Chapter XV - Overall Analysis

John grows more and more weary of the society. Not that I blame him; the society is disturbed to a whole new level. He has a deep hatred for the Bokovansky twins that inhabit the society, quite possibly because they are so robotic and inhuman. As he moves through a crowd of them, he feels disgust, horror, and pain, "...with a sinking sense of horror and disgust, for the recurrent delirium of his days and nights, the nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness. Twins, twins..." (XV, 184) and he is right to feel such pained feelings. They had swarmed over his mother as she lay dying, with no respect to her decaying mind/body.
As they continued to swarm around him, for they were switching shifts, John's 'magical words' began to change from a sing-song tone to a hideous mocking tone with fiendish laughing, "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world..." (XV, 184), however in that Shakespearean quote, Miranda is proclaiming how lovely the new world must be, which is ironic because in this situation, there is nothing even remotely lovely about the 'new world'.

There is a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter. John talks about the 'brave new world' quote and analyzes it that there is hope of changing a nightmare, such as this, into something better. Thus making me believe that perhaps he is planning on changing the society, transforming the nightmare, into a society of emotions, something that is fine and noble.
While John ponders this, he has an epiphany of some sort and, "it was as though a shutter had been opened, a curtain drawn back" (XV, 185); he decides that he must save these people from the soma. The soma, that is so alluring and perfect and yet so poisonous to the mind and body. Suddenly, all of his pain and grief vanished and he felt indignation as he began to chastise the twins as they tried to obtain their soma distribution. He asks them if they want freedom and true manhood. They were just standing there, with blank faces and eyes of resentment. Such descriptions of them makes them seem dead, like walking zombies. They are indeed the children of the damned from the so-called perfect society - so hollow and dead and yet living.

Bernard and Helmholtz show up to his horrific scene of John beating back the riotous twins, and Helmholtz rushes to help John. Bernard however, being the selfish person he is, stands in agony as he is torn between helping them and risking himself, or watching them and saving himself.

One of the most interesting parts in this chapter is 'The Voice of Reason'. As the twins start their violent riot, the 'Voice of Reason' comes on and "straight from the depths of a non-existent heart" (XV, 189), begins to plea with the people to stop their violent rage in an almost pathetic and tender voice. The Voice worked, along with the soma-vapour; they had rendered the violent twins into blubbering, kissing babies. They had even produced an effect on Helmholtz and John, as they grew close to tears.
How interesting that the society has different 'Voices' that call upon them whenever there is pain or unpleasant behaviours. We will learn further on that there is no need for a God in their society, but isn't this just like a God in a way? They worship and render themselves useless to a Voice from a Synthetic Music Box, a voice that is angelic and beautiful. Don't people believe that God talks to them in such a way as well? Is this not pretty much the same thing?