'd get killed for being different, at least not anymore. If Lenina were to realize she was putting herself in danger, do you think she should start submitting to society? Shouldn't she want to stay alive? Do you even think she is putting herself in danger?
ReplyDeleteI do find what you said about your old public school interesting. You said that you were encouraged not to work hard. Could this perhaps been a situation where you actually had two separate environments urging you to do different things? On one hand the students urged you to do bad, but on the other teachers and parents urged you to work hard and do well, even if you didn't realize it at the time.
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