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?

Chapter XV - Summary

John is walking out with the rest of the 162 Bokanovsky Delta groups leaving their shift to assemble at the vestibule for their soma ration. John is devastated with grief and remorse and begins, mechanically, to shoulder his way through the crowd. He realized where he was and felt disgusted at the sight of all the identical twins swarming about. He hated them, especially after the incident with all the twins staring wide eyed and talking horribly about his dying mother Linda.

John looked on and watched as the twins began to form lines in front of the soma distribution area. John exclaimed, "O brave new world" and heard the singing words change tone in his mind - they were mocking him; they were proclaiming the possibility of loveliness, that even a nightmare could be changed into something noble. It called him with a defiant and commanding tone.

The twins were starting to shove slightly to get their soma and the distributor threatened furiously that he will stop distributing if they did not stop shoving. Imagine, depriving soma? What a horrid thought!

John feels that Linda was a slave to the soma thus resulting in her death. It was like an epiphany occurred in his mind - people should live in freedom, and the world should be made beautiful.

He ran through the crowd and yelled, "Stop!" as the Deltas stared in astonishment. The distributor was terrified as he recognized the Savage. John began to claim that the soma is horrible poison that infects the body and the soul. The distributor tries to calm down the Savage by asking him kindly to allow him to continue his distribution. John begged for the man to throw away the soma, causing an angry murmur to go throughout the Delta crowd. The distributor ran to the phone.
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Bernard and Helmholtz are searching for John as he is thought to be missing. They had come home from work and expected to see John waiting for them but there was no sign of him, and they were going to be late for dinner. Helmholtz gets a phone call from the distributor and he and Bernard rush at once to pick up the seemingly gone mad Savage.
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John is continuing his desperate and erratic speech to the Deltas. He called them 'babies' and they stared at him with blank expressions and resentment in their eyes. He felt no more grief or remorse now, all he felt was powerful hate for the 'less than human monsters'. He says he will teach them freedom and how to truly live. He begins to throw the soma pills out of the window.

Bernard and Helmholtz have shown up now and are watching the Savage throw the pills out of the window. Scared for his safety as the angry Delta mob moves in onto him, Helmholtz pushes himself through the crowd laughing.

John is screaming about freedom as he punches the Deltas trying to attack him while throwing the pills out of the window. Helmholtz is at his side, helping him fight back for freedom. The Deltas howled with anger and charged forth with double the fury.

Bernard dashes to help them but then stops. He tries again only to stop once more. Split by his decision to want to help, but ashamed that he does not want to get hurt, Bernard spots the police charging forth to help. He rushes over to them to ask them to help John and Helmholtz, only to get hit by a water gun filled with a powerful anaesthetic.

Suddenly, the Voice of Reason's track came on over the sound system, begging them to stop and be 'happy and good' once more. The Voice and the soma vapour took their effect and the Deltas began to cry while hugging and kissing one another. Hemholtz and the Savage, and even the police, were crying as well. The Voice had such pathetic tenderness, straight from the non-existent heart. A fresh supply of pills were quickly distributed to the bawling Deltas. The police confronted Hemholtz and John, who were bleeding from different areas, to come quietly or be anaesthetized.
Bernard had regained control of one of his legs and began to hobble towards the door. The police caught up to him and asked if he was a friend of the prisoners. Bernard hesitated but could not deny it. He was led by the police to the waiting police car.