Brave New World Chapters 7 and 8

What is the mesa like?

A ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust

What color is the streak that slants from one wall to the other across the valley?

green (the river and its fields)

What is in the centre of the strait?

The pueblo of Malpais

What do the houses in the pueblo look like?

Each story is smaller than the one below and they look like stepped and amputated pyramids in the blue sky

On how many sides do the precipices fall sheer into the plain?

3

How does Lenina describe the pueblo?

Queer (she doesn’t like it)

What is Lenina’s ordinary word of condemnation that she repeats throughout Chapter 7?

Queer

Who does Lenina not like and why?

The Indian guide who had been appointed to take them up to the pueblo because he does not like them and he smells

What is being beaten up in Malpais?

Drums

How far up is the great mesa ship’s gunwale (how tall is the mesa)?

300 feet

What does Lenina wish they could have brought and why?

The plane because she hates walking

What bird flies over them when they are climbing the ladder?

An eagle

What is in the crevice of the rock?

Bones

What does Lenina compare the top of the mesa to?

The Charing-T Tower

What is the top of the mesa?

A flat deck of stone

What does Lenina compare the painted white lines on the Indians to?

asphalt tennis courts

What colors are on the Indians’ faces?

Scarlet, black, and ochre

How many Indians are running on the path at the top of the mesa?

2

What are the Indians’ hair braided with?

Fox fur and red flannel

What are the Indians’ cloaks made of?

Turkey feathers

What color are the Indians’ bracelets?

Silver

What color are the beads on the Indians’ heavy necklaces?

Bone and turquoise

What shoes do the Indians have on?

Deerskin moccasins

What are the Indians holding?

One is holding a feather brush and the other is carrying what looks like three or four pieces of thick rope that actually turns out to be snakes

What sentence does Lenina repeatedly say throughout Chapter 7?

“I don’t like it”

What is awaiting Lenina at the entrance to the pueblo?

dirt, piles of rubbish, dust, dogs, flies

What isn’t possible?

How the Indians live

How long have the Indians been living how they do?

For the last five or six thousand years

Cleanliness is next to…

fordliness

Civilization is…

sterilization

What is the second hypnopaedic lesson in elementary hygiene and how does Bernard say it?

“Civilization is sterilization” and Bernard says it with irony

What have the Indians never heard of?

Ford

What floor does the old, almost naked Indian climb down from?

The first-floor terrace

What is wrong with the old man who climbs down?

His face is wrinkled and black, his toothless mouth has fallen in, at the corners of his lips and each side of his chin a few long bristles gleam almost white, his long unbraided hair hangs down in grey wisps, and his body is bent and emaciated to the bone (almost fleshless)

How do they not allow people to become?

old looking

How do they keep people from becoming old looking?

They preserve them from diseases, keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium, don’t permit their magnesium-calcium ratio to fall below what it was at thirty, give them transfusion of young blood, and keep their metabolism permanently stimulated

What age is youth almost unimpaired until?

60

What happens after 60?

They die (crack! the end)

What did Lenina leave at the rest house?

Soma

What does Lenina see that is the most indecent thing she’s seen in her life?

2 women breastfeeding

Why does Bernard go out of his way to show himself as strong and unorthodox?

He is ashamed of the weakness he showed that morning in the hotel room after his call from the director

What does the women who passes them when Bernard is talking about mothers have?

Ophthalmia and a disease of the skin

What is lying in a rubbish heap?

A dead dog

What is the woman with a goitre doing?

Checking for lice in the hair of a small girl

How does the guide signal for them to climb the ladder?

He raises his hand perpendicularly then darts it horizontally forward

What does the long narrow room smell like?

smoke and cooked grease and long-worn, long-unwashed clothes

How many circular platforms of masonry and clay are there and what are they?

2 entrances to underground chambers

What instrument is being played underground?

the flute

What do the drums remind Lenina of?

The Solidarity Services and Ford’s Day celebrations

How many males sing?

Hundreds

What does the performance remind Lenina of?

a lower-caste Community Sing

What comes out of the underground chambers?

Masked and painted Indians

What is in the big wooden chest on the side of the square?

Black and brown and mottled snakes

What does the man sprinkle the snakes with?

corn meal

What does the woman sprinkle the snakes with?

Water from a black jar

What comes out of the hatchways when the old man points towards them?

One has a painted image of an eagle and the other has a painted image of a naked man nailed to a cross

How old is the boy that comes forward out of the crowd and what is he wearing?

About 18 years old wearing a white cotton breech-cloth

What mask is the man with the whip wearing?

Coyote

What is the whip made of?

Plaited leather

At what circuit does the man start to whip the boy?

Halfway through the second

How many times does the boy walk around the heap of snakes?

Seven

What does the man touch the boy’s back with

A long white feather

How many times does the man shake the feather over the snakes?

3

How many old women lift the boy into one of the houses?

3

Describe the Indian that comes out onto the terrace after the ceremony

Straw-coloured plaited hair, pale blue eyes, white bronzed skin, speaks faultless but peculiar English

How many rounds does the strange Indian say he would be able to go around if he was the sacrifice?

10, 12, or 15

What is the name of the guy who was sacrificed?

Palowhitiwa

Why is the strange Indian not allowed to be a sacrifice?

His complexion

What is the point of the sacrifice?

To make the rain come and the corn grow and to please Pookong and Jesus and to show that they can bear pain without crying out (that they are men)

Why is Lenina different from the other girls the strange Indian has seen?

Her cheeks are not the colour of chocolate or dogskin, her hair is auburn and permanently waved, and her expression is one of benevolent interest

What is the strange Indian’s mother’s name?

Linda

Describe Linda’s backstory

She is from the Other Place and came to the Reservation with the man who is her son’s father before he was born. She went walking alone in the mountains to the North, fell down a steep place, and hurt her head. Some hunters from Malpais found her and brought her to the pueblo and she never saw the man who was her son’s father again. He flew back to the Other Place without her (bad, unkind, unnatural man) The man was named Tomakin.

What is the D.H.C’s first name?

Thomas

How many dogs are outside Linda’s door sniffing in the garbage?

2

How many front teeth does Linda have missing?

2

Why does Linda look worse than the old man?

She is fat, wrinkled, has sagging cheeks with purplish blotches, has red veins on her nose and bloodshot eyes, a ragged and filthy neck, and enormous breasts.

What does Linda do when she sees Lenina?

She kisses her

What does Linda smell like?

Alcohol

Why is Linda so emotional when she sees Lenina?

Because she hasn’t seen a civilized face and civilized clothes in a while

What is Lenina wearing in Chapter 7?

An acetate silk shirt, viscose velveteen shorts, a white bandolier, and a green morocco

What is Linda’s son’s name?

John

What does Linda have to have instead of soma?

Mescal

Who brought Linda mescal?

Popé

What do you get after you have mescal?

Peyotl

Where is the Abortion Centre

Chelsea

When is the Abortion Centre floodlighted?

Tuesdays and Fridays

What does the Abortion Centre look like?

Pink and glass

What does Linda miss about the Other Place?

Stoke Poges, hot baths, the river at night, and vibro-vacuum massages

What does Linda do that is gross and why?

She blows her nose on her fingers and wipes them on the skirt of her tunic because she doesn’t have a handkerchief

Streptocock-Gee to Banbury-T…

to see a fine bathroom and W.C.

Where did Linda work?

The Fertilizing Room

Who did John try to kill because Linda would have him?

Waihusiwa or Popé

What did John catch from the Indians?

Being mad

How many dogs are there when Lenina leaves Linda’s house?

4

What does Bernard say is inconceivable?

A mother, dirt, gods, old age, disease, the pueblo

What did they eat?

tortillas and sweet corn

What does Linda sing?

“Streptocock-Gee to Banbury T” and “Bye Baby Banting, soon you’ll need decanting”

What did Popé carry the mescal in?

A gourd

What did John see three women doing to Linda one winter afternoon when he had been playing with the other children?

Whipping her

Why was John whipped and how many times was he struck?

He was struck three times because he bit the woman whipping Linda