"Hunters in the Snow"

"Frank roused himself.  'Kenny,' he said.  He bent down and put his gloved hand on Kenny's brow. 'You shot him,' he said to Tub," (pg 193).

Let me just throw out two things that I will be basing all of my thoughts on, but if they are wrong, then my whole post is set to fail (not grade wise hopefully, but like, analysis wise).

• The climax of the story is Tub shooting Kenny.
• Frank is a dynamic character.

Now that this is out of the way, I will go on to explain these two sentences importance to question number four and why my group was correct in calling Frank the most likable character (Note: I am doing this on my desktop that uses Internet Explorer which does not have spell check).

I suppose I should have pointed out that my answer to the question is that Frank was the character most changed by the climax of the story, but I assumed that this was going to be implied by the bullets (no pun intended).

In the beginning of the novel, Tub was waiting on the curb, alone, while Kenny decides to fake running him over with the car while Frank sits in the passenger seat.  Kenny and Frank go on to hunt together and leave Tub on his own on the other side of the river as they joke around and laugh (Why would they be laughing when Kenny was so angry about hunting nothing unless they were joking about Tub?).  Up to this point, Frank has said very little of his own thoughts, but rather just plays along with Kenny's point of view.

This is where I point out that Frank was the only of the three not directly involved in the shooting.

Post-shooting, Tub and Frank are now always seen together while Kenny is stuck being the one alone in the back of the truck.  This may seem trivial since Kenny was shot and all, but the relationship shared between Tub and Frank during these times goes on to show that Frank almost matured or had a relook at things when he saw his friends feud.  While Frank was with Kenny, he never spoke his mind and Kenny even black mailed Frank about his affair, but Frank had the guts to confide the affair with Tub after the encounter.

Frank forcing Tub to eat the pancakes was not a "cold-hearted" or "mean" encounter by any means in my interpretation.  What better way to say, "We all have faults and thank you for confiding them with me, but I will never judge you by it," than by letting Tub be himself afterwards?

Brave New World - Eleven

     "'I ventured to think,' stammered Bernard, 'that your fordship might find the matter of sufficient scientific interest...'
     'Yes, I do find it of sufficient scientific interest,' said the deep voice.  'Bring these two individuals back to London with you' (pg 141)."

 This dialogue seems to be a nice time to portray Bernard Marx as dynamic character since it shows a new, more confident side of Marx (the nature of the proposal, that is, not the way he stammers it); however, since I have not seen the repercussions of the situation, I cannot say that with certainty.  Marx wants to bring John and Linda back to the "Other World" for what seemed to be just a random act of kindness, but this quote from Marx seems to contradict previous assumptions.  It appears as though the true motive of bringing John and Linda to London is to psycho-analyze two of the more sane of the savages.  Also, it may allow them to conclude the faults that were found within Linda.  This seems completely uncharacteristic of Bernard Marx's presumed dislike of many of the Hatchery's bizarre ethics, but I suppose being under the spotlight may have made him feel the pressure of doing something to prove his loyalty.

This dialogue also seems to show a synecdoche (Mozilla just told me "synecdoche" should be spelled "Indochinese") when Huxley portray Mustapha Mond through merely his "deep voice."  I figure this could be sort of a symbol of change in Marx.  Portraying someone through simply an overbearing presence seems to be a common theme for people speaking with Bernard, but this time, Marx did not back down or "blush."  The overall mood of the diction surrounding Bernard seems to show some emotional changes in him, but I would not be shocked if I just read way to far into that nice and short chapter.

Brave New World - Seven (I think?)

"In the end she persuaded him to swallow four tablets of soma.  Five minutes later roots and fruits were abolished; the flower of the present rosily blossomed" (pg 104).

Okay, so I realize soma is a symbol for something because of its reoccurrances (that might not be a word) and clear use of making the person who takes it forgetful of their life's recent troubles.  For Bernard Marx - who I will now bravely call not only a main character, but maybe even a dynamic character - he takes it because of his inability to see eye-to-eye (that is not just a short joke) with the rest of this alter-reality Huxley has concocted.  For this reason, I believe that soma is the equivilent to, dare I say, illegal drugs in our times.  It is taken by the gramme, which I noticed is found in this world's word "programme," though any plausible reasons for this would just result in coincidence.

Soma appears to be a miracle, over-the-counter drug which somehow changes the thought processes of its victim into believing what the other person declares to be, in fact, true.  I would go out on a limb has to say that soma is the safety precaution enacted by the world leaders.  It may appear to have good reasons of existence; however, I feel comfortable saying that its main use is as last resort should previous attempts to brainwash the minds of the followers backwire - as is the case with Bernard Marx.  Basically, I hypothecize that these magic pills create the illusion that "everybody's happy nowadays" and that "a gramme is better than a damn," which actually just started to make sense to me!  Okay, so now that my paranoid mind has assumed that this novel pleades for world dominance over easily manipulated minds, I will show a quick video that I see being a nice connection to what is happening with the soma - a symbol of just how easy it is to fake or force human emotions, which also plays into the satirical tone of the novel.

Let me just say, I feel like I actually understand something in a book for once and will be very sad on my birthday if I find out that I was actually wrong.

Skip to 11:30 through 12:30 for my connection to the current plot line.