Brave New World - Chapter 2 & 3 Questions

What treatment is Fanny undergoing? How do you think the treatment works? Why do you think it would be prescribed?

Fanny is undergoing Pregnancy Substitute and it appears that it acts by entering the body through injection and tricking it into thinking it is pregnant to balance out its hormones, as the mammary gland extract and placentin would mimic the conception of a child. It would probably be prescribed to make sure that the female is still capable of properly having a child, as a rejection of such hormones would suggest they were incapable

How does the Director respond to the children he catches engaged in sexual play? In this society, what sort of behavior is considered "normal" and "abnormal?"

He calls them charming and merely dismisses it as they walk by with his sentimental comment, to which the boys who are listening to him smile in a patronizing manner. It is considered normal for a child to engage in sexual behavior, and they find it abnormal when a child cries and doesn't want to

Explain the meaning of the proverb: "every one belongs to every one else." What does Huxley suggest about the reason

He is essentially saying there is no individual who stands alone among the other people in society. This takes away individualism, and the idea that there is no such thing as marrying one person, or staying with one person, because that would create an ownership or a power over people, and they must subject themselves to everyone, and this also gets rid of "the appalling dangers of family life"

Who is Mustapha Mond?

He is the Resident Controller of Western Europe, which means he is one of the ten men who run the World State, and he is the most powerful character in this totalitarian World State; he is referred to as his fordship in the novel and is clearly highly regarded

Based on What historical figure is referred to as "Our Ford"?

Henry Ford, the creator of assembly lines in manufacturing cars and therefore the introducer of mass production

Explain the saying "History is bunk." Consider the list of things (found on page 34) that the Controller dismisses and suggest a reason for his inclusion of these particular examples of "bunk." Are there any common themes among them?

It is essentially saying that thinking about history too much is a waste of time and therefore living in the present is far more efficient than dwelling on the past. Mond wants people to believe in science and "progress" rather than old ideas and mistakes. The word "bunk" refers to the frailties and primal loyalties of man that he had no control over. Mond looks to the new model of people who have no individual loyalties to enact the violence and vengeance that was common in the past.

What does it mean to call a woman "pneumatic?" Why does Henry Foster's conversation about Lenina anger Bernard Marx?

It means that a women is well rounded and sexual. It angers Bernard because they talk about Lenina like she is meat and he has taken a liking to her, finding it disrespectful on their part

How was hypnopædia discovered? What were its limitations?

It was discovered in a case in which a boy named Reuben was left in a room where his mother and father left the radio on and so when he fell asleep while the London broadcast played, Reuben was able to repeat the lecture he heard word for word: they essentially discovered sleep teaching and it was first implemented in AF 214. However, the system was flawed in that you could not learn something you did not already understand. For instance, a child who was provided with a speech on the Nile did not know it was located in Africa and therefore when he was asked what the longest river in Africa was, he did not know the answer, but when the Nile was mentioned, he could still recite the whole speech

Research the experiments of Ivan Pavlov and explain Pavlov's theory.

Ivan Pavlov 's experiments with dogs are very well-known in the history of psychology. People built a psychological learning theory from his small accidental discovery. Pavlov's studies have helped us understand associative learning through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning consists of associating an initially neutral stimulus with a meaningful stimulus. It is a theory for training infants and the theory of classical conditioning says that a non-neutral stimulus will result in an unconditioned response and if a neutral and non-neutral stimulus are presented together, eventually the subject of the experiment will learn to associate the 2.

What is moral education? Why was it possible to adapt hypnopædia for moral education?

Moral education is the implementation of instructional tools to teach children about the values of society and it could be adapted to hypnopedia because it was not rational and therefore needed no prerequisite understanding

Explain the methods used by the class, Elementary Class Consciousness, to condition children.

One method is the use of Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning, which is when they use electric shocks and sirens to defer children from taking a liking in certain things that would modify their societal traits and limitations. Another method used is hypnopaedic learning, which is sleep teachings. We see the betas being taught the different roles of society and the opinions that are drilled in their brains until they believe it is their own opinion, such as their dislike for the lower classes.

Explain the conditioning exercise that the Delta infants at the Centre experience. What is the purpose of the "lesson"? Economic rationale.

The Deltas are introduced to flowers and books and are allowed to touch them before a loud siren noise goes off and the children get scared before an electric shock is sent through the children so when they are presented with the books and flowers again, they cry and do not want to be near them. The purpose behind this is to make them have an 'instinctive' hatred of books and flowers, keeping them focused on their jobs, away from the knowledge of books and botany. It makes them scared of nature and the outside world, which discourages any behavior that would destabilize the society and would therefore make every worker efficient, meaning no effort or human material would go to waste

What does the Director tell the students about the way children were raised in the past? How do the students respond to this information?

The Director tells the students that before Ford and for some generations after, erotic play between children was regarded as abnormal and even immoral and so it was suppressed, and the students who listen are astonished by the information and almost appalled

What is the "Feelies"?

The feelies offer a chance to not only experience sights and sounds as, but even feel touch. Those watching can actually feel all of the action, especially during the love scenes.

What is suggested by Huxley's decision to replace the words "mother", "father", and family? What have these words become?

They are considered primitive and filthy, and as threats to the system, because it is contrary to the system of artificial reproduction. These words (crash and crash) are chosen to belittle the value of parents