Brave New
World
by Aldous Huxley
Title: Brave New World
The title, Brave New World, comes from Shakespeare’s last
play, The Tempest, V, I, 181-184 .
Exiled from Milan, the former duke Prospero and his admirable
fifteen-year-old daughter Miranda have been stranded for
twelve years on an uncharted isle in the Mediterranean.
Miranda's entire experience of mankind has, until very
recently, encompassed only her bitter old dad and his
deformed slave Caliban. She is astounded when she meets
the young and beautiful Ferdinand for the first time:

Miranda:
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!

Prospero:
'Tis new to thee.
Science Fiction Compilation
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbJr
qZaB4oI&index=3&list=PLgUG_D0PZyVCNu
3RnECYqTT5nb936Uij3
Quickwrite #1:
 Why
do many science fiction books and
movies often depict the future in a very
dark manner?
 Why do many science fiction books and
movies use technology as a central part
of the main conflict in the story?
 Why is the government in a science fiction
book or movie very often a totalitarian
(having total control) government?
Quickwrite #2 HW:
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What is conformity?
List some ways that teens conform, using
complete sentences. Your statements may
start with comments like: “Almost everybody
wears…,” “On weekends, most teens…,” or
“Many teens listen to music that…”
What behavior make certain teens
“outcasts”?
List some examples from history that show
conformity can be a good idea. List some
examples of when conformity had negative
effects.
Would you rather be thought of as a
conformist or a non-conformist? Why?
Dead Poet’s Society
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7i1
7LAP61A&list=PLgUG_D0PZyVCNu3RnECY
qTT5nb936Uij3&index=2
Brave New World Slogans:
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I do love flying.
I do love having new clothes.
Ending is better than mending.
The more stitches, the less riches.
Take a holiday from reality.
A gramme is better than a damn.
***What do these slogans tell you about the
Brave New World?
Aldous Huxley in L.A. in1932
Aldous Huxley
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Born on July 26, 1894, in Godalming, Surrey, in the
southeast of England
Third son of Dr. Leonard Huxley and Julia Arnold
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His father was a writer and schoolmaster (principal)
His mother founded Prior’s Field School, a private school
Grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, an important
biologist who developed a theory on evolution
Nephew to Mrs. Humphrey Ward, a famous Victorian
novelist
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Her father was Matthew Arnold, a famous poet
Aldous's mother was the granddaughter of Thomas
Arnold, a famous educator
Julian Huxley, his brother, was a great zoologist, also the
first director of UNESCO
Questions
 What
can you guess would be Huxley’s
interests and background, based on his
relatives and upbringing?
 England is a society based on class. Although
this is quickly changing in the 1920’s and
1930’s, class would be very important when
Huxley wrote Brave New World. In what class
do you think Huxley grew up? Why?
Aldous Huxley
 Many
Europeans desired to visit or live in
Southern California at this time. However,
when Huxley visited Los Angeles in 1932, he
became very judgmental about the people
and the lifestyles that he observed there. He
did gain a fascination about [Native
Americans] when he visited an Indian
Reservation on his journey to the South West.
 Ironically, Huxley moved to Los Angeles in
1937.
Aldous Huxley
 Huxley
visited Los Angeles in 1932. Many
people in Europe desired to visit or live in
Southern California at this time. However,
Huxley did not enjoy the life styles he
observed during his visit. He was very
interested in the Indian Reservations that he
journeyed to in the South West; however, he
was quite judgmental about the people in
Los Angeles and their lifestyle.
Huxley Interviewed by Mike
Wallace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ePNG
a0m3XA
1. What does Huxley say is a threat to our
freedom and why?
Background on BNW Themes
Henry Ford
 Devised mass production for factory
assembly lines
 Made cars more quickly
and more cheaply
 Revolutionized factories
Henry Ford at Work
http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player
/view/assetGuid/A20C183C-D50B-489B878E-B343284BB786
Questions:
 Why
do you think Huxley has his
characters in BNW worshipping Henry
Ford?
 Why
do you think Huxley has his
characters use a T as a symbol to depict
their religion?
Fordlandia

Ford intended to use Fordlândia to provide his company with a source of
rubber for the tires on Ford cars, avoiding the dependence on British
(Malayan) rubber. The land was hilly, rocky and infertile. None of Ford's
managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture.

The rubber trees, packed closely together in plantations, as opposed to
being widely spaced in the jungle, were easy prey for disease,2] a problem
absent from the Asian rubber plantations, where there were no natural
predators.
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The mostly indigenous workers on the plantations, given unfamiliar food
such as hamburgers and forced to live in American-style housing, disliked
the way they were treated—they had to wear ID badges, and work through
the middle of the day under the tropical sun—and would often refuse to
work.

In 1930 the native workers revolted against the managers, many of whom
fled into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the
revolt ended.[3]
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Ford forbade alcohol, women and tobacco within the town, including
inside the workers' own homes. The inhabitants circumvented this prohibition
by paddling out to merchant riverboats moored beyond town jurisdiction[4]
and a settlement was established five miles upstream on the "Island of
Innocence" with bars, nightclubs and brothels.
1920’s
Modernity
Change
Cars
Millionaires
Radios
Scene from Cabaret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT
6u7Q
Background on BNW Themes: 1920’s
The 1920’s were a great time of change:
 World War I, The Russian Revolution, and the
Great Influenza Pandemic that killed millions of
people worldwide, 1918-1919, were all over.
 Workers were unionizing, fighting for better pay
and better work conditions.
 Henry Ford’s Model T revolutionized factories—
and made cars available to the common man
because faster production brought down costs
 More millionaires existed than ever before
Background on BNW Themes: 1920’s
The 1920’s also brought great excess:
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
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald exposed
the excesses of the 1920s—a prosperous age in
which many Americans came to enjoy the
blessings of consumerism and excess, only to see
it all crash around them with the Great
Depression that arrived in 1929.
Fitzgerald depicted people in the 1920’s as
impetuous, drinking too much, and prone to
bouts of serious depression and self-destructive
behavior.
Background on BNW Themes: 1920’s
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The 1920’s – an era of excess
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Prohibition in U.S. – Drinking is moved to speakeasies
Music – Less refined, more modern
Dance – The Charleston
Women’s clothing – The flapper; much shorter and more
revealing
Wealth – More millionaires than ever before (first “bubble”)
Consumerism: People have more money, so they purchase
more items, helping the American economy grow
Cars and radios (technology expanding)
Science becomes more important
Background on BNW Themes: 1920’s
 The

1920’s – an era of excess
The word “hedonism” was used to describe people’s
life styles in the 1920’s:
 Fast-paced
 Life
lived on the edge
 People getting drunk and partying nightly
 When money came in, it often went out just as quickly
 Lack of care for what was “right” or “wrong”
 A freedom that often went beyond the boundaries of
good taste or propriety (what was proper—again, think
of The Great Gatsby)
The Great Gatsby (2012)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAR
N6agiW7o
***How does this clip connect with what
Huxley was saying about hedonism?
1920’s and Consumerism
“Every time you spend money, you’re
casting a vote for the kind of world you
want.”
--Anne Lappé
American writer, speaker, and activist
 What
do you think this quote means?
 Why might it be relevant today?
1920’s and Consumerism
Huxley parodies the old phrase “a stitch in
time saves nine” (mend your clothing now
so you don’t have to mend it more later—or
spend money replacing it) by using the
hypnopaedic jingles:
 “The more stitches, the less riches”
 “Ending is better than mending”
 “A gramme in time saves nine”
What do these phrases now mean upon
learning the role hedonism and
consumerism played in the 1920’s?
Questions:
 How
might the concept of a society
dealing with quick-paced change play a
role in a science fiction novel?
 How might Huxley comment on us
today—with our consumerism, our love of
technology, our devotion to partying, our
desire to have more and spend more, our
“hedonism”?
Background on BNW Themes: Govt.
Utopian Society

Perfect, desirable, happy society—all of society’s
problems have been solved
Dystopian Society
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Undesirable, nightmare society where life is as
difficult and unhappy as it could be (often the
result of an attempt to create a utopia, like postRevolution Russia)
Futuristic Society

BNW was written in 1931, but takes place in AD 2540 (632
A.F. in the book)
Questions
 Why
set the book so far into the future
(2540)?
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This book was created as a warning to
people in 1931. Which is going to be more
persuasive as a warning—a dystopian
society or a utopian society? How will you
know the difference between the two?
When the Model T had only been created
12 years before and was considered the
greatest advancement at the time—in
technology, production, and cost—what
do you expect the technology to look like
in this futuristic society?
Background on BNW Themes: Govt.
Totalitarian Government

Political system where the state holds total authority over the
society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life
Fascist Government

Form of radical authoritarian nationalism, often totalitarian
Socialist Government

Economic system characterized by social ownership of the means
of production and co-operative management of the economy
Communist Government

Revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless
and stateless social order structured upon common ownership
Democratic Government

Rule by the people, for the people, of the people
Background on BNW Themes:
1920’s and Government
Karl Marx said:
Religion is
the sigh of the oppressed creature,
the heart of a heartless world,
and the soul of soulless conditions.
It is the opium of the people.
1. What does the quote mean?
2. Why would Marx, a man who devised a new social
order (communism)
(A)discuss religion? and
(B)view religion in this way?
3. Why did Huxley create a new religion? Why did he
create the religion that he did?
4. What comment is Huxley making about religion and
about people in the1930’s?
DAS KAPITAL by Karl Marx
Chapter 1
COMMODITIES
SECTION I – THE TWO FACTORS OF A COMMODITY: USE-VALUE AND VALUE (THE SUBSTANCE
OF VALUE AND THE MAGNITUDE OF VALUE)
The wealth of these societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents
itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,” its unit being a single commodity…
A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its
properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants,
whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference.
Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether
directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.
The utility of a thing makes it a use-value. But this utility is not a thing of air. Being
limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that
commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a
material thing, a use-value, something useful. This property of a commodity is independent
of the amount of labor required to appropriate its useful qualities. When treating of usevalue, we always assume to be dealing with definite quantities, such as dozens of watches,
yards of linen, or tons of iron. The use-values of commodities furnish the material for a
special study, that of the commercial knowledge of commodities. Use-values become a
reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth,
whatever may be the social form of that wealth. In the form of society we are about to
consider, they are, in addition, the material depositories of exchange value.
Exchange value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the
proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort, a
relation constantly changing with time and place. Hence exchange value appears to be
something accidental and purely relative, i.e., an exchange value that is inseparably
connected with, inherent in commodities, seems a contradiction in terms.
CAPITALISM
 Karl
Marx talks about commodity in his
first chapter of his famous book, Das
Kapital.
 What does “commodity” mean?
 What has Huxley turned into a
commodity in the book Brave New
World?
 Why has he turned these “things” into
commodities—what is his message by
doing so?
IRONY
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Irony – when a writer says one thing but means
something quite different; a literary device in
which a discrepancy of meaning is masked
beneath the surface of the language
Satire – writing that makes fun of, ridicules, or holds
up to contempt the faults of individuals, groups, or
governments (a form of irony)
Understatement – an ironic figure of speech that
deliberately describes something in a way that is
less than the true case
Sarcasm – a conspicuously bitter form of irony in
which the ironic statement is designed to hurt or
mock its target
 John
Characters in BNW
(no last name but called: John the Savage)
 Bernard Marx
 Helmholtz Watson
 Lenina Crowne
 Mustapha Mond
 Fanny Crowne
 Henry Foster
 Linda (John’s mother—no last name)
 The Director
 The Arch-Community-Songster
 Popé
 The Warden
Characters in BNW
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John the Savage sounds like John the Baptist (the voice in
the wilderness) (John = the beloved one)
Bernard (brave as a bear) Marx (Karl Marx)
Helmholtz (famous physicist) Watson (Dr. Watson)
Lenina (take-off on Lenin) Crowne (British rule-monarchy)
Mustapha (The Chosen One - Mustafa Ataturk-Turkey)
Mond (world in French)
Fanny (female sexual part) Crowne (form of British rule;
also same as Lenina—only 1000 surnames; all created
alike)
Henry (German- home ruler ; Ford’s name)Foster (nurture)
Linda (common name—means pretty in Spanish)
The Director (leader—totalitarian)
The Arch-Community-Songster (like a kantor)
Popé (take off on Pope and poppy)
The Warden (sounds like a prison warden)
BNW: Chapter 1
“A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over
the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON
HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a
shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY,
STABILITY.”
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What jumps out at you from this first paragraph of
the novel?
What do you think happens at the CENTRAL
LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE?
What do you think the “World State” is?
What does the motto, “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY,
STABILITY,” mean?
BNW: Chapter 1, cont.
“The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the
north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the
tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared
through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure,
some pallid shape of academic goose-flesh, but finding only
the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a
laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. The overalls of
the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale
corpse-colored rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost.
Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a
certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished
tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession
down the work tables.
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What words jump out at you from this description?
What images are created by the diction?
What is described as alive? What is described as dead?
What is the effect of the descriptions (tone, attitude)?
Film: Brave New World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuiaT
0nX9ls
Brave New World
 Now,
can you identify what each book
cover is showing from the book, Brave
New World?