Mr. Geiger
English III
Brave New World Term Paper
Below are a number of suggested term paper topics. Though there are only four specific suggestions, as you read through them, you’ll see that many different term papers could come from each of the four suggestions.
Since you’ll be spending the 5-6 weeks working with this topic, I highly suggest that you pick a topic that interests you.
1. How accurately does Huxley depict the future? Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World as a warning about what might happen to our world if our society becomes more and more consumed with technology, drugs, promiscuous sex, and other—as he put it—“distractions.”
The action of Brave New World takes place nearly 500 years from today. Remember, 500 years is a very long time, as just over 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus was first coming to America and most of the world still thought their world was flat.
Your job in this term paper option will be to answer the following question: Seventy-five years after Huxley wrote
Brave New World , do you think that Huxley’s warning about what could go wrong in the future could still come true?
In order to answer this question, you should select 3-5 of the following areas to evaluate.
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Assisted suicide/euthanasia (death of Linda)
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Bio-ethics/Medical Ethics (cloning of babies, controlling caste development)
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Birth Control
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Body Image
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Censorship
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Civil Rights
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Death (attitude towards)
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Drug Abuse
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Family Relations
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Genetic Engineering
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Political Corruption (Mustapha Mond)
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Religion
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Sexual Behavior
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Socio-economics (rigid class system)
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Technology
After selecting the areas, you should look to do two things.
1.
Identify how each of the areas is portrayed in Brave New World . For instance, in World State
“mother” is a profanity, people are born in bottles, and monogamy is repulsive. You should have primary excerpts that prove what the World State’s stance is on each issue.
2.
Begin to do research about our society . For instance, what percent of babies are born out of wedlock? Has the percentage gone up over the years? What’s the divorce rate in America? Has that gone up? How do most Americans feel about marriage? Do people still believe in it as they used to? Your job will be to take these facts and evaluate whether they point towards Huxley’s vision or not. Note: The “Opposing Viewpoints” section on the Student Resource Center has phenomenal information on these topics.
Since a thesis should be firm in nature, you must pick a side on this paper; either Huxley’s vision is coming true or it is not. Do not show me both .
2. As readers, are we supposed to favor the World State or be opposed to it (and therefore favor society as we know it? Huxley paints two radically different worlds: the Savage Reservation (more like our world) and the World
State. On the Savage Reservation, there are still “repulsive customs and habits…marriage…no

Mr. Geiger
English III conditioning…monstrous superstitions…Christianity and totemism and ancestor worship…” (103). In World State
“The world’s stable…People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get” (226).
Still, it doesn’t seem that the comparison is really that black and white. In this term paper, your job is to decide what Huxley wanted his readers to think about with these two worlds . You have two options in this term paper.
1.
The World State is better than the Savage Reservation and our world. In this paper, you would pick various areas where the World State surpasses our society and cite evidence (both primary and secondary) to prove your point.
2.
Our society and the Savage Reservation are better than the World State. In this paper, you would pick various areas where the world as we know it and the Savage Reservation surpass the World State and cite evidence (both primary and secondary) to prove your point.
*Be sure this paper, regardless of which side you select, accurately shows what Huxley wanted his readers to consider (the main themes of the novel).
3.
If everyone’s always happy and content, is this place really so bad? If “everyone is happy these days” in
World State, is the society of Brave New World really that bad?
In this term paper, you have two options.
1.
The World State’s choice to sacrifice passion for contentedness is a good thing. In such a paper, you’d provide evidence for this assertion by focusing on the positive comments of different characters, particularly the D.H.C. and Mustapha Mond.
2.
The World State’s choice to sacrifice passion for contentment is a bad thing. In such a paper, you’d provide evidence for this assertion by focusing the feelings of such characters as Lenina, Bernard,
Helmholtz, Linda, and especially John the Savage. a. For each of these topics, you will need to blend information from the primary source ( Brave
New World ) with secondary sources.
4. Evaluate the impact of historical events on Aldous Huxley . Huxley wrote this book in 1932, a time of great change throughout the world. On one hand, the Great Depression was in full swing, Europe was still reeling from
World War I, and because of the rising influence of such men as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, World War II was looming. On the other hand, 1932 was a time of great advancement in the world as Ford’s assembly line had made many luxuries more attainable for the average consumer, Freud’s school of psychoanalysis was reshaping the way people evaluate the human mind, and great thinkers like Einstein were in their prime. Your job in this term paper will be to highlight 3-5 historical events that most influenced Huxley and show how they directly influenced Brave New World. In this paper you will need a great deal of secondary evidence on the historical events and many examples of primary quotes indicating where in the novel itself we can see impact of these events.
While you may not be able to choose a topic definitively right now, you can certainly begin to get an idea about what you want to write. For instance, you might not know whether the World State or the Savage Reservation is better; however, you can start looking for evidence about that now. From now on, you should start looking for parts of the book that deal with the topic that interests you. Additionally, you should begin gathering excerpts from Brave
New World that will pertain to your topic (many of the poignant excerpts from the book can be used for a variety of topics). The more quotes you can find now, the less work you’ll have to do later.
Requirements for the paper
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Due: Friday, March 2 nd (per school policy, for each academic day the paper is late there will be a 20 percent grade deduction).
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Length: 5-7 pages
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Sources: Your term paper must have at least 10 excerpts from Brave New World and at least seven excerpts from a minimum of five secondary sources (articles, literary criticisms, journals, etc.).
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As per school policy, any form of plagiarism will result in a 0. You are much better off making this your own than taking/giving to another.
 The introduction to your term paper must have a thesis statement (we’ll work on these in class) and the title
( Brave New World ) and author (Aldous Huxley) mentioned.
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All excerpts from the novel and secondary sources must be cited properly (examples will be given). You also will need a Works Cited page at the end of your paper (this does not count toward your 5-7 pages).