When Lenina first experienced Malpais, she acted sort of like I do when I'm outside for too long. She didn't like how things smelled, and she kept saying, "I don't like it. I don't like it" (109). The diction around that part set a very repulsive scene -- "dirt," "rubbish," "terrible," "awful," and "revoltingly viviparous," to name a few examples.
But then, the quote at the top of my post happened. Since the drums were mentioned so many times, I feel like they have to be a symbol for something. I'm not totally sure, but I think the drums symbolize the connection between the civilized people and the Indians. Lenina didn't find the drums queer, and they reminded her of the Solidarity Services (gahh, weird part). Both societies use drums in their, erm, unique rituals.
Since I've got seven sentences left to work with, I'm going to complain about the style of this chapter. One paragraph lasted from 113 to 116, and another one lasted from 119 to 122. Paragraphs that last three pages are not cool! The first one was about the sacrifice ritual, and the second one was about Linda's hysteria. I understand that the sentences that are in these two paragraphs go together, but seriously, why not indent something here and there? I generally think too much when I read causing me to read slower, and dinosaur paragraphs do not help. That's a new literary term, by the way -- dinosaur paragraph: an unnecessarily lengthy paragraph that contributes to the writer's point by causing the reader to throw the book at the wall.
