1. Sample Chapter Lesson
Brave New World, Ch. 8

2. Vocabulary 84 - mescal: alcohol made from peyote cactus
89 - remorseless: feeling no regret
92 - precipice: steep cliff
93 - patronizingly: with scorn or condescension
93 - squeamish: easily nauseated or disgusted

3. Allusion 1
88 - Quoted lines from Hamlet: refers to Hamlet’s feelings about his mother’s new marriage to his uncle after the death of his father.

4. Allusion 2
89 - “A man can smile and smile and be a villain. Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain.” - Hamlet’s description of his uncle, now king, after learning he murdered Hamlet’s father, the previous king

5. Allusion 3 p. 89: “When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed”
Hamlet’s plan to kill his uncle -- when he is in the midst of sinning

6. Allusion 4 p. 92: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
from Macbeth, Act V, scene 5, when King Macbeth learns of the death of the queen.
(see Word document)
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day
to the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."
-words spoken by King Macbeth upon
learning of the death of the queen.
From Act V, Scene V, The Tragedy of Macbeth

7. Final allusion - to the book’s title
p. 94: “‘O brave new world that has such people in it!”
From Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”
(Miranda, a young woman, says this upon seeing young men for the first time, who have arrived on her island. Her father Prospero, the old, wise wizard, replies, “Tis new to thee.”)

8. Character Development
84 - Pope, Linda’s boyfriend, a native Pueblo (new character); John is very jealous of him.
John’s development to adolescence; he learns to read. Various cultures and ideas are all mixed together in him, causing confusion.
88 - finds Shakespeare - key to his identity
90 - John tries to kill Pope (like Hamlet)

9. more character development
Two key final episodes in John’s disillusionment and estrangement:
91 - A girl he loves is married off to a native man.
92 - He is shunned by the other men and not allowed to participate in the manhood ritual.
“He had discovered Time and Death and God.”

10. John as foil for Bernard
92- “‘Alone, always alone,’ the young man was saying.
The words awoke a plaintive echo in Bernard’s mind. Alone, alone. . . ‘So am I,’ he said, on a gush of confidingness. ‘Terribly alone.’”
(They compare their differentness.)

11. Bernard’s leap in understanding
93 - He sees how there is some “sense” in worshiping Jesus or trying to suffer as he did.
“Better than taking soma. . .” (tie to Iceland)
Bernard as villain: thinks of a way to use Linda and John to improve his own standing in the World State

12. Thematic development
86: Contrasts between the Savage Reservation and the World State. Is one better than the other?
John tells Bernard of the old myths and legends he’s learned from the Pueblo. How do these stories compare to the “history” Mustapha Mond told in Ch. 3?

13. Thematic development
87: John can’t decipher the book on chemistry. (Ironic) -- Huxley’s comment on its importance?
88: the text seems to be asking us to ponder the concept of KNOWLEDGE. What is is? What is important or non-important? What has our knowledge of chemistry led us to do? Which is more important: science or literature?

14. Irony 85 - Linda blames John for her own exile.
86 - Linda describes all the “wonderful” things she misses from the World State, including “babies in lovely clean bottles.”
88 – Linda has a limited understanding of the world, despite her coming from the “progressive” state. (John learns more from the “savages.”)