"Undoing all their wholesome death-conditioning with this disgusting outcry- as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that! It might give them the most disastrous ideas about the subject, might upset them into reacting in the entirely wrong, the utterly anti-social way." (pg. 206)
Death is something that the human race in general has an innate fear of; whether it is dying ourselves, or the thought of a loved one dying. As humans, we believe that each person has worth, has human dignity, and should be able to live. In Brave New World, however, society is worth much more than any human life. Each child in society goes through death-conditioning, to de-sensitize them to death; this is something that John was never exposed to. Thereforefore, when John's "savage" view of death collided with the society's take on death, chaos was the only logical response. It was shocking to be in the mind of the nurse (thank the omniscient narrator for that) and hear how she was only worried about how the children would react, and didn't want them to be confused into thinking that death was something to be upset about. Shocking, also, is the idea that such great precautions are taken to avoid diseases, illnesses, and aging, when everyone dies fairly young anyways due to their modern lifestyles. Ironic, or demented. Also ways to describe the World State's logic. All of this twisted thoughts have me upset, I think I need a soma-holiday...
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