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Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Pre-Reading Guide
“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in’t!”
-- William Shakespeare, The
Tempest (V, ii)
Aldous Huxley
•
1894-1963
•
Family had many notable members,
including great uncle, poet Matthew Arnold
•
Plagued with vision problems throughout his
life
•
Attended Oxford University, became a
teacher
•
Published Brave New World in 1932
•
Lived in the US in later life, died while living
in L.A.
•
His “novels of ideas” have sometimes been
criticized as being “too intellectual”
Prologue Translated from French
“Utopias appear to be much easier to
realize than one formerly believed.
We currently face a question that
would otherwise fill us with
anguish: How to avoid their becoming
definitively real ? The utopias are attainable.
Life marches towards the utopias. And it can be
that a new century begins, a century where the
intellectuals and the educated class will dream
means to avoid the utopias and to return a nonutopian society, less ‘perfect’ and ‘free’.”
Nicolas Berdiaeff
What is a Utopia?
A Utopia is a place or society that
appears perfect in every way.
The government is perfect,
working to improve societies
standards of living rather then
their own, social aspects of the
community run perfectly.
There is no war or disease, only
peace and happiness. Everyone
outside this Utopian society
looks to this place in wonder
and awe, believing it is
completely perfect in every such
way.
What is a Dystopia?
Dystopia came from the
term Utopia.
It defines a place or society
which is in complete chaos.
The citizens are all suffering
and are miserable.
Often times in novels what
appears to be a Utopian
society it first by the
visiting protagonist is
actually revealed to be a
dystopian society.
The citizens are often
revealed to live in terror,
under complete control by
the government, unaware
of corrupt world in which
they actually live in, or
suppressed by the society
as a whole.
Some
Famous/Important
Dystopian Novels
Important People, Terms,
and Concepts
• Utopia – perfect society
• Dystopia – dreadful, dysfunctional society
• Satire – writing intended to ridicule and arouse contempt
– especially by using irony and exaggeration
• Caste System – social structure which divides people on the
basis of inherited social status
• Ivan Pavlov
oRussian physician & psychologist
o“Classical conditioning” using dogs
oRESULT: Trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, even without
giving food.
More People, Terms, and Concepts:
• Sigmund Freud
oPsychiatrist
oPsychoanalysis
oMental health and illness spring from a child’s upbringing,
not his heredity
• Soma – an anti-depressant, semi-hallucinogenic drug
introduced by the World State
• Orgy Porgy – group sexual experience to unify all people
(sex is not the focus, unity is)
• Solidarity Service – group of men and women who gather
to take Soma and have a spiritual experience
What is the Brave New World ?
A dystopian tale about a possible future world where
human faith in scientific progress, freedom, dignity, and
individuality are all called into question.
Set in two locations in the 26th century:
London and a New Mexico Indian reservation
What is the Brave New World ?
Religion of the World State based on
the life and philosophies of Henry
Ford.
• American car manufacturer, inventor of
the assembly line
• Invented the Model T car – designed to be
affordable to everyone; only available in
black
• Mass production & mass consumption
• Assembly line = improved efficiency
• Vertical structure = self sufficient
“Our Ford”
The Assembly
Line
What is the Brave New World ?
Caste System:
Alphas (Α)– highest, grey
Betas (Β)- mulberry, bottle green
Gammas (Γ)- leaf green
Deltas (Δ)- khaki
Epsilons (Ε)– lowest, black
There are also plusses and minuses,
so one can be an Alpha Plus or a
Gamma Minus.
Differentiation achieved through
oxygen deprivation
What is the Brave New World?
Some individuals are created using the
Bokanovsky Process
• Fertilization process used to create Deltas & Epsilons
• Divide fertilized eggs to produce identical twins
• Produces up to 96 embryos, but 72 is the average
• Primary instrument of social stability
What is the Brave New World ?
Government organization “conditions” the lower
caste children using
Hypnopaedia
“The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time” (28).
• Sleep teaching
• Moral education
• Class conditioning
“The child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the
suggestions is the child’s mind” (28-29).
What is the Brave New World ?
•
A society where all aspects of an individual's life
are determined by the state, beginning with
conception and conveyor-belt reproduction.
•
A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides
all roles in the hierarchy.
•
Children are raised and conditioned by the state
bureaucracy, not brought up by natural families.
•
Citizens must not fall in love, marry, or have their
own children.
Setting: 2540 AD; referred to
in the novel as 632 years AF
(“After Ford”), meaning 632
years after production of the
first Model T car
Narration: Third-person
omniscient
Point-of-View: Narrated in the
third person from the point of
view of Bernard or John, but
also from the point of view of
Lenina, Helmholtz Watson, and
Mustapha Mond
Although the novel was originally published
in 1932, the themes in Brave New World are
quite relevant to the world in which we live
today. Some would even call this novel
prophetic, considering the present state of
things:
brain-numbing advances in technology and
the internet;
our tendency to waste time on meaningless
diversions such as television and video
games;
consumerism surpassing religion (take
Christmas, for example);
promiscuity surpassing morality;
issues of eugenics, cloning, stem-cell research
and genetic engineering;
and, most strikingly, the overly-prescribed
and overly-used medications such as antidepressants and sleeping pills, so like the
fictional “Soma” of Huxley’s novel.
Are you living in a Brave New World?
Do you agree that…
• History is worthless?
• Everyone belongs to everyone else?
• Throwing something away is better than fixing it?
• No one really needs a mother?
• The elderly are worthless members of society?
• Cleanliness is next to godliness?
• You should never put off until tomorrow the fun
you can have today?
This novel is more applicable today than it was in 1932. This
is a time of:
propaganda,
censorship,
conformity,
genetic
engineering,
social
conditioning, and
mindless
entertainment.
Do we have a modern soma?
Consider the number of ads
for prescription drugs, which
are permitted only in the
United States and New
Zealand
Doctors and consumer
advocates believe these ads
drive up health-care costs
and seduce millions into
asking their MDs for drugs
they don’t need for diseases
they had never before heard
of, like restless leg
syndrome
Community
Identity
Stability
Brave New World
"This is rather alarming that you're being persuaded below the level of choice and
reason... Advertisement plays a necessary role but the danger of it to a democracy is this:
a democracy depends on the individual voter making a rational choice for enlightened
self-interest. What these people are doing [advertisers] when their purpose is selling
goods, what the dictatorial propagandists are doing, is to try to bypass the rational side of
humanity and to appeal directly to these unconscious forces below the surface--so that you
are in a way making nonsense of the democratic procedure which is based on conscious
choice on rational grounds... Today's children walk around singing beer commercials and
toothpaste commercials."
Huxley on advertising, the media, and propaganda
Essential Questions to connect the
literature to today’s culture:
Is it better to be free than to be happy?
Is freedom compatible with happiness?
Is the collective more important than the individual?
Can children be taught effectively to think in only one
certain way?
Can young people be taught so well that they never
question their teachings later?
Is stability more important than freedom?
Can alterations made by advanced science to
mankind be made permanent at the DNA-level?
Can mankind be conditioned by science?
Should the individual be limited/controlled for the
greater good? If so, how much?
Works Cited
Edmondson, Elizabeth. “Brave New World
Powerpoint.” Gilmour Academy. 8 May
2007. PDF file. Web. 19 Apr 2010.
A Guide to Brave New World. Austin, Texas: Holt,
Reinhart, and Winston, 2003. Print.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York:
Harper Collins, 1998.
Wood, Lisha. “Brave New World Intro.”
Sprayberry High School. Typepad. 6 Sept
2006. Web. 19 Apr 2010.