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Bernard and Helmholtz find John throwing up in the bathroom. When he comes out, they ask if he ate something disagreeable. John says yes, he ate Civilization. It poisoned him; he was defiled, and then he ate his own wickedness. But he drank some mustard and water and now he's purified. They tell him they've come to say goodbye; they're off tomorrow morning. Bernard tells him how ashamed he is for everything that happened, but John presses his hand, and the three sit together silently, happy for the sadness, a symptom of their love. Then John says the Controller wouldn't let him go with them, because he wants to go on with the experiment. But he plans to go away tomorrow, to someplace where he can be alone. John moves into an old lighthouse on a hill between Puttenham and Elstead. He has a grand view marred only by skyscrapers in the distance, and in the valley below is a small village with a poultry farm and a Vitamin-D factory. Beyond these are the woods. Looking out through the glass windows, John has a sense of looking out on the incarnation of a divine being. He wonders who he is, to be living in the presence of God, and he whips himself, prays to Jesus and Pookong and the Zuni Awonawilona, determining to live as rough an existence as possible. He's been given some money, which he uses on short-term supplies and seeds for a garden, and he makes a bow and arrows for hunting. He takes such pleasure in crafting the bow and arrows that he immediately feels sorry for forgetting Linda, and his own unkindness toward her, and the loathsome twins. He has sworn to remember, and he picks up his whip and starts whipping himself. At this time, some Delta-Minus land workers come across him and pause in dismay. Soon after, the reporters follow, trying to get him to comment on Civilization. John curses at them in Zuni, growing progressively more violent. But a filmmaker named Darwin Bonaparte has staked out the woods near the lighthouse, and is able to take footage of the Savage, which he turns into a film. Twelve days later, the lighthouse is swarmed by helicopters filled with people descending like locusts. They throw John almonds and sex-hormone gum as if he's an ape, and chant for the whip—they want to see the whipping stunt. Then the door of another helicopter opens and out step Lenina and Henry Foster. John is immediately seized by a violent, fury, and runs at the tentatively smiling and crying Lenina with his whip. As Henry ducks behind the helicopter, John beats Lenina and then himself. There's a whoop of delighted excitement—pain seems to be a fascinating horror. The crowd, conditioned to follow examples, begin miming the Savage's gestures with the whip, striking at each other in a frenzy. As John yells, "Kill it," the crowd starts singing "Orgy-porgy," beating one another in six-eight time. After midnight, John is stupefied by soma and exhausted by a frenzy of sensuality. He doesn't awaken until the sun is high and he looks up at the light and suddenly remembers everything. He covers his eyes and cries to God. That evening, the first arrivals of the swarm find him hanging in the lighthouse. The sadness the three men feel on parting is a symptom of the growing awareness of their own humanity. As such, it makes them happy. John, alone in his lighthouse, tries to repent for his behavior with his mother and his baser urges. He also tries to return to a simple life, but Civilization isn't done experimenting on him; John is a casualty of the constantly churning wheels of progress. Far from eating Civilization, it eats him, and John is inevitably destroyed. Unable to rid himself of the worst of human emotions without the artificial means Civilization provides, and tormented in a world he can't understand or escape, he opts to kill himself, thus preserving his freedom of choice and his individuality.
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