Brave New World – Study Questions
Chapter One
1. a) What is the motto of the Central Hatchery and Conditioning Centre?
b) Reflect on these ideals: are they good?; are there negatives?; would you add anything?
2. What is the advantage of the Bokanovsky Process? Explain
3. What are the levels in the caste system and what are the qualities of each?
Chapter Two
1. What is a problem with widespread love of nature?
2. How do the students feel about the DHC’s talk of parents and reproductions?
3. Huxley’s novel has a satirical vein. The students’ reaction to parents and reproduction is one example of
satire. What exactly is he satirizing?
3. How does hypnopedia work?
4. The DHC explains (on page 23) “…at last the child’s mind is these suggestions…”
Consider the following question: What are our minds today?
Chapter Three
1. How have sexual norms changed? What do you think of these changes?
2. The World Controller quotes Ford: “History is bunk.” What do you think are the problems with the study
of history?
3. What leads to instability in our world (the pre-moderns)?
4. What is ironic about Mustapha Mond’s comments about liberty and freedom?
5. Which characters are not in-sync with the Brave New World society? Why?
6. How does the World Controller satirize Christianity?
7. What is soma? What does it take the place of?
8. What effect does the fragmented narrative have? In other words, how does the form mirror the content?
Chapter Four
1. What is Helmoltz Watson’s secret desire? Why can he not fulfil it?
Chapter Five
1. What is the Solidarity Service supposed to accomplish?
2. Why does it not work for Bernard?
Chapter Six
1. What is ironic about Lenina and Bernard’s relationship?
2. What is Bernard’s immediate response to the Director’s threat of Iceland?
3. a) What is his reaction when he finds out about his actual transfer?
b) What inner conflict is Bernard dealing with?
Chapter Seven
1. What inner conflict does John the Savage face that is similar to Bernard’s?
2. Why did John want to be whipped?
3. Consider this question: Do you think the society on the reservation was right in their judgment and
treatment of Linda?
Chapter Eight
1. In John’s account of his past, Huxley juxtaposes the morals of the futuristic society with the morals of a
stereotypical primitive society.
Consider this question: Which one do you think is right and which one is wrong? Explain.
2. Concerning knowledge, who is more knowledgeable, the ancients or the moderns?
3. Do you think John may be disappointed with the Brave New World? Why?
Chapter Nine
1. How are John’s feelings toward Lenina inappropriate?
Chapter Ten
1. Why is unorthodox behaviour worse than murder? Do you agree?
Chapter Eleven (XI)
1. What are John’s reactions to the Brave New World?
2. The plot of the “feelies” revolves around what?
3. John doesn’t want Lenina to become something he couldn’t feel unworthy of? Why? What is this
feeling?
Chapter Twelve (XII)
1. What is Mustapha Mond’s concern with biological papers that admitted “explanations in terms of
purpose” (154)?
2. What is ironic about the idea of protecting happiness by eliminating change?
3. Consider this question: Does Brave New World lack anything you require to make you happy?
4. According to Helmoltz, why was Shakespeare so successful? (161)
5. Helmoltz thinks Romeo and Juliet is a joke. What does he feel is necessary for a compelling story in his
time?
Chapter Thirteen (XIII)
1. Lenina repeats “Hug me till you drug me…” (170). And then the narrator claims, “She too had poetry at
her command” (170). Why is this funny?
2. Why is John’s poetry ironic, then?
Chapter Fourteen (XIV)
1. How does John’s reaction to his mother’s death “set-back” the children’s conditioning?
2. The children in the Brave New World are conditioned to like death.
Consider this question: Can conditioning conquer our fear of death? Why do we fear death? In framing this
society, has Huxley imagined something that goes beyond what is possible?
Chapter Fifteen (XV)
NO QUESTIONS
Chapter Sixteen (XVI)
1. What do you need to make tragedies?
2. According to Mustapha Mond, why are the people of the Brave New World happy?
3. “Actual happiness always looks…” (194-5). What does this mean?
4. What happened to the Alphas on Cypress?
5. Why do shorter hours not improve happiness?
6. What danger does science present to the Brave New World?
Chapter Seventeen (XVII)
1. What do Cardinal Newman and Maine de Biron claim about God?
2. How does the Brave New World eliminate the need for God?
3. Consider this question: Which choice would you take, Mustapha Mond’s or John the Savage’s? Explain
why.
Chapter Eighteen (XVIII)
1. Why does John do – what he does?
2. a) Consider this question: What does this suggest about achieving balance in life?
b) What reflection does Huxley himself have about John’s choice in the Foreward to
the novel?