A-1 English Name:_______________________
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reading
This book is similar to 1984 in one large way—it’s a dystopian novel, describing a vision of
the future that is negative, designed as a warning. In many ways, the two works are quite
different. Where Orwell’s book described
a government based upon power for power’s sake, using torture and fear and
deprivation to keep citizens in line, Brave
New World examines things like cloning and free sex and more “scientific”
forms of brainwashing. However, seen as
metaphors for modern society, the two novels share many major things in common,
namely: citizens who think they’re free,
but who act, react, consume, and toil in their daily lives according to needs
and desires programmed by the forces of government.
Pre-reading:
Do you know who these people are or what they’re famous for?
1. As with 1984, the government has a 3-part slogan showing its priorities. What is it in this book?
2. Chapter 1 basically gives us—along with a group of newly-arrived students—a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. Without bothering over details, can you describe the basics of the following?
3. Why is a human who is sexually mature at four and full-grown at six and a half “A scientific triumph. But socially useless.”?
4. When we first meet Lenina, what is she doing to the embryos on Rack 9? How does this society start to condition people to certain things even before “birth”?
5. Chapter 2 brings us to the Infant Nurseries and the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms. Briefly describe how the infants are conditioned to like certain things, and dislike others, after they are “born”?
6. Have you ever heard the word viviparous? If not, can you guess what it means from the way it’s used (bottom of page 23 to the top of page 24)? Look it up in a dictionary if you aren’t familiar with it, and see if your guess was correct.
7. Define hypnopædia. (This one is made up for the book; you’ll have to read pages 25-29.)
8. Chapter 3 introduces a new aspect of social life in the book. What’s the difference between sex/sexual activity/sexual behavior in this book and what we think of as normal in life now?
9. Who is Mustapha Mond?
10. What, as much as you can understand, is the reason for the free sex attitude of the government in this world?
12. In what ways is Bernard Marx different from a typical male citizen?
13. By the end of Chapter 3, you should have a sense of the following categories in society. You might have to review the chapters a bit, but what can you say about each: alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, epsilons.
14. Finally, what can you deduce about soma? What is it?