24. Significance of title

24. We hear John say “O brave new world…” twice when he is told he is able to go to the new world. What do these words mean to John?

23. Time and Death and God.

23. When John wasn’t allowed to go camping, part of the coming-of-age ritual all young boys do on the reservation, why did he feel so horrible? He goes and slices his wrist and holds it up to the moon. Huxley tells us that John “had discovered Time and Death and God.” Explain this.

22. Connections between John and Hamlet

22. How is John like Hamlet? Unlike Hamlet?

21. Shakespeare

21. Why does John love reading Shakespeare so much? What are the connections?

20. Contrasting descriptions of the new world

20. When Linda describes the new world, Huxley uses wonderful descriptors and creates a fantastic-sounding world. What is the point of describing it in such a way? (129)

19. What is Huxley's satire between parents and children, here?

19. Why did Linda have such a violent response to John calling her his mother?

18. Women's treatment of Linda

18. How did the women of the reservation accept Linda?

17. Linda and Lenina find a commonality

17. Linda tells Bernard and Lenina (in response to Lenina’s “green morocco” bandolier) that she too had one “Not that it did me much good.” What did you understand that to mean? And later, Linda continues saying that there wasn’t an Abortion Centre anywhere on the reservation, Lenina responds, “That lovely pink glass tower!” What does this show about their society’s view on abortion?

16. Linda's ugliness

16. Looking at Linda (p. 119) why does Huxley create such ugliness in her?

15. Connections to the Solidarity Service

15. Huxley mirrors the Solidarity Service with the sacrifice of the young boy. What are the connections and what is the satire?

14. Huxley's satire with the use of the "savage reservation"

14. In contrast to Malpais, Huxley creates another realm of dystopia in the reservation. What is his point at making it so squalor?

13. Oppression

13. When the guard explains “they’re perfectly tame; savages won’t do you any harm. They’ve got enough experience of gas bombs to know that they musn’t play any tricks” What does this suggest? Coming back to the idea of oppression, how does this emulate the oppressed in areas of today?

12. Questioning Leaders' Personal Lives

12. When the director told Bernard about taking a young woman to the “savage reservation” Bernard thought the director had commited a “gross solecism”, a violation of etiquette. This is what Bernard was going to do with Lenina, so why was it a violation of social mores? What is Huxley’s satire towards leaders? Has this changed since the ‘30’s …our need for super-hero status?

11. Bernard's Submission

11. Bernard takes Lenina out over the ocean and Lenina has a pretty violent reaction (91-92). Bernard really challenges her thinking and hynopaedia, but she is horrified to no avail. She wants him to leave and after trying fertively to get her to understand he realizes he cannot change her. Silence occurs and then he bursts out laughing. He then, fondles Lenina and she says to herself, “Thank Ford, he’s all right again.” What is Huxley’s satire---his Juvenalean warning?

10. Being yourself--what's the risk?

10. We see Bernard telling Lenina “I’d rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly.” What is this showing us about Bernard. Why is he willing to risk saying this?

9. Connections between promiscuity and TV

9. There are all sorts of shows on TV that imitate Lenina’s forgetfulness of trips she’s taken with men and who they were: Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives, The Real World, Sweet Sixteen. What is Huxley satirizing about our world in the book? How is it portrayed in our world?

8. Lying about the Community Sing

8. Why did Bernard lie about the Sing being wonderful? Can the topics drinking, drugs, sex, etc. produce people lying about their amusement as well?

7. Morgana's Eyebrows

7. Why did Morgana’s eyebrows bother Bernard so much?

6. Huxley as a Christian

6. Huxley was actually a Christian man, so now knowing that, what is his satire with the Community Sing?

5. Solidarity Services

5. Next, we see Bernard and Helmholtz zip off to the Fordson Community Singery. Inside the glowing tower were 7000 rooms used by various Community Sings for their fortnight services. What did you understand this to be imitating? (81)

4. Scent and colour organs

4. We see Lenina and Henry going into the Wesminster Abbey Cabaret to listen to scent and colour organs. We realize that their music not only alters you auditory senses, but also through smell and sight. Going to concerts, how is this the same? Is there an agenda?

3. Belief of Happiness in the Brave New World

3. Henry makes the comment to Lenina as their plane shoots in the air a little after flying over the phosphorous recovery stack that “there’s one thing we can be certain of; whoever he may have been, he was happy when he was alive. Everybody’s happy now.” Do you believe this?

2.Immigration

2. How can today’s argument regarding immigration be the same: well, who would do the dirty jobs? Who would clean hotels and pick potatoes from our fields?

1. Phosphorous Recovery

1. Why was Lenina’s observation regarding the phosphorous recovery fairly large? In other words, what was she realizing and why is that unnatural to her upbringing?

Hot Seat Discussion -- Seat 6

For our discussion today, 5 seats are put in front of the class. As questions are asked, students will come up to the seats to discuss. They will earn class points by their contributions. Listeners will take notes and type up a response, if they do not want to participate in the oral discussion.

A silent seat will also be available. Throughout our discussion, you may come up to my computer and add your thoughts, questions, disagreements, etc. We will be able to read these in class (projected on the screen) and hopefully, these too, will spark further discussion.

What is oppression?

Thinking over our scenes in class and our discussion, apply a definition to today's study. What is oppression? Who is being oppressed in Brave New World? By Whom? For what? How did the still scenes help you consider oppression?

Theater of the Oppressed

Students frozen in the following scenes:

Scene 1: Woman pulling a blanket up to her face, she's smiling while man is standing trying to pull it down.

Scene 2: Boy crouched with face buried under his arm, near Scene 1.

Scene 3: Boy reading Shakespeare with the following text on the page: "...smile and smile and be a villain...Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain...when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage/Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed..."

Scene 4: Girl laying flat, eyes closed, sleeping in peace with empty bottle of pills next to her. Boy above her almost grabbing her zipper on her jacket, while covering his eyes in shame.

Figure out what THEME connects all these scenes together. Follow our discussions as Mrs. Davis acts as our scribe for our comments.