NovelGuide: Brave New World: Novel Summary: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The Savage, at the beginning of this chapter, sees a line-up of the Delta workers of the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying. The hundreds of workers with only a few different faces between them are waiting obediently for their daily ration of soma. This too, enrages the Savage, who begins to take out all his frustration here. John can’t stand their willing servitude and thinks to himself, "Linda had been a slave, Linda had died; others should live in freedom, and the world be made beautiful. A reparation, a duty. And suddenly it was luminously clear to the Savage what he must do; it was as though a shutter had been opened, a curtain drawn back." It’s at this point that the Savage realizes his reason for coming to this strange world: he will make it free.

Soon the Savage abruptly interrupts the soma distribution and gets everyone’s attention. He asks them if they like being slaves and babies. Next he tells them that they can be free and begins to throw their packets of soma, which he calls poison, out the window. But the Deltas are too stupid to understand his oratory and soon begin charging him, demanding their soma. Soon a fight ensues, and Helmholtz quickly comes to the Savage’s aid against the mass of Deltas.

Eventually the battle is broken up when police come and spray everyone with soma-gas, and play "Anti-Riot Speech Number Two." The Savage, Helmholtz, and Bernard are taken into custody to see the Controller.