How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #13
Astonishment made Lenina forget the deprivation of soma. She uncovered her face and, for the first time, looked at the stranger. "Do you mean to say that you wanted to be hit with that whip?"
Still averted from her, the young man made a sign of affirmation. "For the sake of the pueblo—to make the rain come and the corn grow. And to please Pookong and Jesus. And then to show that I can bear pain without crying out. Yes," and his voice suddenly took on a new resonance, he turned with a proud squaring of the shoulders, a proud, defiant lifting of the chin "to show that I'm a man…" (7.45-6)
John's constant desire to suffer is a product of his upbringing, just as Lenina's aversion to pain of any kind (mental, physical) is a product of hers. In this way, is John just as brainwashed as Lenina?
Quote #14
"Yes, that's just it." The young man nodded. "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely. They're beastly to one. Do you know, they shut me out of absolutely everything? When the other boys were sent out to spend the night on the mountains—you know, when you have to dream which your sacred animal is—they wouldn't let me go with the others; they wouldn't tell me any of the secrets. I did it by myself, though," he added. "Didn't eat anything for five days and then went out one night alone into those mountains there." He pointed.
Patronizingly, Bernard smiled. "And did you dream of anything?" he asked. (8.67-8)
Bernard clearly doesn't get it. (We can tell because he answers "patronizingly" and "with a smile.") In the same way that Helmholtz can't understand the emotions behind Romeo and Juliet, Bernard will never understand the value of suffering.
Quote #15
"Once," he went on, "I did something that none of the others did: I stood against a rock in the middle of the day, in summer, with my arms out, like Jesus on the Cross."
"What on earth for?"
"I wanted to know what it was like being crucified. Hanging there in the sun…"
"But why?"
"Why? Well…" He hesitated. "Because I felt I ought to. If Jesus could stand it. And then, if one has done something wrong… Besides, I was unhappy; that was another reason."
"It seems a funny way of curing your unhappiness," said Bernard. But on second thoughts he decided that there was, after all, some sense in it. Better than taking soma… (8.69-74)
John's explanation that "I felt I ought to" lends weight to the theory that his self-mutilation is a product of his upbringing and stands without logic or reason. On the other hand, his added claim that he was trying to cure himself of unhappiness suggests that there's something else going on here: John has thought more deeply about what it means to suffer.