Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Introductory Activities and Notes

Introductory Activities Has belief in the power of science replaced faith in God? What is happiness, and how can it be found? What are some dangers of being promiscuous? Why do people use drugs?

I.A., cont. What are some pros and cons of genetic engineering? What about cloning? How are people brainwashed today? Do you think people are capable of living in peace? If so, under what conditions? Why do people dream? How do you define love?                                                  

Introductory Topics Psychological Conditioning-Pavlovian conditioning Sleep teaching Genetic engineering Test tube babies Identity Social Stability Community

Intro. topics, cont. Individual freedom/happiness Passion/painful emotion Consumption of material goods Mind-altering drugs Promiscuity Individual differences Family in crisis

Intro. topics, cont. Death Totalitarianism Utopia Henry Ford/mass production Karl Marx Herbert Hoover Benito Mussolini

Intro. topics, cont. Propaganda Overpopulation Cloning

BNW facts and themes Science fiction work Utopian fiction Title is from The Tempest by Shakespeare, and there are numerous parallels. Science can be used to control people Genetic engineering and psychological conditioning are potentially dangerous

BNW Themes, cont. Hardship increases the depth of life Materialism and pleasure vs. individuality and freedom Life without ties is empty Escapism is often destructive

Study Guide Chapters 1-2 Do you think anything like the hatcheries might be happening today? How does Bokanovsky’s process work, and what is it for? What is the significance of A.F.? How is Huxley’s depiction of the Director satirical?

1-2, cont. What are some actual scientific principles presented? Explain the class system of BNW What social problems have been eliminated in BNW? Explain the motto “Community, Identity, Stability”

1-2 Cont. How is Huxley mocking Christianity? Who are Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne? Why are the Delta children conditioned to dislike books and nature? Why can hypnopaedia be used to inoculate more beliefs and emotional attitudes but cannot be used to learn science?

Chapter 3 What is meant by “history is bunk”? How are the lectures, the conversations, and the activities related to each other? What is the deal with soma? Why does so much effort go into conditioning people to be consumers? What is Huxley satirizing?

Chapters 4 and 5 Share some opinions about Lenina How is Bernard different? What are some things that “trouble” him? Is Bernard paranoid, or are people really watching him? Compare/contrast Helmholtz to Bernard

4 and 5, cont. What satire is found in these two chapters? What does pneumatic mean?

Chapter 6 Think of the interaction between Lenina and Bernard at the beginning of the chapter. What may they represent? Is Bernard a coward in this chapter? What do you think of the Director’s treatment of Bernard? What can be inferred about the Director’s story about his “trip”?

6, cont. What is Bernard’s reaction to Iceland? What is amusing about the scene with the Warden of the reservation?

Chapter 7 Who do Bernard and Lenina meet on the Reservation? How is Lenina’s reaction to the Rez satirical? What is the effect of Lenina’s reaction to the child nursing? Compare Linda to Lenina

Chapters 8 and 9 Compare John and Bernard Why does Shakespeare have such a meaning for John? What theories about London and the other place does John have? What gave him these ideas? When John is alone looking at Lenina sleeping, what are his thoughts?

Chapters 10 and 11 “…no offence is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only the individual—and after all, what is an individual?…We can make a new one with the greatest of ease…Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself…”

Chapters 12 and 13 “Pierced by every word that was spoken, the tight balloon of Bernard’s happy self-confidence was leaking from a thousand wounds.”—metaphor How does John clash with the new world? How is love and romance satirized?

12 & 13, cont. What is the attitude about science that the government holds? What “crimes” have Bernard, John, and Helmholtz committed? Shakespeare as “propaganda technician”

Chapters 14 and 15 Explain John’s behavior after his mother dies. Grief Death-conditioning Soma

14 & 15, cont. Find quotes in which Huxley satirizes the following: Loss of knowledge of God The human attempt to create a utopian world.

Chapters 16 and 17 What does Mond say is the reason Othello could not be the same in the new world? What happened in the Cyprus experiment? The conversation between John and Mustapha Mond covers at least four areas:

16 &17 cont. Their goal is to arrive at truth through contradiction Question and answer is the strategy There is a logical structure Each man voices a set of principles

16 and 17, cont. When the controller says: “You can’t make flivvers without steel—and you can’t make tragedies without social instability,” what does he mean? Society is based on the iceberg

Chapter 18 What is John’s new home like, and how does he feel about it? How does John handle the taunting that he endures? How does Huxley describe John’s suicide? In the Foreword, how does Huxley explain why the book had to end this way? How would Huxley re-write the ending?

Credits Andrew C. Jackson MCMLXXXIII