Reading Log Chapter 11-14 Summary

Chapter 11 immediately follows the climactic scene in the Fertilizing Room of the

previous chapter. The Director resigns after the whole fiasco, and Bernard is triumphant in

maintaining his status. Having brought the interesting specimen, John the Savage, into the World

State, Bernard becomes extremely popular. People seem to give him more respect and more

women are having sex with him. We begin to see Bernard’s true character unravel in this

chapter. He begins to indulge in the caprices that he criticizes, which makes it clear that he is not

as righteous as he deems himself to be. This newfound popularity tears a rift between him and

Helmholtz, who thinks that Bernard is spiraling into his own destruction.

As Bernard’s character becomes more and more unbearable, we get to see John shine as a

character. John seems to suffer the most blows in this chapter – his father flees; he receives word

from a doctor that his mother only has a couple of months to live due to her soma addiction. But

unlike Bernard, John keeps his morals intact throughout the chapter. We get to see his humanity

during the factory tour when he could not bear to see the working conditions that lower-caste

citizens had to endure. We get to see his restraint and self-control during the feely with Lenina.

It’s clear that John has feelings for her – as made evident in the last chapter – but he doesn’t

sleep with her even when she was coming on to him. John exhibits more gentlemanly traits in

this chapter alone than Bernard ever did.

In Chapter 12, Bernard throws a party for important guests to meet John. He hopes this

event will garner him even more popularity and respect, even if it is at John’s expense. However,

still melancholy from his night with Lenina, John refuses to go out of his room and meet

Bernard’s guests. This takes a toll on Bernard’s newfound popularity and he finds himself once

again ostracized by his peers because of his physique.

 One of the most interesting things in Chapter 12 is the initial meeting of John and

Helmholtz. I have been looking forward to these characters crossing paths because they seem to

share the same good traits. As I predicted, they got along very well. They bonded through

literature, with Helmholtz reciting his provocative poem and John reading him passages of

Shakespeare. However, when Helmholtz laughs at a scene from Romeo and Juliet, he

accidentally offends John. I have two takeaways from that scene: one, John equates his feelings

for Lenina to the love between Romeo and Juliet; and two, Helmholtz, as unorthodox as he may

be in the World State, still falls susceptible to the conditioning that he was subjected to. He

cannot understand the plight of Juliet who is forced to marry Paris because this is the norm of his

world. As different as Helmholtz is to other World State citizens, he is still a victim of this kind

of society.

Chapter 13 focuses more on Lenina’s attraction towards John. She cannot get over the

savage even after sleeping with a number of other men, and she comes to the conclusion that she

will not be satisfied until she has him. She even declines a feely invite from Henry who is

curious about Lenina’s change in sexual appetite. Later, in a conversation with Fanny, the two go

over the ways in which Lenina could get John to sleep with her. In true World State fashion, the

conversation mentions rape in such a casual manner when Fanny suggests that Lenine should

“take” John even if he refused. In the end, Lenina decides to throw herself at John.

John, on the other hand, has plans to meet Helmholtz again to discuss his love for Lenina.

While waiting in his apartment, Lenina barges in. They both confess their feeling for each other,

but it’s not as romantic as it sounds. Lenina keeps throwing herself at John while the poor boy

tries to resist by reciting passages from Shakespeare. He also floats the idea of marriage and

lifelong commitment, which scares Lenina, who just wants to have sex. In his fury, John calls her
a whore and slaps her across the face. Maybe John isn’t the gentleman I pegged him to be in the

previous chapters either. A cliffhanger ends this part as Lenina hides in the bathroom and John

receives a mysterious phone call that triggers him to leave the apartment and Lenina in a rush.

The cliffhanger is resolved in Chapter 14, as we find out that John has rushed to the

hospital to see his dying mother. Linda is already going in and out of consciousness when he

arrives. He tries to remember the good times they had together in the Reserve. Of course, the

imminent death of his mother saddens him to tears.

The nurses in the hospital usher in a couple of Delta kids to condition them to death. The

children and the nurses are less than respectful towards Linda. They criticize her weight and age,

and gloss over the fact that John is distraught beside her. This angers John who hits one of the

children, causing the nurse to chide him for ruining their death-conditioning. John’s grieving

period is further ruined when Linda mistakes him for Popé, and ruins his good memories. Linda

finally dies, and John rushes out for help, but his mother is gone when they return. One of the

Delta children asks if Linda is dead while casually eating an éclair. John pushes him to the floor

and runs out of the hospital.