Falling In Love In John Steinbeck's A Brave New World

If Todd were to have a favorite season, he would undoubtedly choose winter because of the secret, cold-hearted beauty he only finds from watching life wither and end. From the outside, Todd appears to be an average academic 13-year-old; he has devoted parents, receives good grades, and occasionally enjoys playing sports. He seems to have a lot going for him, but secretly, he’s always wanted more. When he first discovers a box of gory World War II articles in a friend’s garage, he comments that his first sensation was “like falling in love for the first time...and his head began to ache with a mixture of revulsion and excitement” (120). From the simile comparing something as horrific as genocide with something as beautiful as “falling in love,”
Eventually, what starts as a fascination grows into an obsession, an addiction to listening to an old Nazi share the wondrous horrors of the war, but he soon craves something more satisfactory than just listening. As he wanders around a train station late at night, as he sees a homeless man, a terrible idea crosses his mind; the next thing he realizes was that: “It was the knife that was making the grin; he was carving the wino like a Halloween pumpkin” (207). Todd acts upon an impulse to kill for no reason, and he does so in a way that was scarily positive. The simile “like a Halloween pumpkin” suggest reference to a pleasant, almost juvenile image. When this is combined with murder, it clearly shows that he gained a childlike satisfaction and happiness from his actions. There’s no guilt; just disgusting ecstasy from an obsession with demise that went too far. From this, it seems only fitting that winter’s theme of death would appeal to his obsession as well. Todd’s obsession and his darker side would love the experience the thrill he would get from watching the world wither and