Brave New World Notes
What are movies called in the World State?
"Feelies"
What do people say behind Bernard's back?
"He'll come a bad end"
What hypnopedia lesson does the Director refer to while he tells Bernard this story?
"The social body persists although the component cells may change"
In the first excerpt from his letter to Mustapha, what does Bernard say John is not interested in? What is he more interested in?
- "Civilized inventions" - The soul
What does John say to the people at the hospital on page 217? What does he then do?
- "Don't you want to be free" - He throws the soma boxes out of the window (John's breaking point)
On page 86, Lenina and Henry refer to an idea that is taught to all people during hypnopedia. What is this idea?
- "Everyone's happy now"
How are children in the World State taught their morals/beliefs and the rules of society? What is the technical name of this process?
- "Sleep-teaching" - They are played an audio lesson while sleeping - Hypnopedia
Like Bernard, Helmholtz has a "defect." What is this man's defect? Because of their defects, what "knowledge" do Bernard and this man share?
- "Too much ability" - an internal defect - They share the knowledge that they are individuals
What does Mr. Foster say about the female embryos?
- 70% are made sterile and cannon have children (freemartins) - 30% are allowed to develop normally if they ever need to make children
What strange "event" does Bernard attend at the end of chapter 5? How does he feel after it?
- An orgy - He feels miserable and even more lonely. Does not fit in with the other Alphas - Described as a cult
Who does Lenina express interest in to Fanny? What is this man's reputation?
- Bernard Marx - Short, ugly, shy, spends his time alone and they may have made a mistake in his bottle
John and Bernard do 2 different things at the end of the night. What does each of them do?
- Bernard takes soma - John reads "Romeo and Juliet"
Why did John get upset after Kiakimé's wedding?
He was in love with her
Who leads the students on a tour through this building?
The Director (DHC)
According to Mustapha Mood, family, monogamy, and romance also no longer exist in the World State (Huxley 52). He also tells the students on the tour that the World State tries to eliminate emotions from people as much as possible (Huxley 56). How do these details characterize the World State?
- Bring to gain control over all of the lower-class - Making people into machines
What kinds of "bureaus" are referenced on page 77? What "college" is referenced? What details about newspapers does the reader on this page as well?
- Bureaux of Propaganda (government is involved in it) - The College of Emotional Engineering - Each caste has its own newspaper, the lower the caste, the lower the quality and complexity
In what building does the novel open? What is on this building? What are "grown" there?
- Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre - The World State's motto: "Community, Identity, Stability" - Babies
What happens to people when they die in the World State?
- Everyone is cremated so they can obtain phosphorus to help the plants grow
What kind of games are allowed/approved in the World State? Why?
- Games that have a lot of apparatus (materials) - Increases consumption, World State makes more money
What things does Bernard want to do on one of his dates with Lenina? How does Lenina feel about these suggestions and the anti-World State statements that Bernard makes throughout their date?
- Go for a walk and talk, look at the sea - She is confused, shocked because she believes the society is perfect
What does Bernard do to humiliate the Director after the Director publicly criticizes Bernard and announces that he is being demoted and sent to Iceland?
- He brings out Linda and John - Everyone is now aware that the Director fathered a child naturally
Henry and the Assistant Director of Predestination talk about "having" Lenina. How does Bernard Marx, who overhears their conversation, feel about what they say?
- He does not like how they are treating her like a "piece of meat" - Shows Bernard has feelings for Lenina
What does Bernard do that makes Lenina say, "Thank, Ford [...] He's all right again" (Huxley 102)?
- He feels her up
How does John react to Lenina's sexual advances toward him?
- He goes crazy and gets really angry - Calls her a "w**re" and threatens to kill her
Bernard and Lenina meet a young man named John in the Reservation. How is he different from the others in the Reservation?
- He is white, while everyone else are Native Americans - He speaks perfect English
What does John say when Mustapha asks if he likes life in the World State? How does Bernard react?
- He says that he hates it - He worries it may ruin his reputation, being friends with a rebel
What did John try to do to Popé as Popé slept with Linda?
- He tries to kill him by stabbing him - Does not like how his mom is sleeping with a lot of men
Why does Mustapha not allow John to go to an island with Bernard and Helmholtz? Where does John go in order to be alone and cut off from the rest of the World State?
- He wants to keep the experiment with John - An abandoned lighthouse outside of the World State
Who does Bernard go to speak to? What are this man's jobs? How would you describe this man?
- Helmholtz Watson - He writes hypnopedia lessons, gives lectures at the College of Emotional Engineering and writes for Alpha newspaper - Handsome, powerful, slayer, the perfect Alpha - However, he is not satisfied with life
What is Bernard self-conscious about? Why is Bernard self-conscious about this? How does Bernard's defect make him feel in relation to other Alphas?
- His physique - He is an alpha but has the physique of a gamma - He feels inferior, like an outsider
According to Mustapha on page 239, what "would upset the whole social order"? Also, what does he say civilization does not need? When are these things needed?
- If people became individuals - Nobility and heroism - In times of war, love you must fight for, etc. but the World State eliminates all of it and is therefore obsolete
John is excited to go to London. In expressing his excitement about going to the World State, John quotes these lines from Shakespeare's "The Tempest": O wonder! How many godly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in it Considering John is talking about the World State, how is his use of these lines ironic? What point do you think Huxley is trying to make with the Savage Reservation? Based on what we know about John so far, how would you describe him?
- John believes this World State to be this "brave new world" but it in fact has several flaws - Pointing out how conditioned people at the World State as they believe these "savages" are so weird and different - He does not fit in with the rest of the savages and desires to go to the World State
Mustapha considers religion to be unnecessary/too dangerous for the World State. What does Mustapha say was chosen over it? How does John feel about this?
- Machinery, medicine, and happiness - Completely disagrees. Believes religion to be necessary in society
One of the ideas the people of the World State are taught during hypnopedia is "Everyone belongs to every one else." What do you think this means? What psychological effects do you think this philosophy has on the people of the World State?
- Means that everyone in the World State is exactly the same - They can control everyone and they do not have their own identity
What does Bernard offer to John and Linda? Why does he do this?
- Offers them to come back to the World State with him and Lenina - He wants to blackmail and shame the Director for trying to send him to Iceland
Who is Mustapha Mond? What "inspired saying" from Ford does he reference on page 47?
- One of the ten World Controllers, he controls Western Europe - "History is bunk"
After Mr. Foster refers to the conditioning process during the tour of the Centre, the Director says, "And that [...] 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" (Huxley 30). How does the Director's statement characterize the World State
- Organized society - No free thought - World State controls everybody - Reduced freedom equates to happiness
What disgusts and appalls Lenina as she and Bernard make their way through the Savage Reservation?
- People who are old - Women were breastfeeding - The idea of a mother - The dirtiness of the Reservation
Mustapha decides to send John, Bernard, and Helmholtz to an island as punishment. What type of people get sent to islands for punishment in the World State? Why was Mustapha almost sent to one when he was younger? How does Bernard react to being given this punishment?
- People who are unorthodox, independent, and unhappy with the World State - He practiced unorthodox science - He freaks out and is very upset
Where do Lenina and Bernard plan to go while they are in New Mexico?
- Savage Reservation
What eventually happens to Linda? How does John react? How do the nurses react?
- She dies, her last words were from hypnopedia - He gets very upset and cries - Upset with John because he ruined the death conditioning exercise
What significant detail does the reader learn about John's mother Linda? What other things do we learn about Linda?
- She is the woman from the Director's story - She used to live in the World State and loved it there - She is a beta and her pregnancy was an accident - Linda is aging naturally
When Lenina and Henry discuss how people in the World State are cremated after they die in order to help plants grow, Lenina says, "But queer that Alphas and Betas won't make any more plants grow than those nasty little Gammas and Deltas and Epsilons down there" (Huxley 84). What do you think is significant about Lenina's statement?
- She shows that she is like every other high-class person and that she completely disregards the lower-class and doesn't care about them
Why is Linda at the hospital at the beginning of these chapters? What details do we find out about the hospital?
- She's dying from having too much soma - The hospital is like a luxury hotel and the TVs are on 24/7. The hospital doesn't make an attempt to save the people
What did Linda say to John after the attack when he tries to console her?
- She's mad at him and blames him for being stuck in the Savage Reservation - Also, she does not accept John as her son
Why do you think it is significant that the process for creating people in the World State resembles the assembly line process?
- Shows that all people in the World State are the same and are created for the same reason, removing the idea of "individuality" in the society
What is served with coffee at the dining hall that Henry and Lenina go to? What kind of instruments are played?
- Soma - "Sexophones", scent and color organs - playing the instrument releases a scent into the air
How does Linda decide to spend her days now that she has returned to the World State? Who does not believe this is right?
- Soma holidays - John
What connections can you make between our current society and the World State?
- The higher-class looking down upon the lower-class may be like racism in our society today - You are looked down upon if you don't act normally in both societies
What "right" does John claim on page 242?
- The right to be unhappy
What does Mustapha think about change and science? What does Mustapha say is considered more important than truth and beauty?
- They are a danger to stability - Comfort and happiness
During the long conversation about the World State, John asks Mustapha why the World State doesn't create all Alphas. What is Mustapha's response?
- They attempted, but resulted in a civil war and most were killed - Alphas did not want to do Epsilon work
What does Mustapha say to the students about old age?
- They have eliminated the effects of old age - Thur bodies remain youthful (World State trying to play God)
What details does the Warden give about the Savage Reservation on page 113?
- They speak extinct languages such as Spanish - They have religion - They have marriage, family - No conditioning - Completely isolated from the rest of the world
What does the Bokanovsky Process enable a fertilized egg to do? The eggs are designed for which 3 groups undergo the Bokanovsky Process?
- To make multiple copies of itself - Gammas, Deltas, Epsilons (lower-class)
What does Mustapha say soma is a cure for? On page 241, what does John say for the people of the World State should learn to do with unpleasentness?
- Unpleasantness - People must learn to face it and deal with it
What is the V.P.S. treatment?
- Violent Passion Surrogate - It stimulates fear and rage
What two things does Bernard say he "wants" on page 103? What is Lenina's response?
1. He wants to know what passion is 2. He wants to feel something strongly - "When the individual feels, the community reels"
What does Mustapha do to texts that he considers subversive?
Bans it from publication
What does Lenina's belt carry?
Belt carries birth-control which proves she is among the women who are not sterile
Who does Lenina agree to go to New Mexico with?
Bernard
Beginning at 18 months of age, what are people in the World State conditioned to not be bothered by?
Death
What job does the Director want the "twins" created by the Bokanovsky Process to have?
Factory workers
How does John feel about Lenina?
He has fallen in love with her
What is Lenina's "verdict" on Bernard?
He is very odd but still attracted to him
Why does Bernard suddenly gain attention/importance?
He looks after John
What does John admit to Lenina on page 196?
He loves her more than anything else in the world
What does the Director decide to do after Bernard successfully carries out his plan to humiliate him?
He resigns
On page 145, John tells Bernard that, because he is different from the Indians, he feels alone. What is Bernard's response?
He says that he feels alone too
What does John do after he references the "brave new world" lines while he is in the factory?
He vomits. It is not the world he was hoping for
What desire regarding his writing does Helmholtz express to Bernard?
He wants to write about something meaningful
When Bernard asks the Director for permission to go with Lenina to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico, what does the Director tell Bernard about the time he went to the Savage Reservation many years earlier?
He went to the Reservation years ago and got separated from a girl he was with and never saw her again
Based on these chapters, what are your new thoughts about Bernard?
He's being hypocritical. He used to be disgusted by the actions of people at the World State but is now being like them
What does John think of the "feely" that he sees with Lenina?
He's disgusted by it
How do Lenina and Henry travel on their date?
Helicopter
How does Helmholtz disappoint John at the end of chapter 12?
Helmholtz says that marriage, parents, etc. doesn't matter and laughs at the book which adds to John's frustration with the World State
Aside from being a mother and not really being a Savage, what is the "strongest reason" why people do not want to see Linda?
Her appearance (old and overweight)
Where does the Director threaten to send Bernard if Bernard does not conform to the World State's expectations of infantile behavior?
Iceland
What does Bernard say adults in the World State are like when it comes to feeling and desire?
Infants
What happens if you touch the wire fence surrounding the Savage Reservation?
Instant death
Who refuses to attend Bernard's party?
John
What 2 characters share a love of words?
John and Helmholtz
In the second excerpt from Bernard's letter to Mustapha, what does Bernard report about John?
Refuses to take soma and is attached to his mother
What does the Director decide to do with Bernard?
Send him to Iceland
What previously "abnormal" and "immoral" activity are young children in the World State actually encouraged to do (Huxley 45)?
Sexual games
How is Lenina a "popular" girl?
She has slept with many guys
What did Lenina plan to tell John at the party?
She likes him and has fallen in love with him
Why does Lenina decline Henry's date request?
She wants to be with John
Why did a group of Reservation women attack Linda?
She was sleeping with their men
Why does Fanny criticize Lenina Crowne's relationship with Henry Foster?
She's been with the same guy for four months
What is the name of the drug that the World State encourages people to use?
Soma
Mustapha is angry that Bernard lectures him about the social order in his letter. What does Mustapha plan to do to Bernard in response?
Teach Bernard a lesson
What book did John acquire near his 12th birthday?
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Because of his success, what is Bernard now less critical toward?
The World State
What is done to condition the eight-month-old Deltas to hate books and nature?
They electro-shock the baby when it goes near them so it'll have a bad connection with books and nature
Why do the people at Bernard's party get upset with Bernard?
They only came to the party for John but he isn't there
What detail abut names is given on page 49?
They only have about 10,000 names for two billion people
What is the Director's name?
Thomas
In this scene, John thinks about the "brave new world" lines again and realizes the irony of them. But then these lines give him inspiration to do something. What does John do?
Tries to educate the people receiving their soma by saying its poison
What does Helmholtz get in trouble for?
Wrote a poem about solitude and presented it to the class