Brave New World: 4

"But what? What is there more important to say? And how can one be violent about the sort of things one's expected to write about?" (70)

Rhetorical questions are used by Helmholtz Watson a few times through the course of the chapter. He is interested in something else, something more to say, but he doesn't know what. He asks questions during his discussion with Henry Foster, but they are more rhetorical than actual questions because there is no way that Henry can answer these questions for him. They are questions that Helmholtz has to answer himself because he is the only one who knows (or apparently right now, doesn't know) what he needs to satisfy himself. I think the purpose of the rhetorical questions is to give the reader the opportunity to think for themselves and try to determine what Helmholtz should do or say. The rhetorical questions are effective because they give insight into the mind of Helmholtz and reveal the things he is struggling with internally. Also, the rhetorical questions show that he is unsure about these things. This is uncharacteristic of the "Escalator-Squash champion, this indefatigable lover, this admirable committee man and best mixer" (67). The rhetorical questions show that even amongst the genetically engineered, everyone has their flaws.