Brave New World Chapter 7 Analysis

In chapter 7 of Aldous Huxley’s book “Brave New World” the main characters Bernard and Lenina venture off to a place that most people from their world have never been to, an Indian reservation. Upon arrival they spot an elderly man who is struggling, but succeeding at descending down a handmade ladder, they notice how his skin is wrinkly and how diseases have taken his youth, they compare the elderly man to the “elders” of their community. The two converse on how the “unnatural” man only ages to thirty, then the man receives blood infusions and is prescribed drugs to keep him looking young. Later in the chapter, the main characters are invited to an Indian ritual where they witness a ceremony where, in the beginning, the whole tribe is involved in singing and dancing, but then the ceremony focuses on two native men, one young and one old. The old man was the man they had seen earlier, but the younger man was new to them so they watched the ceremony to see what would happen next. The young man was continuously wiped and staggered around the ring seven times when he then fell on the ground, the old man went over to him, put a feather over the blood on his back shook it, and soon after the ceremony was over. The ceremony was …show more content…
Native Americans have practiced rituals such as the one in the story for hundreds of years. They do not always believe that man made medicines are the best for a human body, and they will often times go out into the surrounding area and pick herbs, leaves, and grasses that can accomplish the same goals as the man- made material, but are found in nature, so therefore are better for a human to consume. Their religion can also be concluded seeing that they are not praying to a god to heal the elderly man, but they are using human sacrifice and the spirits to help with the healing, similarly to what Native Americans practice in the real