Chapter 18

Summary

John tells Helmholtz and Bernard before they are exiled that he had pleaded with Mond to go into exile as well, but he refused.  Mond wishes to try and convert John to Utopian ways.

Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled, and John runs away from London and finds an abandoned lighthouse in the countryside.  There he tries to purify himself from the poison he has consumed in the city. He likes the isolation and decides to live off the land. 

However, his hiding place is soon discovered, and the press and radio hound him.

John’s life is viewed at a distance, and a Feelie film is made of him, which arouses the curiosity of the public at large.  They surround his retreat and even Lenina arrives in a helicopter. She still has feelings for John, but he again misinterprets these and beats her with a whip. The crowd begins and orgy-porgy and John joins in, partaking of soma and sex. When he awakes from his coma, he realizes what he has done and hangs himself.

Interpretation

This last chapter is really to tie-up the loose ends of the plot, the reader having found the final pieces of the jigsaw that is the Brave New World in the previous two chapters.

The question any reader has to ask is whether John is believable or not.

He is described as the noble savage, but it is not clear exactly what he symbolizes.  In a strange way he is a cross between a Red Indian and an English Literature teacher, specializing in Shakespeare.