33 pages • 1 hour read
Aldous HuxleyIsland
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
With Vijaya driving, Will, Dr. Robert, and Murugan reach the temple. As they disembark from the vehicle, Dr. Robert shows Will the youngsters that have been climbing to the top of the mountain. Dr. Robert mentions that this is part of a coming-of-age ritual which includes a ceremony and taking mushrooms. Will asks Dr. Robert if the threat of an accident, which claimed the life of his grandson, Dugald, is not reason enough to question the necessity of this ritual. Dr. Robert feels that confronting danger is necessary for fully developing. The ceremony begins as an older priest intones in Sanskrit. Dr. Robert and Vijaya sermonize to the young people assembled in the temple. Dr. Robert leads a meditation. He asks the young people to see the Shiva and Goddess statue’s symbolism and to interpret the Shiva-Nataraja statue. Dr. Robert speaks of the interconnectedness of life and death. As the ceremony concludes, the young people are given mushrooms, otherwise known as the Moksha medicine. All throughout, Murugan is derisive, making mocking facial expressions or grunts of contempt. As the chapter concludes, a man enters the temple with an urgent message from the Rani, signaling that the party of four must return to town.
Chapter 11 Summary
It is the following morning and Will is back in his hospital room. Dr. Robert checks in and they have a brief chat. Will begins to read Notes on What’s What... A telephone call from the Rani interrupts him. She says that other oil companies have entered into the negotiations and that time is of the essence to confirm the deal with Joe Aldehyde. The Rani says that Bahu, the ambassador from Rendnag-Lobo, will ask Will to act as an agent on his firm’s behalf. Will seems reluctant but acquiesces. After the phone call, he returns to Notes on What’s What…
Will is once again interrupted, this time by Vijaya and a woman named Leela Rao. Will discovers that Mrs. Rao is Radha and Ranga’s teacher; he infers that she was also their sexual education teacher. Will is escorted to the town center, where the town hall and a temple are located. He sees a young girl place a white orchid at the statue of a Bodhisattva, which translates to “one whose goal is awakening.” Vijaya explains that she is likely practicing Mahayana Buddhism. Will sarcastically asks, “and do you highbrows encourage this kind of thing?” (219). Vijaya claims that they simply accept it as they would anything else, such as a spiderweb in a corner. Vijaya further asserts that religion is a part realistic, part fantastic mixture (220).
In a meditation room, Will views a landscape painting of a nearby valley. This leads to a comparative analysis of expressionism in the arts as compared to the painting’s realism.
Chapter 12 Summary
Vijaya brings Will to his house for lunch. When they enter the humble abode, Vijaya’s wife, Shanta, is breastfeeding her youngest child. Will discovers that Vijaya is not the child’s biological father; instead, Shanta was artificially inseminated with the sperm of the man who painted the landscape painting, Gobind Singh. Will asks if this is common practice in Pala. Vijaya says that it is, especially if a couple decides to have a third child. Vijaya leaves the room to cook lunch and Will chats with Shanta. They discuss the conditioning techniques used on the child when it breastfeeds. Anytime something, whether human or animal, touches the baby, Shanta says the word “good.” The idea is that the child will associate the word with the pleasurable sensations of breastfeeding.
Will challenges Shanta. He asks how the people of Pala handle bad things, or things that have the capacity to kill such as the snakes he encountered on his first day on the island. She directs his attention to a Buddha statue in her living room. At first glance, Will does not notice the live snake coiled around it. Shanta tells him the story of Buddha and the Tree of Muchalinda, which likewise involved a snake.
Mary Sarojini and Tom Krishna, Dr. Robert MacPhail’s grandchildren from Chapter 1, arrive at the couple’s home with two other children. Vijaya had taken Tom under his wing and acts as a role model and father figure. Will asks Shanta if this is an example of the Mutual Adoption Club, to which she answers that it is.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
The trip to the Shiva temple illuminates the difference between Palanese and Western ideology. When Vijaya asks Murugan if he is tempted to climb the mountain, Murugan reaches into his bag for a science fiction magazine. Dr. Robert laughs and says, “anything to escape from fact” (194). This highlights how the people of Pala tend to deal in the world as it is, while those influenced by the West escape into abstractions and materialist ideals. Rock climbing not just a symbolic ritual. Dr. Robert explains that it is “applied ethics” and “another preventative substitute for bullying” (196). It is an outlet for aggression in addition to being an inward-looking exercise. One must confront their own fears which leads to developing empathy for others. This embodies the Palanese value of Transcendence and Being Present.
At the temple, we see more differences between Pala and the West. When the girl offers up the orchid, Vijaya explains that the Palanese are accepting of this and other things, such as a spiderweb. This acceptance is not seen in the West, as evidenced by Will’s sarcasm. For Will, religion isn’t personal. It is a practice that has been handed down and needs to be followed dogmatically. Religion for the Palanese is highly personal in many ways. Vijaya says, “in this very psychophysical world of ours, ideas have a tendency, if you concentrate your mind on them, to get themselves realized” (221). How a person focuses on their ideas is not what matters; it’s that they are given the freedom to do so without dogma. That is the Palanese way.
In Chapter 12, we see more of Pala’s communal ideology. In contrast to the West, families aren’t insular. For instance, Will learns of Pala’s common practice with third children, a custom unheard of in the West. We also see an example of the Mutual Adoption Club in action, when learning that Vijaya is a father figure to Tom. The book is showing Will—as the reader—another way to live.
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