We are now in the mid section of the book.  All of the newness has worn off and this section is largely about plot development.    Sticking with the idea concepts rather than revealing the story, I have compiled a more concise and less chapter by chapter analysis.

The truth is, as I am writing this I have already finished to book.  I suppose I am now able to stand back a little better and take a higher level look at things rather that trying to see everything as it is happening.   However, my notes I took before I finished the book so hopefully it is non-bias enough.

My book is 220 pages long.  In my opinion, the story really doesn’t start until Chapter 8 which begins on page 104.  While some of the preceding pages are interesting, it makes for a very slow beginning.  This is where John, aka The Savage tells Bernard his life story.  John was born to Linda who was abandoned on the reservation by her boyfriend (and father of John), the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Tomakin.

If you haven’t read the book, then that is enough spoilers.  But suffice to say, the rest of the book is about John’s interaction with London’s civilized society and how the clash of his upbringing is irreconcilable to the rest of civilization.  Below are the concepts I observed in this chapter group.

Acceptance in Society – The Reservation is not succinctly described, however it seems to be a combination of Native, Latino, possibly Asian or Indian as well people.  They believe in God, perform Native American rituals and speak in a non-English language. They seem to eat southwestern or Mexican food, drink alcohol like mescal and live a life that we might recognize as compared to rocket travel and scent organ indulgence.

John being born to an English woman did not fit in to the reservation with blond hair and blue eyes.  Linda accepted her fate as there was nothing she could do to leave seemed to survive as a call girl.  I think this concept is perfectly understandable to us.  If you don’t look like us and are not from here, then you are an outsider.  John and Linda were outsiders at the reservation.  But they were also outsiders in civilization as well.  

Linda had grown old.  Despite being 44, she is described as someone of eighty,  Without access to the drugs and hormones, the natural aging process happened, apparently so did poor hygiene and lack of medical care.  John would never be accepted in civilization as he was born and not hatched as the rest of the people.  Living in society no matter how detached we may want to be is imperative survival.  It is the same reason why living out your days in a bunker is ultimately a failure.  We are meant to be some degree of social creatures.

Coping through medication – Despite Linda’s desire to be re-introduced into society, she would never be accepted.  Her looks and many years on the reservation had made it impossible for her to fit back in.  Supposedly, Soma was non-addictive but essentially Linda checked out with the drug as soon as she realized that this was not going to be the reunion fantasy that she had in her mind.  We will find out her fate later in the book but she is as good as gone at this point. 

Again, there is nothing too earth shattering about self-medication.  Both Bernard and John shunned the practice preferring to feel emotion and pain rather than push it away.  This is what makes this concept significant.  Humanness needs to feel both sides of emotion, not just the high side.  That was the whole point of providing the drug in the first place, to dehumanize civilization.

Division of the family unit – The book is written in a fashion that sort of portrays John as codependent.   He seems to simultaneously have love and rage for Linda.  The fact that all civilized humans are hatched and the words mother and father are titled pornographic.  I think that means shockingly vulgar, like a racial slur rather than our current definition.

Despite that, John clearly has love for Linda and he wanted to have the same with Tomakin.  That puts him at odds with society and of course has consequences to to the director.  There is extensive talk about this later in the book but this is where I first realized it was going to be a theme.  

Power of the State and Disobedience –  I would call this foreshadowing.  But there is strong indication that Bernard, Helmholtz and John are going to have a clash with the state before this book is over.  Helmholtz is some kind of English Professor and is having treasonous thoughts to borrow from 1984.  You can’t be alone, write about it or even talk about it.  

Good thing the book is short because I was starting to struggle.  I didn’t really get a sense of where things were going until we got there.  I will talk more about this in my wrap-up in a couple of weeks.  The first three concepts today are really very strong in dystopian fiction and are good tools of totalitarian governments.  Divide the society if you disobey, drug them if they don’t fit and weaken the family unit.

End Your Programming Routine:  I am going to take this back to masks for a minute.  Do you know what I never see when out and about?  I never see a child wearing a mask and a parent not or vice versa.  It is always parent and child acting in the same fashion. It isn’t until they get to the age of my children (teenagers) that you start to see a divergence.  My kids actually hassle me to the point that they don’t want to be seen with me not wearing a mask.  How does this happen?  They have been separated and socialized in a way that makes them shun if you are not fitting the social norm.  Think about that.