SYNTHESIZING BRAVE NEW WORLD

GOVERNMENT  Type: Dictatorship  Control: Biological, Conditioning, Eugenics, Caste System  Motto: Community, Stability, Identity  Promotes: Drugs, Sex, Community Activities, Sports  Rejects: Books, Nature, Individualism/Alone time, thinking

CASTE SYSTEM  Alphas: World Controllers, Directors of Conditioning, students, allowed to read some, minimally conditioned, tall, come from one egg  Betas: similar to Alphas. ________________________________________________________  Gammas: Mechanics, conditioners, nursery aids, alcohol/oxygen deprived eggs (Intellectually disabled), short, highly conditioned, identical twins  Deltas:  Epsilons:

DRUGS  Soma: Mixture of Morphine and Cocaine -Make people “Happy” – Used for control -”Take a holiday from life whenever you like” “A gramme is better than a damn”

HYPNOPAEDIA  Sleep hypnotism/ conditioning  “A gramme is better than a damn”  “Everyone belongs to everyone”  “I do love flying”  “Ending is better than mending; the more stiches the less riches”  Caste training: clothes to wear, jobs to like, etc.

SEX/RELATIONSHIPS  No romantic relationships because they cause emotions  Sex ≠ babies  Everyone belongs to everyone= community  Sexual equality?

RELIGION  Henry Ford = God  Ford  mass consumerism, assembly line, model T cars  Oh my Ford  A.F. (After Ford) –Time in relation to the creation of the model T  ✚ = T

ILLNESS/ DEATH  Cured old age: no retirement, no time to read/think, physically able  Seemed to cure most diseases/illnesses  Consistent death rate

CHARACTERS  Mustapha Mond: Alpha, World Controller, knows history, literature, 1/10 controllers, “free- thinker”  Bernard Marx: Does not fit in, has feelings for Lenina, short for his caste, doesn’t take drugs, named after George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx  Lenina Crowne: Doesn’t fit in, likes Marx and sleeps only with Mr. Foster, named after Lenin  Fanny Crowne: Fits in, contributes peer pressure, named after Lenin’s attempted assassin  Mr. Foster: adheres to society, has multiple sex partners, takes drugs, etc.  D.H.C.: Alpha, knows about how society works, scared of Mond, fits in

LONDON  The world control center is in London: Why?

TERMS  Bokanovsky Process: Taking one egg and turning it into multiple: Creating clones/ identical twins  Freemartin: a sterile woman- doesn’t have to take birth control  Malthusian Belt: The belt that holds a woman’s birth control

QUESTIONS  How does the promotion of sex stabilize the society?  Is it ethical to intentionally disable people to create castes?  Is it ethical to condition people to be “happy” in their position?  How does this relate to our reality?  How do we figure out population control/growth?  Can we decide who gets to have children?  What is the benefit of having identical twins?

QUESTIONS  Is a happy community a stable one?  Are any of the characters free? Does it matter?  Is it ethical/productive for government to provide drugs?  Are emotions/relationships a threat to society’s stability?

VOCABULARY  Callow: Adj. inexperienced and immature  Geniality: Noun: The quality of having a friendly manner  Effusive: Adj. Expressing feelings of gratitude/pleasure  Viviparous: Adj: bringing forth live young from the body  Prodigious: Adj. Impressively great in extent, size, or degree