At the end of Brave New World, why does John hang himself?

Question

Is it because he feels bad about rejecting Lenina?

I read the whole book and I read the last chapter three times and I still don't get it.

Anyone care to explain the ending to me?

Answer 1

I think he was much more upset at finally accepting Lenina, not his prior rejections of her.  The whole book, he wanted her, but he didn't want her the way that this messed up society he was dragged into tells him to want he; basically, just take her and have s*x with her.  He wants to suffer and he wants the romance, like the Shakespeare books he's filled his head with and the Indian ideals of sacrifice to acheive higher goals.  I think its implied in the end that when the whole crowd starts chanting Orgy Porgy that he joins in the crowd and has s*x with Lenina (and possibly others) so he did accept her, not reject her.

You could look at accepting Lenina as his acceptance of the brave new world he hates; and accepting that was unacceptable.  He couldn't find a way to find pleasure after pain, in his tries for using sacrifice to get to Lenina.  So, after attaining the pleasure without the prior pain, he inflicts the pain on himself afterwards, but his guilt is so great that he inflicts the ultimate pain and kills himself.

Also, a simpler answer is that he didn't really fit in anywhere.  The Indians hated him, the white people were disgusted by him, and he was equally contemptuous of all of them.  So why not just end it all and leave the worlds you hate.

Answer 2

hey hun

that book is tough..i had to read it in high school and i never liked it to much.

from what i remember during my discussions of BNW in high school, john hangs himself because he feels impure. he feels like he was not supposed to be sexually attractred to lenina. like the night shes making a MAJOR pass at him and then he calls her a whoree and ends up quoting shakespear [[majorly weird!]] anywayss he feels like he's basically sinned.....not really in there vocab. then when he whips lenina when she greets him at the end, he feels bad about that. so he feels the only way to end the toxicities [[think thats a word! lol!]] is to kill himself.

really hope i helped sweetie! good luck! muah!

Answer 3

DUDE I FRIGGEN HATED THAT BOOK.......I just read it this summer fer school

We had a question like that on a quiz. I said that the reason John killed himself was because he felt like he had done something wrong when he was attracted to Lenina. All the people in that book feel like s*x is wrong but when Lenina is on her somas she goes into this w***e-mode and wants s*x. John feels guilty about rejecting her wanting s*x. And plus about beating her. So he kills himself.