Important Quotations and Literary Devices

There were quite a few important quotes in my opinion in this chapter about how this society truly sees things and how the society works.

Chapter II is about the society and further insight into conditioning and how the society functions as a whole.
An important quote is when the students and Director look into a conditioning class and there are rose blossoms described, "...pale as death, pale with post humous whiteness of marble" (II, pg. 15).
I found this to be important because not only does it paint an emotionless and dark imagery and stark contrast simile on something beautiful, it also provides us with an idea of how the society looks upon such things that we believe are mind-stimulating, inspiring, and beautiful.

The blossoms are being described to the reader in a morbid almost disturbing sense; almost as if it's an oxymoron between beauty and death/pain. I believe this shows that the society itself is emotionless and dark in the ways it expresses itself which reflects an imperfection on this self-proclaimed 'perfect' society.

This kind of twisted imagery occurs again when the babies are being electrocuted for conditioning purposes against nature and they have "distorted faces" and "desperate, almost insane, spasmodic yelps". It is so disturbing the way the society thinks. Such instances in our society would be seen as abuse and called for the most brutal punishment available, and yet such torture is seen as a necessity and even normal in their society.

The second important quote that I found was during the conditioning situation between the babies, shocking, and the blossoms and books. It was said that, "What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder" (II, pg. 17), which is incredibly interesting.
This quote says that since man has become conditioned and accepted it, nature cannot break this new society. However, I believe that nature can fix anything that is not natural. The true nature of society should be emotions, humanity, identity, and coming together as one. However, the society in this book is described as no war, no disease, no dirt... and that is not the least bit natural.

This quote could also be foreshadowing that since this society is so unnatural, that perhaps nature will break it apart and make it natural once more.

Another important quote that I found described the society's views on the hypnopaedia and conditioning was one about words without reason. The Director explains to the tour of students that the conditioning a child undergoes lasts a lifetime, "The mind that judges and decides - made up of these [the moral suggestions about rank] suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!" (II, pg. 23), thus stating that the conditioned mind of a child will always have another person's suggestions in it.
This is very interesting because it shows how ironic their motto of "identity" is when compared to the fact that everything that a person of this society thinks has been conditioned for them to think. Hypocritical, no? They are conditioning children for the sake of making them think what they want them to think, behave as they want them to behave.... but who are 'they'?
'They' are the World Controllers. 'They' are those who want perfection in society and will strive by any means to get what they want, because nothing will stand in their way. Not even nature.

One of the paragraphs that stuck out to me most from this chapter was one that talked about the conditioning process on the mind. Thus stated,
"Not so much like drops of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with that they fall on, till finally the rock is all one scarlet blob" (II, pg. 23), this quote reveals a certain evilness in the conditioning process. The repetition of the conditioning into the children's minds drills holes into their minds until they are one in the minds and are not just conditioned, but are all the children know.
There is wisp of malice in this paragraph however. The conditioning process is described as molding and that hardens into a blob. This just seems so emotionless to me. There is no infliction to the words and they are hard as the rock they describe.
The scarlet blob creates a horrific sense in my head. This could mean that the minds of the children have been violated and hardened by conditioning process and that the scarlet colour creates a scary colour in the head. At least that it how scarlet seems to be in my mind.

All of these quotes and literary devices work together to create a mood or atmosphere of how this society is, works, and acts like. These all help to further create a sense of how the society works and helps to understand the book further on into the plot. In my opinion, understanding the situation and world the characters live in allows a better understanding of the plot and how that affects the characters and the actions they take.