Brave New World

Chapter 7

When Lenina and Bernard arrive in Malpais at the Savage Reservation, there are many things that Lenina does not like. 1. the Indian guide smelled of body odor 2. they had to walk (not fly) to the places they were going 3. trash 4. dust 5. flies 6. snakes 7. dogs 8. old age – a man with grey hair, toothless, wrinkled, bent and just skin & bones 9. young women breast feeding their babies 10. small girl with lice in her hair

Lenina forgot to bring her soma, so she has to deal with these horrible conditions.

A Fertility Ritual to make the rain come and the corn grow is performed. It involves a mix of Christianity and Indian religion. There are drums beating and masked dancers. Snakes were released from a trunk as the men danced. The snakes were sprinkled with cornmeal and water. They raised a painted image of an eagle and another image of a naked man nailed to a cross. An 18 year old boy began walking around the snakes while the masked dancers whipped him until he collapsed. The dancers and rest of the crowd run off, leaving the boy on the ground. Three women carry him away.

John - Another young man of about 20 appears and is dressed like an Indian. However, he has straw colored hair, blue eyes, and white skin. He is disliked by the Indian children because he is different. (Lenina thinks he is very nice looking, and he also thinks she is beautiful.)

Linda – John’s mother had come from the Other Place with a man named Tomakin. Linda is fat, wrinkled, has enormous breasts, red veins on her nose, bloodshot eyes, and stinks of alcohol. She drinks mescal because there is no soma on the reservation. The women hate her because she thought she could have all the men, but monogamy is practiced there.

Bernard realizes that this is the Beta-minus woman whom the DHC had left on the reservation 20 years ago!