Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Chapter 10 Summary

This chapter marks a return to London and to civilization. When it opens, the Director is praising the Bloomsbury Centre's efficiency and referring to it as a "hive." He's preparing to fire Bernard, telling Henry Foster, Lenina's ex, that Bernard sets a bad example for people of his caste. Despite the fact that Bernard does his work very well, as Henry points out, the Director still means to fire him. He has asked Bernard to meet him in the Fertilizing Room so that he can make an example of him. If Bernard hadn't just brought back the Director's illegitimate son, this would've worked. Unfortunately for the Director, Linda makes a grotesque scene, asking if the Director remembers her, and John enters, repeating, "My father! My father!" This is so embarrassing that the Director has to leave.

Chapter 10 Analysis

Metaphor

Beehives. The Director uses a metaphor when he refers to the Bloomsbury Centre as a "hive," which makes its employees busy worker "bees" who perform their assigned tasks mindlessly and instinctively. This ties back into the theme of identity, because if the workers are all bees, then they don't have individual identities, but are, rather, viewed as a single, uniform mass.

Themes

Drama. In true Shakespearean fashion, John makes a dramatic entrance to the Fertilizing Room, saying, "My father!" like a prince addressing the king. His mannerisms here are affected, stolen from the dramas he's read, and are therefore inappropriate for the time and setting. His audience is, in fact, so unaccustomed to displays like this that they burst out laughing. In response, the Director runs away, abandoning his son, much as he would in a real Shakespearean tragedy.

Identity. For more on this, see Metaphors: Beehives.

Paternity.  Like motherhood,...