Brave New World
Study Questions
Community,
Identity,
Stability!
Chapters I – III
• 1. What is A.F. 632? What can you infer about this
society from such a designation?
– After Ford 632 – this society worships production,
materialism.
• 2. How many individuals can be produced from
one egg and one sperm?
– 96
• 3. What is the purpose of the processes that take
place in the Social Predestination Room?
– The fetuses are chemically and otherwise treated to
suit them for a particular social caste and job.
Chapters I – III
• 4. What is the point of conditioning the masses to
hate nature?
– A love of nature does not keep the factories busy.
• 5. What kinds of things do the children hear as
they sleep?
– They hear messages that convince them that they are
happy.
• 6. Who is Mustapha Mond? What does he say
about history?
– He’s the Western European Controller who says
history is bunk.
Chapters I – III
• 7. Describe Lenina Crowne.
– A young and attractive woman who works at the
Hatcheries and Conditioning Centre, Lenina is
“having” Henry Foster exclusively.
• 8. What is wrong with Bernard Marx?
– He is a bit small for an Alpha, likes to be alone,
and he doesn’t like to hear Lenina discussed as if
she was a mere piece of meat.
• 9. What is soma?
– It is a drug with no side effects which provides an
escape from reality.
Chapters IV – VI
• 1. Who is Helmholtz Watson? What’s his problem?
– He’s a lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering, and
Bernard’s friend. He is not satisfied with his work; he feels he can
do something more important.
• 2. The Solidarity Service has elements of several rituals in our
world. Which ones?
– Elements include those of religious services, séances, witches
covens, and orgies
• 3. What story does the D.H.C. tell Bernard?
– He tells him about his own trip to the Savage Reservation many
years ago.
• 4. What distressing information does Bernard’s call to
Helmholtz reveal?
– The D.H.C. plans to send Bernard to Iceland.
Chapters VII – X
• 1. How does Lenina react to the Savage
Reservation?
– She is horrified by it.
• 2. What does Lenina like about the
Reservation?
– She likes the drums.
• 3. What does Bernard like about the
Reservation?
– Bernard finds the parent-child intimacy lovely.
Chapters VII – X
• 4. What do Bernard and John have in common?
– Both are lonely outcasts of their societies.
• 5. Does Lenina have any compassion for Linda?
– No she doesn’t.
• 6. How does Bernard avoid being sent to Iceland?
– When he returns to London with John and Linda, John
reveals that the D.H.C. is his father. The D.H.C. is
completely humiliated and leaves the Centre.
Chapters XI – XIII
• 1. How is Bernard’s life changing?
– He is becoming a celebrity because of his
association with John.
• 2. What question about the Savage is
Lenina unable to answer?
– She is unable to describe how he makes love.
• 3. How is a “feelie” different from a movie?
– The viewers also “feel” what is happening on
the screen.
Chapters XI – XIII
• 4. How has the Savage influenced Helmholtz?
– Helmholtz realizes that what his writing has been missing is
conflict.
• 5. Whom does John the Savage keep quoting? Why?
– Shakespeare; a volume of his plays was John’s reading
book at Malpais, and he has also absorbed many of the
Elizabethan social mores.
• 6. Why does John go into such a rage against Lenina?
– She doesn’t conform to the vision he had of her, as a
chaste proper young woman. (She didn’t conform to
Bernard’s ideals either)
Chapters XIV – XVII
• 1. Where is John at the beginning of Chapter
14?
– He is at a hospital for the Dying.
• 2. Who “invades” the hospital and drives John
into a frenzy?
– A group of identical children arrive.
• 3. How does John try to help the menial staff
at the hospital?
– He tells them that soma is killing them and throws
it away.
Chapters XIV – XVII
• 4. What is surprising about Mustapha Mond?
– He knows about Shakespeare and religion.
• 5. How do you feel about Bernard right now?
– A.W.V.
• 6. Why does art require social instability?
– Social instability = conflict = art.
• 7. What effects did the advent of mass production
have on society?
– It changed what people sought to give life meaning,
from knowledge and truth to happiness and comfort.
Chapters XIV – XVII
• 8. What right does John claim?
– John claims the right to be unhappy, if that is what
Mond chooses to call it.
• 9. What happens to destroy the peace John is
beginning to find at the lighthouse?
– He becomes a sort of roadside attraction. A feelie is
made about him. Lenina comes to try to help him and
he turns on her, whipping her. He finally hangs
himself.
• 10. Is John’s decision to end his life
understandable?
– A.W.V.