Friday, April 18, 2008

John vs. Lenina *hypnopaedia*

John and Lenina are both alike in that they both recite phrases without even thinking. Lenina's were practically programmed into her, being repeated since birth. And John's come from reading Shakespeare so often that lines from the plays pop into his head and he just spits them out like it is nothing. The fact that Bernard even points out when exactly Lenina learned the phrase and how often it was repeated but it does not even faze her. However, the way each of them memorized their phrases was different. Lenina's was through a quiet voice repeating the phrases over and over again while she slept. John's was really from reading the stories so often that it just stuck.

The difference in their teachings keeps them apart. Lenina was trained to believe that John is a savage and that he is dirty. Every time she is around him the different phrases that a etched in her brain come up and remind her that he is not worthy to be with her. John on the other hand has been reading Shakespeare and believes in romance and tragedies are a pair, you cannot have one with out the other. Another part of John's problem is that he seems to suffer the Oedipus complex far more than the average man, obviously in Lenina's world where there are no mothers that is not a problem, but for John it has to be terrible. The fact that he gets angry every time his mother is with a guy and how he hates all men just furthers to prove his problem.

1 comment:

MrsStueve said...

Where did you get the idea that Lenina looks down on John and thinks of him as dirty? She completely desires him, but not in the way he desires her. Why is there a difference? Oeidpus complex? What evidence in the text can you use to support this claim?