Chapter XVII - Overall Analysis

When Mustapha assumes that John the Savage knows all about God, John hesitates. He does not actually know all about God, but basically lives by the religion aspect of it. John understands how he came to know about God, during the time he thought about plunging into a sea of darkness to end his life, but when he wants to talk about it, “…there were no words. Not even in Shakespeare” (XVII, 203).

The most important aspect in this chapter is the fact that we endeavor further into what must be given up in order to obtain happiness and what it truly means in each of Mustapha and John’s cases. Religion is one of the strongest points that Mustapha stresses. In one of his many so-called ‘pornographic’ books, Mustapha reads an excerpt about God,

“…we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play us false – a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that…it makes up for all our other losses” (XVII, 206),

which is basically stating that people in life need God in order to make themselves feel better. We all need something that is bigger than us, something that creates a sense of hope so that we can turn to it when we are unsure of ourselves. God is a symbolic image in our minds that create hope in a pure aura that it could never do us any wrong.

The Controller goes on to talk about how no one ever philosophized about a future in which we become independent of God - where we have no need for a holy entity that we beg to for happiness and prosperity. Being youthful, never having to grow old, and prosperity means never having the need for God. In their society one does not need 'compensating for losses', thus no God is needed. Why go hunting for dreams and goals when you have whatever you want right at your fingertips all the time? John disagrees, as he should (being a moral man and all), but the Controller says he believes that there is quite possibly a God, but that in this time and age, he is an absence instead of being manifested into a being.

One of the most important quotes in this chapter is one about the philosophy of life, "He [Bradley[ defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them" (XVII, 207), which is actually quite realistically true. How is it that we believe in God and other entities, or even anything in life? Are we not all conditioned to believe in it, is that not why we go to church or school? Or is it that we desire a greater being in our lives in order to maintain a certain equilibrium between chaos and stability, and therefore instinctively created needs? This is the one thing I pondered most about after reading this book. What if our lives were just large case of conditioning, just not as obvious? Everyone knows that the news always puts out the stories that are intriguing, and will warp it in order to do so, but what if everything else in our lives did that as well? Is that not conditioning, or is it an instinct to reveal only certain things (almost like a 'white lie') in order to maintain equilibrium and prevent mass hysteria?
It's hard to tell, but I know that I now feel as though I re-evaluate my life and what is real, and what is not. I would like to believe that we live in a world that is mostly instinctual, but at the same time I do believe we are slightly conditioned to be the way that we are. It's a little scary though - perhaps anyone can condition the world, if they tried hard enough.

Something highly interesting that we learn of John is that where ever he may go, he will never fit in. In the Reservation he had suffered and had been shut out due to the colour of his skin and the way Linda behaved. In the 'modern' society, he is suffering because he can never simply be alone. Ironic, isn't it? He was alone in Malpais more physically than emotionally - for he still had Linda and the old shaman. In the society, he is alone emotionally than physically. Everywhere he goes, there are women and men urging to see him and talk with him. However, he is out of place and seen as 'queer' because he is moral and has a sense of decency.

A highly important point that John makes about the society is how they always create situations that are easy so that one does not suffer. For example, the society rid themselves of mosquitoes so that they did not get bitten. They get rid of everything that is hard or seems difficult, instead of learning how to put up with it. This is quite possibly why the society and the people in it seem to be so childish. Maturity comes with experience of hardships; without any hardships, how can there be maturity? Everything seems just too easy in their life, it almost makes life ridiculously boring. Then again, anything that is not unstable seems boring.
John states that, "What you need is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here" (XVII, 211), and he is completely correct. Living in a world with pain and the need for tears is true life. Anything else is just a fragment of a dreary yet perfect life.
It is also ironic how when John comments about how nothing costs enough in the society, Henry Foster told him that their new Conditioning Centre cost twelve and a half million dollars. Isn't that just so like the society? Emotionless! Everything means nothing to them, it is ridiculous and childish. John obviously had meant something deeper than just money, but people like Foster could never understand. Why? Why, due to conditioning of course. Who needs to philosophize when they could just do work?

At the very end of the chapter, there is one of the most important points that connects throughout the entire novel. The society wants to do things comfortably at all times; no pain, no emotion, no 'strings attached', no diseases, no ugliness or old age, no inconveniences. John wants inconveniences, because it is realistic, it is REAL; God, poetry, danger, freedom. Mustapha counters that he is basically wanting the right to be unhappy, to grow old and ugly, have cancer, be lousy, to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow, and even the right to be tortured by unspeakable pain. John decides that that is exactly what he wants, and it would be what I want as well. If life was easy and convenient than we would be rendered useless; for life is meant to be lived.