Close Reading

"A, B, C, vitamin D," he repeated to himself, as though the words were a spell that would restore
the dead past to life. But the spell was ineffective. Obstinately the beautiful memories refused to
rise; there was only a hateful resurrection of jealousies and ugliness and miseries." (Huxley 203)

A worried tone is present in the quote:

Expresses worriedness because it provides a clue to people's incapability of looking in the

past
Higher chance of bad memories and life aspects to overflow the good memories
Leaving the human kind with no optimism and kindness and being replaced with
jealousy, ugliness and misery

Provides Symbolism:

Referring "A, B, C vitamin D" as individualism

Whenever the savage repeats these words he refers to his past, what he has learned from
his past
Individualism is based on learning from personal mistakes and life experiences in the past
"The spell" how the savage calls it brings back his inner self and makes him unique in his
own way

Displays Pathos:

A feeling of pity is present when reading the quote

A pitty on the human kind because everyday there is less good left in them
People started expressing violent sentiments that causes a false impression of being better
than someone else
It is difficult to blur the vision of the past but gradually it tended to succeed

Social Criticism

"Annoyed by his chatter, one of the policemen had given his a shot from his water pistol.
Bernard stood for a second or two wambling unsteadily on legs that have seemed to have lost
their bones, their tendons, their muscles to have become mere sticks of jelly, and last not even
jelly-water: he tumbled in a heap on the floor." (Huxley 214)

Satirical message/target:

This quote is an example of corruption in society.

Instead of helping everyone and bringing justice to everyone, policemen are refusing to
listen to anyone and are doomed to only fulfill their duty
It goes the opposite, instead of listening what people have to say, people with personal
opinions are ignored and do not have a place in the utopian world

Utopia/Dystopia:

Juvenalian satire
Expresses dystopia
Corrupted police officers are privileged to take violent actions without any consequences
by claiming as self-defence or the safety of the population.
Abusing power in order to make order in chaos
The natural order is disorder
Personal feelings prevent from completing the duty

Conditioning vs. Individualism:

Individualism in not present in the quote

Police officers are conditioned to take violent actions when someone does not follow
their desires.
Conditioned into taking actions without warning
Individualism is present where individuals make mistakes and learn based on the
mistakes made
Policemen never learned that violence is not a way to solve a conflict because no one
took a step forward to explain why is wrong to take severe actions

Contextual
"They duly ate, but ignored him; drank and were either rude to his face or talked to one another
about him, loudly and offensively, as though he had not been there... What should have been the
crowning moment of Bernard's whole career had turned out to be the moment of his greatest
humiliation" (Huxley 175)

Research Notes

Connection to the Novel

Author's life experience:

1) Huxley does not trust Life itself and seeks
how to defend himself from its dangers
(Challenges and Difficulties)
2) Seeking harmonious interpersonal
relationships as well as desire to please or
appease other people (Challenges and
Difficulties)

1) Bernard applies to Huxley. After Bernard

got betrayed by the Savage, he does not want
to repeat the same mistake.
Tries to avoid depending on someone else
2) Huxley always tried to impress people
Bernard tried to impress the crowd with his
Savage inspections
Bernard represents Huxley by wanting to
please people with what they discovered and
in general facts.
Bernard wants to be useful

Historical Event:
1) Decade of Betrayal recounts the injustice
and suffering endured by the Mexican
community during the 1930s (Decade of
Betrayal)
2) Individuals are forced to undergo the tragic
ordeal of betrayal,deprivation and adjustment
(Decade of Betrayal)
3) Addresses the inclusion of the event in the
educational curriculum, the issuance of a
formal apology (Decade of Betrayal)

1) Bernard;s story is based on the Mexican

community during the Decade of Betrayal
Bernard was suffering because he was
betrayed by a person he put his hopes on
2) The basic necessity in Bernard's society
was respect
People did not respect Bernard because he
betrayed the people with not appearing with
the savage at the presentation
Bernard has to adjust into the world of shame
and humiliation
3) Because of Bernard's behavior, the director
is forced to send Bernard to Iceland for reeducation
As well as after Bernard disappointed the
audience, he had to bring his formal apologies
towards the audience for the inconvenience.

Other texts by the author:

Lypiatt initially comes across as a
buffoon, but at the end of the novel he
comes to a devastating realization that his
artistic life has been a failure and a farce.
(Antic Hay)

Lypiatt from the novel "Antic Hay", can be

connected to Bernard
Lypiatt humiliated himself by stating that all
his life he thought he was an artist but it was
all fake.
Bernard was humiliated by the community
and his hopes of spending his life studying the
savage has been a failure.