Chapter Eight

At the beginning of the chapter, Bernard thinks to himself about being free of soma. Being able to feel pain and desire. He talks to Lenina about this and she acts like he is crazy. After discussing it, she offers him some soma. He refuses but after a while he gives up his want of desire and takes 4 grammes of soma.

Lenina and Bernard take a tour of the reservation and meet a blonde young man,named John, that spoke perfect English. This really surprised both of them and they asked him how he came about living here, because he was so different from everyone else. He told them how his mother, who was from the 'Other Place' had gotten lost on a holiday to the reservation and was saved by the indians who brought her to their village. His father, also from the Other Place, was named Tomakin. Bernard realizes that “Tomakin” is actually Thomas, the Director, but does not tell Lenina about that.

When Bernard and Lenina meet John's mother Linda, Lenina is disgusted by her appearance. She was a wrinkled, over weight woman with missing teeth. Linda explains that something had gone wrong with her contraceptive(birth control) and that was how John was born. She was not allowed to get an abortion in the village, and could not go back home with a child, so she was forced to stay. Linda continued belief in her conditioning and slept with whoever she wanted whenever she wanted. Many of the village women beat her for sleeping with their husbands. John was an outcast in the village because of his mothers premiscuosness.