Chapter 7 Summary

Lenina doesn't like the Reservation at all. A foul-smelling Indian guide leads them to a pueblo marred by rubbish, dust, dogs and flies. She is astonished by an old man climbing down a nearby ladder; she's never seen someone so wrinkled or decrepit. His emaciated body horrifies her, and she asks Bernard what's wrong with him. Bernard tells her he's just old; here, people aren't kept physiologically young or preserved from diseases, like they are in Civilization, where everyone is kept at a youthful equilibrium until sixty, when they abruptly reach the end.

It's more than Lenina can stand, but she's dismayed to find she's left her soma tablets at the rest house, and will have to face the horrors of the Reservation unaided. Bernard only makes it worse; trying to compensate for the weakness he displayed earlier, he makes outrageous remarks, pointing...