2019 Study Schedule for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World AP Lit & Comp/Fulton

Friday, March 29: Intro notes/discussion. Over the weekend, read chapters 1-2 (pp. 3-29). These two chapters, as well as chapter 3, provide basic exposition, describe the setting, and introduce some of the major characters. In your reading journal for chapters 1-2, make two columns. On the left, use your own words to write observations/descriptions of the aspects of setting and characters that you think are significant; on the right side, write down key words and phrases from the text (in quotation marks) that provide evidence of those observations/descriptions. Include the page number for each piece of directly quoted material. Due Monday. Monday, April 1: Share reading journal notes on exposition, including setting and characters. We will begin reading chapter 3 (pp. 30-56) in class, and you will need to finish it at home. Chapter 3 is a continuation of exposition, taken outdoors. Rising action begins when the students and the D.H.C. encounter Mustapha Mond. From this point onward, the omniscient narrator alternates bits of different scenes and conversations to show that they are occurring simultaneously. In your reading journal, decide on and write a title for each of the different conversations (how many are there??). Below each title, write a one to two sentence summary of that particular conversation. What is the purpose of juxtaposing these conversations in this way? Explain. Due Tuesday. Tuesday, 4/2 & Wednesday 4/3: Discuss chapter 3, focusing on the purpose of the juxtaposition of the various scenes depicted. Read chapters 4-6 (pp. 57-106). These three chapters continue to develop some of our major characters, particularly Lenina Crowne, Henry Foster, Bernard Marx, and Helmholtz Watson. In your reading journal, create a heading for each of these characters. Provide description of physical & personality traits, notable facts about him/her, and any internal or external conflicts each might be experiencing. Due Thursday. Thursday, 4/4 & Friday 4/5: Discuss chapters 4-6 and how Huxley develops Lenina, Henry, Bernard, and Helmhotz in these chapters. Read chapters 7-9 (pp. 107-145). Focus on the new setting and characters, and what role their contrast with the previous setting and characters might play in our understanding of characters, conflicts, and possible themes. In your reading journal, write down at least two thoughts, two lingering questions, and two epiphanies from these chapters. Due Monday. Monday, 4/8: TQEs due. Discuss chapters 7-9. Tuesday, 4/9 & Wednesday, 4/10: Read chapters 10-13 (pp. 146-197). As you read, record in your reader’s journal your thoughts on the role of the following in the book so far, especially as seen in chapters 10-13: social conditioning, solitude, sexuality. Due Thursday. Thursday, 4/11: Discuss chapters 10-13, focusing on role of social conditioning, solitude, and sexuality. Read chapters 14-15, recording TQEs in your reader’s journal (need at least two of each). Friday, 4/12: Catch up on reading and work on MWDS. Monday & Tuesday, 4/15 & 16: Read chapters 16-18 (pp. 217-259)—finish the book. The conversations and events in these significantly contribute to the development of the novel’s main themes. In your reader’s journal for these chapters, record at least two theme statements and underline them. Under each, provide two to three direct quotes that support the themes listed. Wednesday, 4/17: Discussion of concluding chapters of BNW and its possible themes. Thursday, 4/18: Review assignment distributed. Work on this during class today. Due Monday. Friday, 4/19: Spring Holiday ~ No School Monday, 4/22: Review major topics in BNW. Tuesday, 4/23: MWDS due. Test on Brave New World. Wednesday, 4/24: Q3 Timed Writing Prep Thursday, 4/25: Q3 Timed Writing

Introduction

Brave New World was published in 1932 and has had 28 re-printings since then. Huxley is a writer of science fiction and social commentary, a writer with a prophetic vision, a writer with enormous breadth and depth of interests and ideas, and a writer of satire. By the time Huxley began BNW there were tremendous political, economic, and philosophical changes taking place in Europe and America, all of which contributed to his disillusionment. On the international political scene was the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the dictatorship of Mussolini in Italy, and the Nazi Party in Germany. Huxley was concerned with threats to man’s freedom and independence. He realized that communism and fascism placed the state above the individual and demanded total allegiance to a cause. At the same time there were tremendous economic changes in and between individual countries – more and bigger factories, more manufactured goods, and the advent of mass-produced automobiles. Big business used and misused the individual – man became important as producer and consumer. Industry exploited the individual by molding him according to its image and likeness. Huxley goes one step beyond in his novel – man’s chief importance lies in his ability to produce and consume manufactured goods. With more and more people moving to the cities there was a change in attitude and point of view. As “one of the crowd” the individual is not responsible for himself or for anybody else – having lost his individuality, he has also lost his respect for the individual. Huxley carries the loss of individuality further with his projection of scores of identical twins performing identical tasks. Huxley saw these things as real threats to man’s freedom and independence. His bitter satire results from his conviction that although man is able to do something about these threats, he is unwilling to make the effort to turn the tide.

Allusions and Historical references:

Conditioning: Ivan Petrovich Pavlov conducted experiments to determine how conditioning takes place. He trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell that was linked to memories of food, proving the theory of conditioned reflex. Further experimentation has proven that individuals can be conditioned to think, act, feel, believe, and respond the way the government wants them to. Predestination is the act of deciding an individual’s fate or destiny for him. Both the old and new Testaments contain allusions to God as the Predestinator, but since the World State has eliminated God, predestination is now the function of the government. Population control: Thomas Malthus was an English political economist who propounded the doctrine on the theory of population. He believed that unless famine or war diminished population, in time the means of life would be inadequate. In the World State mandatory birth-control measures are used to regulate the growth of the population. The Malthusian Belt is named after him. Mass Production: Henry Ford is the most important figure in the formation of the World State. In a Christian society the life, work, and teachings of Christ are the source of inspiration and truth; in Huxley’s utopia, the life, work, and teachings of Ford are the sources of inspiration and truth. Even time is reckoned according to Ford. Ectogenesis: Birth outside the body is the rule of the day. Decanting is the name given to the completion of the artificial and mechanical stimulation of the embryo resulting in what we call birth – an independent existence. Huxley details this process to emphasize the tremendous advancement of scientific knowledge and practice to show the complete control of the individual from the time of conception.

Characters’ Names:

Bernard Marx is named after Karl Marx, the father of the ideas of Communism. Lenina Crowne is named after the man who led the Russian Revolution – Lenin. Benito Hoover is a minor character whose first name is the same as the dictator of fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, and has the last name of an American president, Herbert Hoover. Mustapha Mond is a parody of Alfred Mond, a British chemist, economist, and cabinet minister who is for Huxley the English equivalent of one of the American Rockefellers. Henry Foster is probably named after Henry Ford. The year 632 AF means After Ford. Henry Ford revolutionized mass production and made the automobile available to the average citizen. The members of the BNW have taken his ideas and applied them to the mass production of humans. Much of the religion in the novel is based on Ford. Ex. “Our Lord,” becomes “Our Ford.” Soma comes from the Sanskrit language of ancient India. It refers to both an intoxicating drink used in the Vedic religious rituals and the plant from whose juice the drink was made. Soma is also the Greek word for body and can be found in the English word “somatic” an adjective meaning “of the body, as distinct from the mind.” Huxley probably enjoyed his trilingual pun.

BNW is Huxley’s warning. Knowledge is power, but he who controls and uses knowledge wields the power. Science and technology should be the servants of man – man should not be adapted and enslaved to them. BNW is a description of our lives as they could be. The world as prophesized by Aldous Huxley in his novel, Brave New World, is a seemingly wonderful utopia. All citizens seem happy and like their place in life. But this happiness comes at a price through modern advances and that is loss of freedom and individuality. One advance that contributes largely to stability is the Bokonovsky process. Mustapha Mond states that the Bokanovsky Process is a major instrument for social stability in that has social, economic, and psychological implications. The first chapter states this outright, claiming that the process is “one of the major instruments of social stability.” The Bokonovsky process is an efficient and economic method of genetic reproduction. The motto of the World State is “Community, Identity, Stability.” A World State would necessitate a single political ideology and a single point of view. The singleness of purpose emphasizes the need for conformity in social, political, and personal matters. To facilitate this result, all allegiance must go to the state; therefore all personal relationships (love, marriage, families) have been eliminated from the world state. Instead there are many casual relationships. To ensure “happiness” the population is during mass production divided into five casts: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are the higher cast, more intelligent, and placed in leadership roles. At the bottom are the Epsilons, who have severely limited intelligence and perform simple but necessary tasks. All members of society are predestined and then conditioned to be happy with their place and occupation in society. The world is divided into ten population centers, each headed by a “World Controller” who has absolute power. The focus of the World Center in Brave New World is London. Because mass productions of humans is based on Henry Ford’s innovative use of mass production for his Ford car, the World State reveres him and marks time starting from his conception of the assembly line. Thus the story takes place in 632 A.F. (After Ford). To efficiently mass produce people, however, leaves no excesses and no waste. Nobody wants what he cannot have, and consumption is balanced. The entire founding principle of the world is based on consumption. The Alphas have everything they want at their fingertips, and the lower caste people have all that they are conditioned to need. The psychological implications are darker, but they may contribute more than the other factors. When everybody fits in, no one has the need to feel accepted. No one feels left out or unwanted because sex is freely engaged in with many other people. People are not hurt, depressed, angry or susceptible to any negative emotions; or are they? If basic emotional needs of people are met, psychological deviations like diseases and mental disorder should not occur. The stability of the world state is strengthened again through the effects of the Bokanovsky process.