Group Work Questions

Compare an contrast Society with the Reservation:
         Reservation is a contrast to the New World because it acts somewhat similar to how the present day (the one we are living in now...) works. Native American culture aside, the way they age, the fact they mend their stuff, they take care of themselves, they make crafts, all of these things which are somewhat ideal in our world, contrast what the New World citizens do. The Reservation residents are shown as awkward and strange because they do such things. (And the Indians find the lack of skill in the New World citizens have disappointing.)

          While the New World has certain services for the worship of Ford/soma and the Reservation people have their own sacrifices for Pookang and Jesus. They both have some sort of religious services, the New World for self-pleasure and to apply the 'everyone-belongs-to-everyone' law, and the Reservation for the well-being of the village and the crops. However, both places have little use for books. Since most of the things that come from books have been secluded to the offices of the World Controllers and just don't exist on the Reservation. (save for the literature that John was given through Popé.)


#1. What was John's upbringing like? His relationship with Linda? His education?
His Mom (Linda) didn't really know what to do, how to raise him really due to her not being conditioned for this kind of life. Birth is purely eliminated in the New World where Linda came from, and so she struggles on how to react with John.

His relationship isn't all that good to begin with, but as Linda learns about mothership she eventually learns how to care for him and he eventually grows to love her. She has to really go against her conditioning and all that she's been through to give John a good life, and it is hard coming from the New World and raising him on the very different Reservation.

John is one of the more educated children in the Reservation, since he was taught to read. Books aren't a commodity in the Reservation, and John knows that he isn't going to be accepted in the community, but he has the upper hand in knowing how to read.

#2. Why doesn't Linda want to be called a mother?
Because her conditioning and hypnopaedic training had taught her that mother was a fowl, disgusting word. She eventually gets sort of used to it, yet John has got in the habit of addressing her as Linda.

#3. What social positions do Linda and John hold in Maplais?
They are outcasts because of the different environment Linda was brought up in. Since she has known that sleeping with a multitude of men is ok, the others don't particularly care for that behaviour and shun her, beat her, and throw rocks at John everytime they see him.

#4. What does John want in his life?
John's alienation separates him from most other humans in his life. He hears such good stories from Linda and from what he's read in Shakespeare, and he wants to start again and adventure in the New World.

#5. What does Linda tell him about the Other Place?
You can fly any time you want, there are things that fill the room with scents, there are pictures you can see, hear, taste, and smell.

#6. What does he learn from Shakespeare? How does he relate to Hamlet? The Tempest?
His morals, half the things that come out of his mouth, and some of his actions. (Him attempting to stab Popé.)

#7. What does it mean to discover "Time and Death and God?"
In the New World, all three of these things are nowhere to be found. Even though there is an evident year (632 A.D.), it is purely a number. History has been wiped out and there has been no reason to even mention Time, Death, or God to any of the New World citizens. Through mainly reading Shakespeare all his life, he has discovered these and can make what little sense he can of the world.

#8. Why does Bernard want to take John to London?
Because the Director is going to exile Bernard to Iceland, but in a publicly humiliating manner. By bringing John and Linda, people from the Director's past, he can sort of turn the humiliation on the Director, perhaps saving his job, and getting a little laugh for himself. (Revenge/Retribution/Another feeling of being a rebel.)