Brave New World Chapter 7- Linda's Story

(Individuality is/is not harmful)

"The men came nearer and nearer; their dark eyes looked at her, but without giving any sign of recognition, any smallest sign that they had seen her or were aware of her existence. The writhing snake hung limp again with the rest. The men passed.

"I don't like it," said Lenina. "I don't like it."

She liked even less what awaited her at the entrance to the pueblo, where their guide had left them while he went inside for instructions. The dirt, to start with, the piles of rubbish, the dust, the dogs, the flies. Her face wrinkled up into a grimace of disgust. She held her handkerchief to her nose.

"But how can they live like this?" she broke out in a voice of indignant incredulity. (It wasn't possible.)

Bernard shrugged his shoulders philosophically. "Anyhow," he said, "they've been doing it for the last five or six thousand years. So I suppose they must be used to it by now."

"But cleanliness is next to fordliness," she insisted.

"Yes, and civilization is sterilization," Bernard went on, concluding on a tone of irony the second hypnopædic lesson in elementary hygiene. "But these people have never heard of Our Ford, and they aren't civilized. So there's no point in …" (Huxley 109-110).

 

In chapter 7 of Brave New World, Lenina is finally exposed to the savage reservation, and she has a hard time understanding it. She first is taken back by seeing the way people look/dress. She is also having a lot of worries being that she left her soma back at the world state. She is so conditioned to her life and what she's been taught that she does not understand the Indians. She is so stuck in her ways that she cant comprehend that it is a way of life for them. Being an individual rather than a conformist, in Lenina's situation, would have been beneficial because if she was able to think and have her own personal opinions, then maybe she wouldn't be so close minded. Lenina doesn't understand their lifestyle and will not because of her conditioning. The Society that she lives in does not allow personal opinions or ideas, which hinders her or anyone else when experiencing something else. Whereas for Bernard since he is an individual, he is able to ask questions and have an open mind about the savage reservation. Since Lenina is conditioned the same as everybody else in her society she can't accept or respect the lifestyle of the Indians.