Brave New World

Study Questions

Community, Identity, Stability!

Chapters I – III

• 1. What is A.F. 632? What can you infer about this society from such a designation?

– After Ford 632 – this society worships production, materialism.

• 2. How many individuals can be produced from one egg and one sperm?

– 96 • 3. What is the purpose of the processes that take place in the Social Predestination Room?

– The fetuses are chemically and otherwise treated to suit them for a particular social caste and job.

Chapters I – III

• 4. What is the point of conditioning the masses to hate nature?

– A love of nature does not keep the factories busy.

• 5. What kinds of things do the children hear as they sleep?

– They hear messages that convince them that they are happy.

• 6. Who is Mustapha Mond? What does he say about history?

– He’s the Western European Controller who says history is bunk.

Chapters I – III

• 7. Describe Lenina Crowne.

– A young and attractive woman who works at the Hatcheries and Conditioning Centre, Lenina is “having” Henry Foster exclusively.

• 8. What is wrong with Bernard Marx?

– He is a bit small for an Alpha, likes to be alone, and he doesn’t like to hear Lenina discussed as if she was a mere piece of meat.

• 9. What is

soma

?

– It is a drug with no side effects which provides an escape from reality.

Chapters IV – VI

• 1. Who is Helmholtz Watson? What’s his problem?

– He’s a lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering, and Bernard’s friend. He is not satisfied with his work; he feels he can do something more important.

• 2. The Solidarity Service has elements of several rituals in our world. Which ones?

– Elements include those of religious services, séances, witches covens, and orgies • 3. What story does the D.H.C. tell Bernard? – He tells him about his own trip to the Savage Reservation many years ago.

• 4. What distressing information does Bernard’s call to Helmholtz reveal?

– The D.H.C. plans to send Bernard to Iceland.

Chapters VII – X

• 1. How does Lenina react to the Savage Reservation?

– She is horrified by it.

• 2. What does Lenina like about the Reservation?

– She likes the drums.

• 3. What does Bernard like about the Reservation?

– Bernard finds the parent-child intimacy lovely.

Chapters VII – X

• 4. What do Bernard and John have in common?

– Both are lonely outcasts of their societies.

• 5. Does Lenina have any compassion for Linda?

– No she doesn’t.

• 6. How does Bernard avoid being sent to Iceland?

– When he returns to London with John and Linda, John reveals that the D.H.C. is his father. The D.H.C. is completely humiliated and leaves the Centre.

Chapters XI – XIII

• 1. How is Bernard’s life changing?

– He is becoming a celebrity because of his association with John.

• 2. What question about the Savage is Lenina unable to answer?

– She is unable to describe how he makes love.

• 3. How is a “feelie” different from a movie?

– The viewers also “feel” what is happening on the screen.

Chapters XI – XIII

• 4. How has the Savage influenced Helmholtz?

– Helmholtz realizes that what his writing has been missing is conflict.

• 5. Whom does John the Savage keep quoting? Why?

– Shakespeare; a volume of his plays was John’s reading book at Malpais, and he has also absorbed many of the Elizabethan social mores.

• 6. Why does John go into such a rage against Lenina?

– She doesn’t conform to the vision he had of her, as a chaste proper young woman. (She didn’t conform to Bernard’s ideals either)

Chapters XIV – XVII

• 1. Where is John at the beginning of Chapter 14?

– He is at a hospital for the Dying.

• 2. Who “invades” the hospital and drives John into a frenzy?

– A group of identical children arrive.

• 3. How does John try to help the menial staff at the hospital?

– He tells them that soma is killing them and throws it away.

Chapters XIV – XVII

• 4. What is surprising about Mustapha Mond?

– He knows about Shakespeare and religion.

• 5. How do you feel about Bernard right now?

– A.W.V.

• 6. Why does art require social instability?

– Social instability = conflict = art.

• 7. What effects did the advent of mass production have on society?

– It changed what people sought to give life meaning, from knowledge and truth to happiness and comfort.

Chapters XIV – XVII

• 8. What right does John claim?

– John claims the right to be unhappy, if that is what Mond chooses to call it.

• 9. What happens to destroy the peace John is beginning to find at the lighthouse?

– He becomes a sort of roadside attraction. A feelie is made about him. Lenina comes to try to help him and he turns on her, whipping her. He finally hangs himself.

• 10. Is John’s decision to end his life understandable? – A.W.V.