Brave New World CHAPTERS 10-14

Sharing Answers Discuss the questions assigned to you to complete over break. In answering them, refer to specific page numbers and passages in your copy of the novel. Share your answers with the class. Write down the answers to the other questions that other groups came up with if they are different from your own.

In Class Writing #4 In a well thought out 3 paragraph response, discuss the following prompt fully. Be sure to respond to each part of the prompt. How and why is Bernard different? Also consider whether he really is different. Look at his behavior when he returns from the Savage Reservation with John. Does he not take advantage of all those things that he has missed out on before and are not his motives and actions those of the rest of the members of Brave New World? Why is it important to conform? Why is it important to be different? Give examples where each is beneficial.

Brave New World CHAPTERS 15-16

Passage Analysis In your table groups, discuss the following passages. Next each students will write a half page analysis (not a summary) of each. Try your best to “read between the lines” to find the underlying significance of these passages. What is being said about how their society works in this passage? How does each character feel about their role in the world state?

Passage 1: Chapter 15 "Free, free!" the Savage shouted, and with one hand continued to throw the soma into the area while, with the other, he punched the indistinguishable faces of his assailants. "Free!" And suddenly there was Helmholtz at his side – "Good old Helmholtz!" – also punching – "Men at last!" – and in the interval also throwing the poison out by handfuls through the open window. "Yes, men! men!" and there was no more poison left. He picked up the cash-box and showed them its black emptiness. "You're free!" Howling, the Deltas charged with a redoubled fury.

Passage 2: Chapter 16 “It’s an absurdity. An Alpha-decanted, Alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-Moron work- go mad, or start smashing things up. Alphas can be completely socialized,- but only on condition that you make them do Alpha work. Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren’t sacrifices; they’re the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down rails along which he’s got to run. He can’t help himself; he’s foredoomed. Even after decanting, he’s still inside a bottle- an invisible bottle of infantile and embryonic fixations. Each one of us, of course,” the Controller meditatively continued, “goes through life inside a bottle. But if we happen to be Alphas, our bottles are, relatively speaking, enormous. We should suffer acutely if we were confined in a narrower space. You cannot pour upper-caste champagne-surrogate into lower-caste bottles.”

Brave New World CHAPTERS 17-18

In Class Writing #5 In a well thought out 3 paragraph response, discuss the following prompt fully. Be sure to respond to each part of the prompt. What do you think is Huxley’s view of humanity and the future of humankind? What is his view on technology and civilization?

Thinking Critically Discuss the question with your table group and write a paragraph responding to this prompt: John attempts to live by himself away from the World State. He begins to return to an Indian lifestyle, but he is tormented by news reporters and tourists from the World State. Even Lenina can’t help; in fact, she makes him worse. Finally, he is too tormented to live. What are the reasons that drive him to take his own life? What, if anything, could have been done to help him?