# IX explained — Crome Yellow

> Chapter companion for Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley.

## What happens

Mr. Bodiham, the iron-faced rector of Crome, sits in his dark, brown-varnished study after a frustrating morning preaching to an unresponsive congregation. His wife reports that the village is sinking into sin, like a second Sodom and Gomorrah. Bodiham reflects on his failed attempts to awaken his flock and re-reads his own pamphlet on the Second Coming, which interprets World War I as a sign of the apocalypse, blaming German Higher Criticism, Popery, and False Morality.

## Themes in this chapter

### Religion and Mysticism

Mr. Bodiham's fervent apocalyptic preaching and his interpretation of current events through biblical prophecy dominate the chapter, contrasting with the congregation's indifference.

### Self-Consciousness and Identity

Bodiham's self-awareness of his failure to move his flock and his iron-willed but weary sense of identity as a prophet are central to his character portrayal.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Bodiham

The iron-faced rector, weary and frustrated after preaching to an indifferent congregation, sits in his gloomy study and re-reads his apocalyptic pamphlet.

### Mrs. Bodiham

She enters the study to report the village's moral decay, comparing it to Sodom and Gomorrah.

### Henry Wimbush

Mentioned as sitting calmly in the front pew during Bodiham's sermon, provoking the rector's desire to shake him.

## Key lines

> With a gesture of horror and disgust Mr. Bodiham threw the catalogue into the wastepaper basket.

Mr. Bodiham tossed the catalogue away in horror and disgust.

_Reaction to a catalogue advertising cassocks for summer wear, which he finds offensive._

> He preached with fury, with passion, an iron man beating with a flail upon the souls of his congregation. But the souls of the faithful at Crome were made of india-rubber, solid rubber; the flail rebounded.

He preached furiously, but his congregation's souls were like rubber, unaffected by his efforts.

_Metaphor for Bodiham's ineffective preaching against the unresponsive villagers._

> The passengers on the Titanic sang 'Nearer my God to Thee' as the ship was going down. Did they realise what they were asking to be brought nearer to? A white fire of righteousness, an angry fire…

The Titanic passengers sang a hymn without understanding that God is a consuming fire, not a gentle presence.

_Bodiham's critique of naive faith, using the Titanic disaster as an example._

> The spirit of Infidelity is the very spirit of German criticism. The Higher Criticism, as it is mockingly called, denies the possibility of miracles, prediction, and real inspiration, and attempts to account for the Bible as a natural development.

German Higher Criticism, which treats the Bible as a human document, is the spirit of unbelief that Bodiham blames for the war.

_Bodiham's pamphlet links German biblical criticism to the cause of World War I._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/crome_yellow_se/chapters/ix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/crome_yellow_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/crome_yellow_se/chapters