After returning to London from his trip to the reservation, Bernard became a brand new person.  Now that he had brought John and Linda to London with him, Bernard gained a new reputation from the people who once treated him so poorly.

In the beginning of chapter 11, Huxley states “Bernard now found himself, for the first time in his life, treated merely normally, but as a person of outstanding importance.  There was no more talk of the alcohol in his blood-surrogate, no gibes at his personal appearance.  Henry Foster went out of his way to be friendly; Benito Hoover made him a present of six packets of sex- hormone chewing gum; the Assistant Predestinator came out and cadged almost abjectly for an invitation to one of Bernard’s evening parties.  As for the women, Bernard had only to hint at the possibility of an invitation, and he could have whichever of them he liked.” John and Linda had made Bernard popular amongst the castes of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.  Before the trip to the reservation, Bernard focused his eyes on Lenina.  He didn’t like the fact that other men treated her like a piece of meat.  But now, Bernard can have any girl in London that he wants because of his success of bringing John and Linda to the London.  Bernard also gained a new reputation with the Controllers, including Mustapha Mond.

The things that Bernard once believed in, he no longer sees important in chapters 10-13. For example, before Bernard traveled to the reservation, he did not believe in the use of Soma to create happiness.  Yes, he took soma occasionally, but within chapters 10-13, you can tell that Bernard has become more accustomed to taking soma.  He takes it for the hell of it now.  Bernard now enjoys the world that he lives in and doesn’t even think to complain about the things he once was concerned with, including conditioning and hypnopedia.  he doesn’t have time for this anymore.  Now all he cares about is showing John off to the people of London. No one pays mind to Linda, John’s mother.  Bernard actually approves of the fact that Linda is given as much soma as she wants, even though this will end in her early death.

Bernard also gave up his friendship with his close friend Helmholtz because he believed that Helmholtz was jealous of his success.  In chapter 11, Bernard boasted to Helmholtz about his new success with women.  He states, “And I had six girls last week; one on Monday, two on Tuesday, two more on Friday, and one on Saturday.  And if I’d have the time or the inclination, there were at least a dozen more who were only too anxious…”  Helmholtz could only shake his head once he heard this.  Bernard accused Helmholtz of being envious and told himself “never would he speak to Helmholtz again.”  Luckily, in the future, Bernard is able to win back Helmoltz’s friendship, but once that happens he is the one who becomes jealous because Helmholtz took liking to John.

But one thing about Bernard that stayed the same was his nasty attitude.   Whenever Helmholtz and John were around each other, they would share conversations that Bernard  commented negatively to.  He replied with his “acts of vengeance” until Helmholtz was fed up and told him not to comment negatively again.

So in these chapters I feel that the use of soma has really shown itself to be useful in different ways. We find this through characters that we have grown to understand little by little and observe the exact moment and situations that cause them to intake this “feel good” drug.

Taking soma when feeling uncomfortable. A prime example of this is in Lenina’s character. Throughout the book we observe that Lenina has the tendency of feeling very uncomfortable in certain situations or conflicts with other characters. First example is when she took soma after being rejected by John on her roof in chapter 11″Drying her eyes, Lenina walked across the roof to the lift. On her way down to the twenty-seventh floor she pulled out her soma bottle. One gramme she decided, would not be enough; hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction.” (157). We can tell she does not take rejection lightly being that her first reaction to sadness is to take soma. Another example is in chapter 12 (163) when Lenina says “I’d better take a couple of gramme of soma” after the Arch-Community-Songster asks her to join him. We can tell she does not want to go, making her feel uncomfortable and of course she resorts to soma.

Linda is another interesting case in the use of soma. In this case we find that she is using it to sort of forget all that has happened to her in the reservation. Soma-holiday as they call it; a permanent way of drowning her out of the society she once was apart of. Knowingly putting Linda into a state of “eternity” where she would be out of the way and out of sight chapter 11 (143). John and Dr. Shaw ultimately knew that consuming this much soma would eventually kill her, but the “bright-side of this was that yes, the soma would shorten her life in real time but will lengthen it in “immeasurable time” out in eternity.”. I find it very interesting that this was there way of fixing this situation. Having all this advance technology and way of life. They found Linda unable to be “rejuvenated” and they did not feel bad about it. They prefer it this way, why? Maybe she could have corrupted the society with what she knew from the reservation.

We move onto our protagonist Bernard, the one character I thought would never touch soma. He seemed so against it in the first couple of chapters but lately we’ve seen something different. In chapter 12 “Watching them, listening to their talk, he found himself sometimes resentfully wishing that he had never brought them together. He was ashamed of his jealousy and alternately made efforts of will and took soma to keep himself from feeling it.” (166). Observed in this part of the book, Bernard finally uses soma to subside his true feelings on the newly found relationship between Helmholtz and John. He simply cannot accept the fact that they instantly bonded over literature and rhymes, a bond that Bernard thought only he had with John. Bernard knows that the soma does not help his situations, so it leaves me to wonder why he continues to take it. Is it him finally giving into his conditioning? or is he trying to find an accepted way of escape? Many questions arise from Bernard use of soma, but what we do know is that he takes it when is trying to cope with an unrecognizable feeling or urge. Feelings that are normal to us the reader and completely frowned upon in the World’s State.

In my opinion these chapters were way more interesting then the previous ones.Throughout them there is a lot of action, but it is straightforward, which makes the book more enjoyable. There are few important characters in these chapters. Bernard, Lenina, John and Linda (John’s mother). They all meet at New Mexican Reservation, where most of the action takes place.

In chapter 6 we can find out a lot about difference between Bernard and Lenina, when they go out on a date. He wanted to spent time walking and talking, in a place away from others. She didn’t like that idea, because for her it was incomprehensible, and “… that seemed a very odd way of spending an afternoon” (Huxley 89).  This shows the difference between the way both of them think. Bernard in my opinion seems to think in a similar way to us, while Lenina is living her “proper” life.
There is one more important situation that takes place in this chapter. Bernard talks to a Director, about traveling to Mexico, and Director tells a story that happen about twenty-five years ago, when he was at similar age as Bernard, and went to same place. He went with a women, which got lost.

As we read in the next chapters, we can find another conflict of the book, when Bernard and Linda meet a white man, and he explains that his mother ,Linda wasn’t from the reservation. This leads us to a story that Director told Bernard. She is the woman that got lost, and we can find that out by these words “Having young ones like an animal … If it hadn’t been for you, I might have gone to the Inspector, I might have got away. But not with a baby. That would have been too shameful” (Huxley 119). For me this proofs, that she is the woman, that went on a trip with Director twenty-five years ago. In addition, she were acting like a person from World State, because she was sleeping with other man.
In chapter 9, Bernard wants John and Linda to come back to London.  It seems like no one ever knew that Director might have a son (John). This seems like some sort of a payback to Director, by Bernard for telling that he might be moved to Iceland.

In  the beginning I didn’t like the book, but these chapters made it more interesting. Finally these chapters were less confusing for me then the previous ones, and now I am already waiting to find out what Bernard is planning towards Director.

I am not sure how off i can be in my comparison. But i was thinking that Huxley name Bernard Marx with a purpose to kind of relate to the famous philosopher Karl Max, who was a big sociolist. Karl Max’s theory of class struggle, is similar to the classes they have in this society. Where some are less than others, they work more and get less. Then they have the superior class like the Betas and Alphas. Who even look better. In this society you are pretty much marked by the class you are chosen to be in. The famous Karl Marx always struggles in accepting this way of society lived around him. Just how Bernard lives, some what frustrated in his society and the way everything is handled.

The moment John and Bernard met in the story is probably the climax of the book. Because all this time Bernard has felt lost in this society. Feeling like he has no control. He feels like everyone is so brainwashed in the way things are designed in World State, that no one will ever see what he see’s and he will always be the outcast. But once he meets John everything changes because now he had something against the Director so he is not sent to iceland. This is probably when there is going to be more of a downhill of events occurring. Now things will be more in conflict since a member of the society had the experience of being a mother, and has probably experienced emotions and attachment, which are all things World State has tried to get rid of. The idea of having not real emotions towards each other or attachments has allowed them to prevent many conflicts, and have more control of there society.  John and Bernard have similar problems. They have many things in common ,but the main thing is that neither one fits in where they live. John is seen as an outcast in the reservation because of his mother promiscuous behaviors and her natural  way of being.SInce she really isn’t from their she is use to World State ideology of life.   Bernard is seen as an outcast because of his looks, and also because he is somewhat a rebellious.

The fact that Huxley Allows us to view both side World State and the reservation. We can see that the ideals ways of life are really created by how your are raised to be. The people from the reservation will always see John and his mother as outsiders. Her ideals of life are frown upon. Especially the idea of her sleeping with so many different men in the reservation. While in World State this is considered normal. When things like these are presented the idea of utopia being accomplished is to proved to be impossible. Not everyone agrees with the way World State runs their society. Since being a mother in this society was frown upon and now Linda is going to be a big conflict in her society. She is going to be a reason why many others might start to have questions.

It was kind of difficult for me to read these three chapters. It had a lot going on. To me it didn’t really seem to stay on topic with what the author wanted the reader to get from it. Hence making It difficult for me to understand. Nevertheless, whatever I did understand, I  did enjoy.

The more I read this story, the more it reminds me of the short story The Machine Stops. The character in Brave New World Bernard Marx, reminds me so much of Kuno from The Machine Stops. To me they both have similar mind sets. They both feel as though they are different. They believe that the world that they live in isn’t right. They wish to have their own thoughts and feelings about things, and not be like everyone else. They want to follow their heart and do what they feel is right, not what they are told or “conditioned” to think.

In chapter 6 (part one) the author reveals that Bernard has some internal conflict with himself. He struggles with what he wants to do, and what his society thinks of him. Everyone knows that he isn’t like everyone else. In the beginning of the chapter the character Lenina described him as odd. Her friend Franny explanation for Bernard being different was “alcohol in his blood-surrogate” (pg.88).   There’s certain things that people like doing, but Bernard rather do something else. For example, he would rather sit alone with Lenina all night to talk, instead of playing electro-magnetic golf.  “It makes me feel as though I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, not so completely part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body” (pg.90). This quote means to me that Bernard wants to have his own thoughts and opinions. He wants to do what he thinks is fun, not what someone of higher authority tells him what’s fun. He wants to be his own individual, not slump together with others. “But wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everyone else’s way” (pg.90). He wants to do what makes him happy, not what he is told should make him happy. At this point Lenina is in shock at his statement. She states “why don’t you take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You’d forget all about them. And instead of being miserable, you’d be jolly” (pg.91). At this point Bernard gives in and takes the soma. I think he did it to make her stop complaining and to seem like everyone else.

There are also some similarities among the characters Lenina from Brave New World, and Vashti from The Machine Stops. They both come off to me as people who follow the rules and someone who wouldn’t dare to be different. They both follow societies thoughts on what’s right and wrong (in a sense). Both Lenina and Vashti think that someone having their own idea isn’t normal.

As i continued reading Brave New World. I started to get more interested in it . In these few chapters we got to know a little bit more about Bernard. We also are introduce to John and Linda. In Chapter 6  the author explains to us what Bernard wants and what he is looking for. He try to explain to Lenina that he wants to be his own man, be able to do what he wants and do it on his own. Bernard Says ” More on my own not so completely a part of something else, not just a cell in the social body” Pg 90. Lenina is shocked of Bernard’s wants, and is surprise to hear it because it goes against everything she believes in. She believes that every one should work for everyone else , she feels like every one should follow there role in the caste system. After the little argument Bernard had with Lenina he ends up swallowing 4 tablets of soma he ends up having having sex with Lenina. In which he regrets the next day because he felt as if it was to soon. Later in that chapter We learned a little about the Director ; when Bernard approaches him with the idea of visiting the New Mexican Reservation. He explains that he was just like Bernard , that he had the same idea of wondering how life was out side the world state. So the director tells Bernard about Linda a beta in which he had a moment with and had lost her in the reservation. Also in this Chapter the Director calls out Bernard and tells him that he’s been getting reports of his behavior out of work in which he doesn’t like so he threatens Bernard by telling him he will transfer him to a Sub Centre in Iceland. I like the character Bernard for a bunch of reasons. One in which he’s sort of a little rebel going against the director and doing what he wants. Another is because he has that ambition of wanting freedom. In the Next few Chapters Lenina ends up going with Bernard to the reservation and she’s disgusted by the life style in which they lived in.” But how can people live like this “”These people have never heard of Our Ford” pg 105 Lenina explains that the life style in which the indians live by isn’t civil.The only part that really interested me while reading was when john was introduce , an indian who spoked perfect english and who seemed to be different from the others by his complexion. I got more into the story when john started telling Bernard and Lenina about the story about his mother Linda and how she had came from the World state long ago , with a young man who was his father. As Smart as Bernard is he ends up putting the pieces together and realizes that the director had told his the exact same story so he knew that john was the Director son. Bernard with the thought of being sent to Iceland tells John ” i Wonder if you’d like to come back to london with us” pg 129 . John an indian who always wanted to see the world state was trilled to go but Bernard first would have to get permission.