Editor's Choice
Why does John in "Brave New World" detest Popé?
Quick answer:
John detests Popé because he sees him as an intruder who exploits his mother, Linda, on the Reservation. Popé frequently brings Linda mescal, which she consumes excessively, reminding John of her promiscuity and her attempts to recreate the soma-induced escapism of her past. John's childhood was marked by witnessing Popé's exploitation of Linda and her subsequent sickness, fueling his hatred. This dysfunctional relationship makes Popé a despised father figure in John's eyes.
When John was a child growing up as an outcast on the Reservation, Popé was one of Linda's many lovers and a native of the region. John remembers that Popé would visit his mother's home often and bring a gourd full of mescal with him. Linda would drink Popé's mescal before having sex with him and then sleep off the alcoholic beverage. John grew up watching Popé take advantage of his mother and witnessed Linda become sick after drinking the mescal, which fueled John's hatred towards Popé. John disapproves of his mother's promiscuity and resents the fact that the men on the Reservation use her for sex. As a small child, John had tried to kill Popé by stabbing him in the shoulder, which only incited Popé's rage and did not prevent him from sleeping with Linda.
John disapproves of his mother's status as the tribal whore, and he cannot understand her when she tries to explain that that is the way things are done where she comes from in "the Other Place" because that's not what he knows, having been born and reared on the reservation. He looks at Pope as an intruder into his world with his mother, too. And Pope also brings Linda mescal (think mescaline, from the peyote cactus), which Linda takes in excess in an attempt to get that soma holiday back, and John despises seeing her that way.
Ironically, due to Linda's attachment to Pope, he's almost like a father figure
to John, and with John's disapproval of their relationship, it makes for a
pretty dysfunctional family!
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