Junior Year
The Books
Title: Brave New World
Author: Alduous Huxley
Year published:1932 (but set in AD 2540 (632AF)
Style: Dystopia
Theme: The dangers of all-powerful governments and
the dangers of being dependent on pleasure as well as
the use of technology to control society.
Main characters:
-John: son of the Director and Linda.
-Bernard Marx: Alpha Male
-Helmholtz Watson: Alpha professor at the College of
Emotional Engineering
-Lenina Crowne: temptress to every—particularly Bernard
and John.
Characters continued:
-Mustapha Mond: World Controller who keeps
forbidden literature
-Linda: John’s mother, lost in a storm while
pregnant with the Director’s son. Lives with
Indians.
-The Director: administrates the Central London
Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.
PLOT: In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World the novel opens up
with a tour of the Central London Hatching and Conditioning
Centre. Here we learn about the five castes: Alpha, beta,
Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Each group is designed and
programmed for a specific physical and intellectual level.
Lenina Crowne is an employee of the factory.
She is attracted to weird Bernard Marx. Bernard invites
Lenina to the Savage Reservation. On the Reservation the
inhabitants are old and ill, which surprises Lenina and
Bernard. They meet John. Linda’s mother used to be a part
of “civilization” and upon her existence in the Reservation;
she was ostracized for her willingness to sleep with all the
men. Both John and Linda return to the World State with
Lenin and Bernard. John’s unfamiliar background makes
him a hit with London society. However, John is disturbed by
the society. He is confused about is sexual lust and feelings
of wanting more in regards to Lenina. Bernard takes
advantage of his new status in relation to the “Savage.”
John entertains Helmholtz (a friend of Bernard’s who is dissatisfied with
the World State) with Shakespeare. Lenina becomes obsessed with
John. She tries to seduce him but he just curses her. John learns that
Linda is dying. After her death, John tries to incite an uprising of Deltas.
Bernard and Helmholtz rush to the rescue, then, they are all arrested.
They are all brought to the office of Mustapha Mond. John and Mond
argue philosophies: John claiming the World State is dehumanizing
and Mond that stability and happiness are more important than
humanity and a loss of culture is a required sacrifice. Bernard freaks
when he is told that he and Helmholtz are going to be exiled to distant
islands. Helmholtz accepts his chance to be free to write. John and
Mond continue their arguing, now, over religion. John says goodbye to
Helmholtz and Bernard and retreats to a lighthouse.
The citizens come to watch him whip himself in
purification. Lenina approaches him, trying to get him
to stop. In the frenzy of all the reporters and people,
an orgy occurs. The next morning John wakes up and
is mad at himself and sad at participation in the orgy
that he hangs himself.
More themes:
Incompatibility of happiness and truth
Dangers of an all-powerful state
Satirizing the consumer society
Use of technology to control society
Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Year published: 1949
Style: Dystopia (set in London of the future)
Themes: Totalitarianism; Psychology &
Brainwashing; Control of Information;
Government Control (Big Brother); Technology
Main characters:
•Winston Smith is a middle aged man for works a desk job for the ruling
party. He edits all sorts of documents in order to keep the public under
the party’s influence. He dislikes the totalitarian government and tries to
rebel against it. Winston keeps a journal where he writes “Down with Big
Brother” a comment which is punishable by death. He also has an affair
with Julia and reads Emmanuel Goldstein's’ manifesto which just adds to
the list crimes that he has committed. Winston wants major changes in
the government and is willing to endanger his life for them.
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Julia is a young women who also works for the party.
She and Winston begin an affair and go to various
locations to sleep together. She claims to have slept
with many other party members. She only cares
about her enjoyment and has no real desire for
complete change in the government structure. She
likes living in the moment.
O'Brien is an influential inner party member who tricks
Winston in making him believe that he is part of the
Brotherhood ( a secret organization that works
against the party). He ends up brainwashing Winston
into a loyal party member at the end of the story.
•
Plot: The Party is divided into three super-countries:
Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia; Winston Smith lives in
Oceania. The Party is led by Big Brother and they control
every aspect of life and are trying to implement Newspeak,
which makes a lot of words illegal in order to attempt to
quench rebellion. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth,
altering old newspaper clippings to keep up with the
pointlessly changing government and make it seamless. It
is here he meets both Julia and O’Brien, the latter the
supposed leader of the rebellious Brotherhood.
He and Julia begin to have an affair and gradually
join the Brotherhood as secret members. They rent a
room above an old curio shop to hide from
telescreens, government inventions used to spy on
citizens. O’Brien summons Winston and Julia and
claims to hate the Party as much as they do, but they
get captured by soldiers and it is revealed that
O’Brien is really a secret Party official. O’Brien tortures
and brainwashes Winston and eventually forces him
to confront rats, his worst fear, in an effort to break
him. Winston throws Julia under the proverbial verbal
bus. At the end of the book, Winston is fully
brainwashed and professes his love for the Party and
for Big Brother.
Title: The Stranger
Author: Albert Camus
Year published: 1942 in France
Style: Existential novel; crime drama; French
Theme: Irrationality of the universe; existentialism
Climax: Meursault shoots Aman
Motifs: death & decay; watching and observation
Symbols: courtroom; the crucifix
Point of view: Merusault narrates in first person and limits his
accounts to his own thoughts and perceptions.
Main characters:
•Meursault: protagonist; existentialist; anti-hero
•Raymond Sintes: Meursault’s darker friend; his
mentor (in a bad way)
•Perez: the loving boyfriend to his mother; foil of
sorts to Meursault
•Marie Cardona: “love interest” of M. even
though he doesn’t believe in love.
Plot synopsis
•M’s mother dies; he attends the funeral
•M’s indifference angers the others
•He starts dating Marie and befriends Ray
•They take a vacation to the beach, fight with
two Arabs, and M kills one.
•Remains completely indifferent
•He goes to trial and they argue (horrible
pathos)
•He is found guilty and sent to jail; receives
death penalty
•He discovers his existentialist self and feels
calm going to death.
Title: Siddhartha
Author: Hermann Hesse
Year published: 1951 in German
Style: Spirituality/Buddhism
Themes: (popular in 60s) Wisdom; Spirituality;
Man and the Natural World; Morality; Love; Time
Setting: Ancient India around the time of
Buddha (6th c BC)
Characters
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Siddhartha: protagonist, determined, seeking enlightenment
Vasudeva: enlightened ferryman and spiritual guide
Govinda: friend and follower of Siddhartha
Kamala: courtesan and Siddhartha's sensual mentor, mother of his
child
Gotama: spiritual leader Buddha, whose teachings are rejected by
Siddhartha
Kamaswami: businessman who instructs Siddhartha on business
Siddhartha’s Father: a Brahmin who was unable to satisfy Siddhartha
quest for enlightenment
The Samanas: traveling ascetics who tell Siddhartha that deprivation
leads to enlightenment
Plot: Siddhartha is spiritually dissatisfied and leaves his family to seek
enlightenment. He first joins the Samanas, a group of wandering ascetics.
His best friend Govinda joins him and both men spend three years with the
Samanas learning how to withstand pain and hunger. Both are still
dissatisfied and decide to follow the teachings of Gotama Buddha. Govinda
is impressed and stays with Gotama while Siddhartha travels to a town
where he meets Kamala. He is smitten and offers his love to her. Kamala
denies him and says that he must have clothes, shoes, and money.
Siddhartha begins to work and soon becomes Kamala’s lover. After winning
over Kamala, Siddhartha develops anxiety and leaves his home to never
return. Siddhartha contemplates suicide, sees Govinda again, and runs into
a ferryman named Vasudeva who accepts him as his companion.
Siddhartha uses the river as a spiritual guide and gradually grows wiser.
Then he meets his and Kamala’s son and allows him to leave the river and
follow his own path. It is then that Siddhartha finally reaches enlightenment.
Title: Ishmael
Author: Daniel Quinn
Year published: 1992
Style: Philosophical novel; Socratic dialogue:
First Person narrator in past tense (Baby Boomer)
Theme: Genesis was written by Semites and was
later adapted to work within Hebrew and
Christian belief structures; the Takers vs. Leavers
Plot: An unnamed narrator responds to a newspaper ad: “Teacher
seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world”. The
unnamed narrator finds himself in a room with a gorilla who calls himself
Ishmael. They communicate telepathically and the narrator accepts
him as his teacher. They regularly meet in the office and have a
Socratic dialogue and talk about “how things came to be this way” for
mankind. Before they discuss Ishmael lays down some ground
definitions:
•Takers as people often referred to as "civilized." Particularly, the culture born
in an Agricultural Revolution that began about 10,000 years ago in the Near
East; this is the culture of Ishmael's pupil and, presumably, the reader.
•Leavers as people of all other cultures; often derogatorily referred to by
Takers as "primitive."
•A story as an interrelation between the gods, man, and the earth, with a
beginning, middle, and end.
•To enact is to strive to make a story come true.
•A culture is a people who are enacting a story.
Ishmael explains how the takers render themselves
above the laws governing life, using the story of the
fallen man. This story was in fact left by the leavers
to explain the origin of the takers. The leavers take
what they need from the world and leave the rest
alone. Ishmael goes on to point out that by living in
the hands of the gods, man is subject to the
conditions under which evolution takes place.
Ishmael finishes off with telling the narrator to tell
the same to others and they will tell then others.
The story ends when the narrator loses track of
Ishmael and he returns with a sign “With man
gone, will there be hope for gorilla?” has a
backside that reads: "With gorilla gone, will there
be hope for man?"
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•
Characters:
Ishmael: A gorilla who was captured from the West African
wild when young and sent to an American zoo. After the
zoo sold him to a menagerie, Walter Sokolow bought him
and discovered he could communicate with him through
his mind. Ishmael, learning he can talk telepathically with
humans, begins teaching humans a subject he calls
"captivity."
Narrator: A middle-aged white American man who sought
a teacher to show him how to save the world when he was
younger, during the turbulent and idealistic 1960s. Now an
adult, he finds an ad looking for a pupil who wants to save
the world. Intrigued because his childhood question may
be answered, but skeptical because he has never found
answers in the past, he goes and finds Ishmael, who
teaches him, as promised, about how to save the world.
The narrator never reveals his name in Ishmael, though it is
revealed in My Ishmael to be Alan Lomax.
•Walter Sokolow: A wealthy Jewish merchant who is
mentioned only in Ishmael's back story but has died by the
time of the main story. His family was killed in the Holocaust
and he since migrated to the United States. While visiting a
menagerie, he comes across a gorilla called Goliath
(Ishmael's given alias at the menagerie). Sokolow buys
Ishmael from the zoo and after he figures out that he and
Ishmael can mentally speak to each other, the two study a
vast array of subjects together. He is the one who gives the
gorilla the new name of "Ishmael.“
•Rachel Sokolow: Daughter of Walter Sokolow. She becomes
Ishmael's benefactor after her father dies. She supports
Ishmael for a span of time, but following her death and the
subsequent end to Ishmael's financial support, Ishmael is
forced to move into a situation that ultimately leads to his end.