The Start of Lenina’s Downfall?

In the few chapters we read this week, I feel that Lenina’s character got more complex. She seems to have some emotional issues and believes that taking all that soma is going to cure her. Seems as if almost every single time something emotionally stressful pops up she takes a decent amount of soma. In example, in chapter 12 when John is supposed to come down to this concert, Lenina got very depressed over it and went to bed. She then states “ I’d better take a couple grammes of soma” (Huxley, 163).  There are many other points in the novel where she had taken soma to calm her nerves.

Lenina and Bernard also seem to have a new social status of some sorts as being known to take back the savages from the reservation. Lenina being a beta, finds herself in the company of some very good company. “By a number of important people, The Resident World Controller’s second security, the Ford Chief Justice, and the Deputy-Governor of the bank of Europe”. By how she talks abou them, they seem to be very important political figures. I imagine them to hold the same social status as maybe Senators and Congressmen. She now has this image in her head that she is this important person in society.

Even though Lenina seems important at this point in the book, there is one character that doesn’t see her as someone of significance. This character is John. Lenina tries multiple times to get with him. However, John constantly rejects her. The society has conditioned their citizens to have the mentality that if you desire someone, you can have them. John was raised in the reservation so he does not hold the same values as Lenina. Even after being rejected multiple times, Lenina still tries to get with John. Even after a few dates, John still rejects her. Lenina also shows some emotion toward John. “In a few minutes, I shall be seeing him, talking to him, telling him (for she had come with her mind made up) that I like him – more than anybody I’ve ever known.” Earlier in the book, she was criticizing Benard for having these emotional feelings. Now she is being a hypocrite and having these emotional feelings of her own. I believe that this is actually more deeper than Bernards because she was almost about to act on it. I thought a while about why she would have these types of feelings. I somewhat think that maybe because John has a different mindset than the rest of society, she is attracted to him in the sense that he won’t find it repulsive that she thinks like that.

The World State conditions people that they belong to one another. John rejecting her is the exact opposite of that and Lenina’s mind does not know how to cope with this. I think that all of these new feelings are starting to overwhelm her. Her mindset is now being all screwed up between her newly founded social status and John rejecting her time after time again. The World State has trained everyone to take soma when they are feeling stressed or having strange thoughts. Lenina is having all of these stresses and emotions that she never felt before and the only way she knows how to cope with them is through having a lot of soma. I have a feeling this is going to catch up to her very quickly

 

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