Brave New World Ingrid Brennan, RMHS.

Name: Brave New World Ingrid Brennan, RMHS.
Uploaded: 2017-08-13T15:45:13+00:00
Duration: PTM24S35
Channel: Enrique Rumble
Description: Brave New World Ingrid Brennan, RMHS.

Brave New World Ingrid Brennan, RMHS

Activity 1 Aldous Huxley believed there would be no force necessary to deprive people of their freedom. Instead: “people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacity to think.” What does the above quote by author Aldous Huxley say about the direction humanity is going?

Activity 1 continued What Huxley feared:
That books would become obsolete, and have no use to an advanced society. Society would give individuals too many pleasurable options, thus reducing them to passivity and egotism. The truth would be hidden by irrelevance. Culture would be trivial. What we love would ruin us.

In 1985, author Neil Postman believed that Huxley’s vision was coming true.
He compared Brave New World by Aldous Huxley with 1984 by George Orwell, arguing that both novels reflect a dark dystopian vision that deprives people of their freedom. He saw similar patterns in his current society. Postman argued that television was to blame for the future problem. Today, almost thirty years later, the Internet has more influence than television, and Postman’s arguments appear a bit dated. Have we avoided Huxley’s vision too? Or has the Internet made Huxley’s and Postman’s vision even more likely?

Activity 2: Key Concepts
What if science and psychological conditioning could be used by the government to create different classes of people with different abilities and interests as needed? Could it be possible to grow a computer programmer or a teacher? What if babies were grown in test tubes and were raised without parents? What would childhood be like, and what kind of adults would they be? What if sex was strictly for recreation and not for reproduction because all babies were produced artificially? Would there still be a need for love or commitment? What if the government gave everyone drugs to keep them happy so they wouldn’t rebel? Would people actually be happy, and would it keep society stable? Would there be negative consequences?

Activity 3: Reading the foreword
Read the Foreword (pages vii-xvii). Working with your group, summarize the Foreword in 4-6 sentences. No more, no less. (Turn in one piece of paper.)

Activity 4: Questions, Chapter 1
As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What is the purpose of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre? What does the Director mean when he says that “particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils”? What is Bokanovsky’s Process? What is its purpose? What is “social predestination”? Why does the hatchery purposely keep some embryos from developing high intelligence?

Activity 5: Dialectical Journal
Throughout our reading of this novel you will be keeping a dialectical journal. A dialectical journal is a place for you to reflect on two things: What a passage says How a passage is written Your dialectical journal should include the following: a quote (with page number), a paragraph in which you analyze WHAT the passage says and HOW it was written. You may select any quote from a chapter, but try to stay focused on quotes that have the strongest connection to Huxley’s fear – that we are being made passive by “fun” things. An example is shown on the next slide.

Dialectical Journal Example
“’And that,’ the Director put in sententiously, ‘that is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.’” (16) “Happiness” in their world means staying in your place. Your place in life is named for you and there’s no hope of changing, so they train you to be content with anything and not want more than you’re allowed. Huxley makes it super creepy by showing how excited/proud the Director is of this information.

Activity 6: Making Predictions
Based on your interpretations of the first chapter… Write a paragraph describing the world of the book and what the story might be about.

As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What is the purpose of conditioning the Delta babies to be afraid of books and roses? Why is it necessary for the masses to consume transport and other products? Does efficiency of production lead to oversupply? Why is Henry Ford, who invented assembly line manufacturing along with the first Ford automobiles, treated almost as a deity in the World State? Why did early attempts at sleep teaching fail? How did they improve it? What is taught in “Elementary Class Consciousness”? Do we have a similar course in our education system? Would it be a good idea?

Activity 5: Dialectical Journal, Chapter 2
Complete a dialectical journal entry for this chapter.

As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What is “Centrifugal Bumble Puppy”? Why is it important for games to require a complicated apparatus? In the World State, children are encouraged to engage in erotic play. In our society, they are discouraged. Why is the World State society different? Mustapha Mond quotes Henry Ford saying, “History is bunk.” Henry Ford really did say that. What do you think he meant? What are the “feelies”? Why is it smutty (inappropriate in a sexual way) to talk about mothers and fathers? Is Mond’s description of the problems associated with traditional family life accurate? Is the World State a good solution? What is a Pregnancy Substitute? Why would someone take one? Why does Fanny think that it is bad that Lenina has been going out with no one but Henry Foster for four months? Mustapha Mond says that stability of society is the primal and ultimate need. Do you agree? Why is Bernard Marx considered to be strange?

As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What is soma? What do Alphas use for personal transportation? What is Obstacle Golf? Why does Lenina hate the color khaki? Why is she glad she is not a Gamma? Why is Bernard Marx insecure? Helmholtz Watson is smart and popular with girls. Why is he dissatisfied?

Acitivity 5: Dialectical Journal, Chapter 4

As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What happens to citizens of the World State when they die? In what way are all citizens of the World State equal? What is “Orgy Porgy”? Is it a religious ritual? A wild party?

As you read this chapter, answer the following questions: What does Bernard like to do with his leisure time? What does Lenina like to do? Are they well matched? When Lenina says, “Never put off until tomorrow the fun you can have today,” Bernard responds, “Two hundred repetitions, twice a week from fourteen to sixteen and a half.” What does he mean? What does Bernard mean when he says, “it might be possible to be adult all the time”? Why doesn’t Lenina understand? When Bernard goes to his boss to get a permit to go to the reservation, what story does the Director tell him?

Activity 7: Consider the Structure
The first part of the novel describes a tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning center by a group of students lead by the director. What is the purpose and advantage for the author setting up the novel this way?

Activity 8: Noticing Language
After reading Chapters 1-6, for each chapter, choose one or more words that seem to be important or interesting because of their context, frequency, or level of interest. Keep choosing until you have 10 words. For each word, do the following: Copy the sentence in which you found the word in Brave New World. Underline or highlight the word. Define the word in your own words. Write a new sentence using each word.

Activity 9: Analyzing Stylistic Choices
In your group, discuss the assigned questions. “What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.” What does this mean? What does it parody? Brave New World has numerous phrases and references like this that echo language from our own world. What is the effect on the reader? Chapter 3 begins with a scene of children playing in the sunshine. It says, “The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters.” Is this sentence beautiful, funny, ironic, or strange? What effect does it have on the reader?

Activity 10: Summarizing and Responding
Imagine that a friend who has not read Brave New World discovers that you are reading it. At this point you have only read the first six chapters. Your friend asks what it is about. Write a paragraph in which you describe the World State and some of the people in it. What is it like to live in the World State? How is it different from our own society? Would you like to live there?

Activity 11: Group Discussion Topics
Fanny and Lenina appear to believe that promiscuity is a kind of social duty of which they sometimes tire. They are conditioned to not have strong feelings about anyone. Mustapha Mond argues that strong feelings lead to instability: No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty – they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly ( and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable? (41) Are we the “pre-moderns” to which Mond refers? Is he right that we are emotionally unstable? Is his description of our situation accurate? Do love, marriage, and strong attachments create the problems in our society? Is the avoidance of love, marriage, and strong attachments to children and other individuals a good solution to the problems of our society?

Activity 12: Analyzing Stylistic Choices
The introduction of Chapter 7 starts with a striking simile, “ The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-colored dust.” The ship metaphor continues for several paragraphs. Benard and Lenina are used to traveling in helicopters and may never have seen a ship. Why does Huxley begin the visit to the Reservation with the image of a stone ship?

Images

Chapter 7 Questions Before you begin…look back to the end of Chapter 6 when the Warden tells Bernard and Lenina about life on the reservation. How does Lenina respond? Knowing what you do of Bernard and Lenina, how do you think each will react to their visit to the Indian Reservation? Why is Lenina so startled by the old man, and the women nursing babies? Why doesn’t Lenina want to imagine being a mother? Why does Lenina like drums? What can you tell about Indian society from the ritual that Bernard and Lenina observe? What does John say is the purpose of the ritual? Who is John? Why is he attracted to Lenina? Who is Linda? Why is Lenina disgusted by her? Why do the Indian women hate Linda? Are they justified?

Chapter 8 Questions What kind of childhood did John have? Why?
What two books has John read? Why does John try to kill Pope? What is Pope’s reaction? Who it Mitsima? What does he teach John? Why can’t John go into the Antelope Kiva? Why is John happy that Bernard is not married to Lenina?

Chapter 9 Questions What is a “soma holiday”? Why does Lenina go on one? When Bernard leaves, he asks the pilot if Lenina will be safe. The pilot responds, “Safe as helicopters.” What does he mean by that? Why does Bernard go back to the World State? Why does he call Mustapha Mond? John visits the house where Bernard and Lenina are staying. What does he do?

Activity 13: Analyzing Stylistic Choices, Ch. 7-9
At the end of Ch. 7, Linda tells her life story. At the beginning of Ch. 8, John tells his life story. This is what fiction writers call “exposition” – the reader needs all of this information to make sense of the later behavior of the characters, so the writer has to figure out how to include all the background info in a natural way. Does it seem natural for Linda and John to tell their histories to Bernard and Lenina when they first meet? What other ways might Huxley have chosen to help us understand these characters?

Activity 14: Summarizing & Responding, Ch. 7-9
Write a paragraph comparing life in the World State to life on the Indian Reservation. Where would you prefer to live? Why? In a paragraph, predict how Linda and John will react to life in the World State.

Chapter 10 Questions Why does the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning want to send Bernard Marx to Iceland? Is Bernard an enemy of the World State? Do you agree with the Director that the society is more important than the individual? What is the Director’s reaction when he and Linda are reunited? Does he deserve what happens to him? Why or why not?

Chapters Activity Make a chart like the one below. As you read these chapters, fill in the appropriate columns. Now that you have completed these chapters/chart…in a well- thought out paragraph, using evidence from your chart, answer the following question: How does this section, showing John’s interactions with the World State, help Huxley strengthen his warning to the reader? Situations where John feels lost/out of place (include page #) What do you learn about John’s character? What do you learn about the World State?

Chapter 16 In this chapter, Mustapha Mond summarizes many of the tenets of the World State, as he defends its practices against the Savage’s criticism. These tenets are critical to your understanding of Huxley’s warning…make sure you answer the questions here thoroughly in your OWN words, and support your answers with textual evidence. Why are old and beautiful things prohibited? Why can’t they write tragedies in the World State? How does the World State choose between happiness and “high art”? What does Mond call “actual happiness”? How is it different from the happiness we experience? Why does the World State create so many lower groups? Why aren’t they all Alphas? (Hint: What happened in the Cyprus experiment?) What is the problem with excessive leisure? (Hint: Length of work- days, still growing food the old-fashioned way…) Why does Mond say that Bernard’s “punishment is really a reward”? What is dangerous about science?

Chapter 17 In this chapter, Mustapha Mond and John (the Savage) have an argument about having religion/God in society. Make a chart like the one below and complete it: John’s Arguments FOR God Mond’s Arguments AGAINST God 1. “He would have liked to say something about solitude, about night…but there were no words.” (236) God is there when there are feelings or experiences that a person struggles to explain. 1. “Well, now we’ve got youth and prosperity right up to the end…” (240) In the World State, people are “young and prosperous” until they die. Therefore, they never need God.

Chapter 18 Before you read this chapter, make a prediction about what you think will happen to John the Savage. After reading, write a four-sentence summary of what actually does happen to John. Now, write a four-sentence critique of the book’s ending: Was it a “good” ending? Was it the right ending for this book? Did it contribute to Huxley’s message?

Activity W1: Considering the Writing Task
Referring back to Activity 1- After reading Brave New World: Do you agree with Huxley that there is a constant barrage of entertainment making us passive and self-centered? Are we being controlled and conditioned by pleasure as effectively as we would be by a secret police armed with guns and nightsticks? How similar is our reality/world to the World State depicted in Brave New World? Draw a conclusion on how we can take steps to avoid the World State’s problems in the future, or how you think we already avoid them.

Activity W2: Taking a Stance- Trying on Words / Perspectives / Ideas
CORE QUESTION: Have we become a trivial culture preoccupied with entertainment? In a group, discuss the core question- each member of the group should then take on the persona of either a character in the novel or another person you know. How would these different people respond to this question? What would Mustapha Mond say? What would Director of Hatcheries say? What would Lenina Crowne say? What would your teacher say? What would Fanny Crowne say? What would your sports coach say? What would Bernard Marx say? What would ___________ say? What would Helmholtz Watson say? What would YOU say?

Activity W3: Gathering Evidence to Support Your Claims
What is your position on the issues of the writing prompt? Can you state it in one sentence? What evidence do you have for this position? Look through your notes and annotations for reference; what can you use to support your argument? Do you need to do some research? What would people who disagree with you say, what evidence would support their opposition? How would you argue against them? ?Is the issue too complex for just a right or wrong, yes or no position? ?Is there enough evidence to suggest that the possibility is strong enough that we should take action to prevent it? ?How would you handle a nuanced argument like this?

Activity W4: Getting Ready to Write
Complete the Rhetorical QW and then the Scratch Outline: Rhetorical Quick write : Who is your audience, and what do you want to tell them? What are your most important points? What are you passionate about on this issue? How will you convey these ideas and this passion? How do you want your writing to affect the reader? Write a quick paragraph in response to these questions. Scratch Outline: Use the novel and your notes: make a scratch outline of your writing plan. What is your main idea? What comes first? How will you support it? What comes next? After that? How will you conclude?

Activity W5: Composing a Draft
With your audience and purpose in mind, but focusing mainly on getting your ideas on paper, begin writing a first draft of your paper on Brave New World.

Activity W6: Consider Structure
Reflect back on your writing: Thinking about the scratch outline you made before you started writing, decide if your plan is working , or if the writing is taking you in a different direction. You may find that as you write them, the arguments connect together in a different way than you imagined or that you have thought of completely new arguments while you are writing. Keep the audience in mind, will your reader be able to follow along with your reasoning? Make any necessary changes to your Scratch Outline.

Activity W7: Avoiding Plagiarism
Check how you used materials from the book: Have page numbers for quotations and paraphrases. Have a good balance between quotations and paraphrases. Quote only when you have good reason (the language is important) Use “framing”, especially with block quotations- introducing them first and then responding to them afterwards. Example: Mustapha Mond, the World controller argues that society has to give up old books like Shakespeare to achieve social stability. He says, “You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have feelies and scent organ instead” (220). However, what Mond doesn’t say is that when he says “you” have got to choose, the individual doesn’t actually choose. Mond chooses for him.

Activity W8: Negotiating Voices
If there are multiple sources and different voices within an essay, the reader could easily get confused. Ask you read through your paper answer these questions: Is it clear who says and believes what? Is my own voice consistent in tone? What kind of ethos have I created? Who do I sound like?

Activity W9: Revising Rhetorically
Now think more about a draft that is ready to submit for feedback. Think about the following elements: Providing the reader with enough information to understand your ideas. Enough support for each point. Good transitions through each part of your arguments. Great conclusion that ties in to the rest of the paper, more than just restating the introduction. Engaged your reader’s interest, changed your reader’s mind, allowed your reader to see the book more clearly. After thinking about these elements, and activities W6-8, create a short revision plan for your paper.

Activity W10: Consider Stylistic Choices
Think about Language & Sentence Structure before turning in a draft. Read your draft with these questions in mind: Are any sentences too long or confusing? Too short and choppy? Are there any long quotations that could be paraphrased? A re there any words you are unsure about? Are there any words too informal for an academic paper? Then ask for advice from those around you for a second opinion.

Activity W11: Editing a draft
Proofread your paper with these following strategies: Think about problems you have identified in past papers. Try to see if you have made the same mistakes again. Read your paper from the last sentence to the first sentence, sentence by sentence. This breaks the flow of reading and enables you to become more aware of the construction of an individual sentence.

Activity W12:Responding to Feedback
After you get your paper back, look carefully over the marks and comments. Try to understand what the feedback means and why the reader responded the way they did. As you plan your revision, think about the following questions: Do I need to reorganize parts of my essay? Do I need to add material to support my arguments? Do I need to reconsider some of my arguments? Do I need to rewrite some sentences to make them clearer? Do I need to reword some parts? Do I need to correct some errors? Do I know how? How will I find out?

Brave New World Ingrid Brennan, RMHS.

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