Linda is a quite complex character in Brave New World. Her experiences in the “savage” reservation, after having grown up in the “civilized” world, have shaped who she is and how she treats the people around her. Linda represents such a complex character, as we can find faults and feel pity for her. She does not evoke one opinion of the reader and different readers will have different reactions to her personality. This intricacy makes her one of the most interesting characters, as she shows qualities and emotions that others we have met in the “civilized” world do not.
We feel pity for Linda, as entering the “savage” reservation couldn’t have been easy for her. Firstly, she fell down a cliff and injured herself. Secondly, the Director, who she was traveling to New Mexico with, completely abandoned her and returned to London without her. She was hurt and alone in a completely foreign place that she had been conditioned to think was a “bad place”. It would be asking a lot of her to forget all of what “civilized” society taught her and accept the “savages” and their different ways of life. Additionally, the “savages” didn’t treat her well either. The men came to her to have sex, but never truly accepted Linda or asked her to be their wife, which would have been customary in their culture. It seems like the men used Linda, who had different customs regarding sex. In return, the wives of these men would then come and beat Linda for sleeping with their husbands. In this way, Linda has greatly suffered in the reservation. Later, when she rejoins the “civilized” world she is mocked and treated like an outcast for being a mother and having an “undesirable” body shape. She becomes addicted to soma and soon dies due to this addiction. In this way, her life did not improve upon returning to London.
Though we do empathize with Linda, we can see many faults in her character. Though the “savages” clearly weren’t trying to integrate Linda into their society, we can assume that some at least tried when she first came there, as they did give her medical treatment after her fall. Linda, on the other hand, was not open to the “savages”, and critiqued them to Lenina, when she and Bernard visited. Though this could definitely be Linda telling Lenina what she thinks Lenina wants to hear, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if those were Linda’s actual feelings towards the “savages”. In addition, Linda certainly treated her son, John, horribly. She often reminded him that she never wanted him, a result of her upbringing in the “civilized” world. She is also not what we would consider “motherly”. Instead, she is emotionally and physically abusive and manipulative, going from hitting John in a drunken rage to profusely apologizing and telling him that she loves him. Due to this behavior, John feels that he owes Linda, which creates a skewed relationship.
In conclusion, the character of Linda is quite complex, as we can see many faults, but also understand how Linda has come to have those faults. To consider her a “good” character would be incorrect, as that would be ignoring her faults. Consequently, to consider her a “bad” character would also be incorrect, as that is ignoring the “civilized” society that shaped her as a child and the experiences she had as an adult in the “savage” reservation. This merely reinforces the idea that she is a quite complicated character, which we cannot easily categorize.
-Catalin
We feel pity for Linda, as entering the “savage” reservation couldn’t have been easy for her. Firstly, she fell down a cliff and injured herself. Secondly, the Director, who she was traveling to New Mexico with, completely abandoned her and returned to London without her. She was hurt and alone in a completely foreign place that she had been conditioned to think was a “bad place”. It would be asking a lot of her to forget all of what “civilized” society taught her and accept the “savages” and their different ways of life. Additionally, the “savages” didn’t treat her well either. The men came to her to have sex, but never truly accepted Linda or asked her to be their wife, which would have been customary in their culture. It seems like the men used Linda, who had different customs regarding sex. In return, the wives of these men would then come and beat Linda for sleeping with their husbands. In this way, Linda has greatly suffered in the reservation. Later, when she rejoins the “civilized” world she is mocked and treated like an outcast for being a mother and having an “undesirable” body shape. She becomes addicted to soma and soon dies due to this addiction. In this way, her life did not improve upon returning to London.
Though we do empathize with Linda, we can see many faults in her character. Though the “savages” clearly weren’t trying to integrate Linda into their society, we can assume that some at least tried when she first came there, as they did give her medical treatment after her fall. Linda, on the other hand, was not open to the “savages”, and critiqued them to Lenina, when she and Bernard visited. Though this could definitely be Linda telling Lenina what she thinks Lenina wants to hear, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if those were Linda’s actual feelings towards the “savages”. In addition, Linda certainly treated her son, John, horribly. She often reminded him that she never wanted him, a result of her upbringing in the “civilized” world. She is also not what we would consider “motherly”. Instead, she is emotionally and physically abusive and manipulative, going from hitting John in a drunken rage to profusely apologizing and telling him that she loves him. Due to this behavior, John feels that he owes Linda, which creates a skewed relationship.
In conclusion, the character of Linda is quite complex, as we can see many faults, but also understand how Linda has come to have those faults. To consider her a “good” character would be incorrect, as that would be ignoring her faults. Consequently, to consider her a “bad” character would also be incorrect, as that is ignoring the “civilized” society that shaped her as a child and the experiences she had as an adult in the “savage” reservation. This merely reinforces the idea that she is a quite complicated character, which we cannot easily categorize.
-Catalin
I definitely agree with your argument that Linda cannot be characterized simply as a good or bad character because of her complex backstory and circumstances. Throughout the chapters, my opinion of Linda has shifted multiple times, and by the time she passes away, I was unsure of where I stood in terms of what I thought of her as a character. She's definitely not the most "likeable" character, but at the same time, I never had a strong feeling of dislike towards her. I think her situation in general is just pitiful and tragic, because she is completely unaccepted by both societies. John, on the other hand, dealt with difficulties, but also seemed to have been more adapted to the reservation's culture as opposed to Linda who was unhappy at the Reservation and unaccepted when she came back to London.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how many of Linda's bad qualities we can really blame her for because of how she grew up. I feel like she critiques the "savages" and hates John for being her son because she was manipulated by her society to think that they were savages and that mothers and children were terrible. Maybe if she had grew up without all the hypnopedia, she would love her son and be a good mother. But I did find it odd that she told John that she loved him in spite of being trained to hate mother-child relationships and having no real idea of what love is, so maybe that is an example of her training wearing off in all her time at the reservation. It's hard to say if she was bad or good because the society she grew up in manipulated her so I don't know how many of her actions were actually her own.
ReplyDeleteLinda was thrust into an environment where the opposite of her values were emphasized. After being conditioned to dislike all aspects of family life, she was forced to have a son in the "Savage" Reservation. This probably hurt her emotionally and mentally as it would be completely against what she believed, yet a mother-son bond will always exist. So she probably had quite a lot going through her head, which she tried of forget about through alcohol as she had no access to soma. When she went back to London, I expected the technology to be able to help revert her back to how she was, aftercall they could eternalize youth, and exercise could help her shape up.
ReplyDeleteLinda is indeed a very complex character, given the contrast between where she spent most of her life and how she had been conditoned from birth. She was thrust into a nightmare while young and was forced to cope to the best of her ability with what she had been trained to do since conception. Implementing the teachings of the world state into a situation which they deemed completely wrong would definitely be straining, but I doubt she was quick to give up, considering she indeed did have feelings of love towards John. Maybe she was in too deep before she realized the wrong of her ways and what she had been taught. Knowing that the effects were irreversible, she probably gave up and grew bitter over time, blaming John, her only connection to the "modern" world, for what had happened to her.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Linda is a very complex character (in terms of whether or not she's a good character or a bad character) but even the times when we are supposed to sympathize with her its very difficult to because of how spoiled and winy and ungrateful she comes across. However good or bad she is though she is still a kind of scary character if what she depicts about being thrown into a completely new environment is true. Is it maybe possible she was put there as a warning against lack of open-mindedness for societies (even supposedly Utopian ones)?
ReplyDeleteI found Linda an interesting character as soon as we encountered her, simply because she was a woman that Huxley was giving us details about. It's really hard to characterize her as good or bad because she had a lot of obstacles to face that she was able to deal with. Her moving to the reservation should not have immediately changed her mind on what "civilization" should look like, and she does not adapt immediately back to the regular society (having too much soma). I think an interesting (though not necessarily intentional) question this brings up is how inherent is our connection with our children? Or how inherent does Huxley think this is? Though Linda clearly hates that she is a mother and is unable to get rid of that idea (as seen when she abuses John), she always manages to "love" John. I think that Linda is an interesting character and deserves more analysis.
ReplyDeleteI would say that creating characters like this is something that the book did very often. Which was one of the aspects of it that I disliked, to be honest. I think that Huxley's world is filled with people who are not very good people, but simultaneously it's not their fault. They have all become what they are because of their circumstances. As a result, I felt a mix of sympathy and dislike towards almost every character. John has been abused as a child and thrown into a world that turns his belief system on it's head, but he's also a jerk to Lenina, and often comes off as having a somewhat "holier than thou" attitude. Bernard has been ridiculed and cast out all his life, but he is always bragging and simultaneously whining, and is often vain and bitter at the same time. But with his massive inferiority complex, can we blame him? Lenina is often trying to be nice, but we are constantly reminded of how brainwashed she is, and she treats people she considers lower than herself (epsilons) with disgust. But on the other hand, she was conditioned to think that way, so is it really her fault? I think this is the point Huxley is trying to make in the story. He's saying that this society makes people unlikeable. However, I thought that this point was one of the more unlikeable aspects of his story, even if it was necessary.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you, Linda's character is really conflicting, but I also think that that's the case with almost every character in Brave New World. I'm not sure if there's a single character that is really likeable, but there isn't a single character without redeeming qualities either. To me, one of the the most conflicting things about Linda was her relationship with John. From John's stories and memories, she seemed to be extremely emotionally manipulative and neglectful - she made it clear that she never wanted him in the first place (understandable given the society she was raised in, but extremely traumatic for a kid to hear) and tried often to make him feel guilty for his own existence. On the other hand, sometimes she showed him extreme love and compassion. That relationship is something I've really stsruggled with throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteYet another confusing Brave New World character i'm not sure if the author wants me to like, hate, be repulsed by or empathize with. All of the characters seem very flawed but most of these flaws, especially Linda's can be attributed to the society she comes from. I struggle to evaluate almost any character, instead I think Huxley is trying to get us to use these characters to learn about the World Sate and how awful it is.
ReplyDeleteLinda is definitely a very complex and intriguing character. For the reasons you mention, it is definitely hard to pigeon-hole her into any one type of character. Her relationship with John is especially very interesting to analyze. Within the context of Huxley's book, I feel as if Linda serves as a character who shows us how someone from the World State would fit into a society more like ours in the Reservation, much like John serves to show us that the other way around. By having Linda as a character with plenty of details, Huxley made a new angle from which he can launch critiques of his society, which makes Linda a character worth delving further into.
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