Ingrid Brennan, RMHS
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?
 What Huxley feared:
 That books would become
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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?
 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?
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.)
 As you read this chapter, answer the following
questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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?
 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.
“’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.
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:
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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?
 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”?
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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?
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What is a Pregnancy Substitute? Why would someone take one?
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Why does Fanny think that it is bad that Lenina has been going out with no
one but Henry Foster for four months?
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Mustapha Mond says that stability of society is the primal and ultimate
need. Do you agree?

Why is Bernard Marx considered to be strange?
 Complete a dialectical journal entry for this chapter.
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?
 Complete a dialectical journal entry for this chapter.
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?
 Complete a dialectical journal entry for this chapter.
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?
 Complete a dialectical journal entry for this chapter.
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?
 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.
 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?
2. 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?
1.
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?
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?
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?
 https://www.newmexico.org/native-american/
 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
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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?
 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?
 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?
 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?
 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.
 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?
 Make a chart like the one below. As you read these chapters, fill
in the appropriate columns.
Situations where What do you
What do you
John feels
learn about
learn about the
lost/out of place John’s character? World State?
(include page #)
 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?
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?
5.
Why does the World State create so many lower groups? Why aren’t
they all Alphas? (Hint: What happened in the Cyprus experiment?)
6.
What is the problem with excessive leisure? (Hint: Length of workdays, still growing food the old-fashioned way…)
7.
Why does Mond say that Bernard’s “punishment is really a reward”?
8.
What is dangerous about science?
1.
2.
3.
4.
 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.
 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?
Referring back to Activity 1After 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.
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?
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?
Complete the Rhetorical QW and then the Scratch
Outline:
1.
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.
1.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
 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?