Brave New World

1. Brave New World Study Questions Chapters 1-3

2. Chapter 1 • 1. Describe the setting for the opening chapter of Brave New World. In what city and year does this novel take place?

3. Chapter 1 • 1. Describe the setting for the opening chapter of Brave New World. In what city and year does this novel take place? • It is inside the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. The atmosphere is stark and clinical. A.F. 632

4. Chapter 1 • 2. What is the motto of the World State?

5. Chapter 1 • 2. What is the motto of the World State? • Community, Identity, Stability

6. Chapter 1 • 3. Explain what is happening at the Hatchery and Conditioning Center.

7. Chapter 1 • 3. Explain what is happening at the Hatchery and Conditioning Center. • The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is conducting new students through the Center. They are learning about artificial reproduction and the hatching of the eggs.

8. Chapter 1 • 4. Describe Bokanovsky’s process.

9. Chapter 1 • 4. Describe Bokanovsky’s process. • One egg is made to “bud,” resulting in as many as 96 identical embryos.

10. Chapter 1 • 5. What are the five castes of the World State?

11. Chapter 1 • 5. What are the five castes of the World State? • Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon

12. Chapter 2 • 1. What two objects are the babies being conditioned to dislike?

13. Chapter 2 • 1. What two objects are the babies being conditioned to dislike? • They are books and flowers.

14. Chapter 2 • 2. Why does the State condition the masses to dislike the country?

15. Chapter 2 • 2. Why does the State condition the masses to dislike the country? • They do not consume any goods if they simply enjoy natural pleasures in the country.

16. Chapter 2 • 3. Explain how hypnopaedia works.

17. Chapter 2 • 3. Explain how hypnopaedia works. • Children are taught State-prescribed moral and social principles through sleep-teaching, three times a week for 30 months.

18. Chapter 2 • 4. What does the child’s mind and, later, the adult’s become?

19. Chapter 2 • 4. What does the child’s mind and, later, the adult’s become? • The child is the sum of all of these suggestions made through hypnopaedia.

20. Chapter 3 • 1. What is the requirement for any new games? Why is this so?

21. Chapter 3 • 1. What is the requirement for any new games? Why is this so? • They must require at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games to increase consumption.

22. Chapter 3 • 2. Explain the State’s attitude toward sex. How does the State regard marriage?

23. Chapter 3 • 2. Explain the State’s attitude toward sex. How does the State regard marriage? • Citizens are expected to be promiscuous. Children are taught erotic play to free them of any sense of guilt or repression. They feel that marriage, monogamy, and romance keep a society from being stable because they cause an exclusiveness, a narrow channeling of impulse and energy, which focus upon the individual only as a part of the whole community.

24. Chapter 3 • 3. “Ending is better than mending.” “The more stitches, the less riches.” How do these sayings express the economic views of the State?

25. Chapter 3 • 3. “Ending is better than mending.” “The more stitches, the less riches.” How do these sayings express the economic views of the State? • Mending, repairing any goods, is contrary to constant consumption, the economic basis of the World State.

26. Chapters 1-3 • 1. What is AF. 632? What can you infer about this society from such a designation?

27. Chapters 1-3 • 1. What is AF. 632? What can you infer about this society from such a designation? • After Ford 632 – this society worships production, materialism.

28. Chapters 1-3 • 2. How many individuals can be produced from one egg and one sperm?

29. Chapters 1-3 • 2. How many individuals can be produced from one egg and one sperm? • 96

30. Chapters 1-3 • 3. What is the purpose of the processes that take place in the Social Predestination Room?

31. Chapters 1-3 • 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 certain social caste and job.

32. Chapters 1-3 • 4. What is the point of conditioning the masses to hate nature?

33. Chapters 1-3 • 4. What is the point of conditioning the masses to hate nature? • A love of nature does not keep factories busy.

34. Chapters 1-3 • 5. What kinds of things do the children hear while they are asleep?

35. Chapters 1-3 • 5. What kinds of things do the children hear while they are asleep? • messages that convince them they are very happy

36. Chapters 1-3 • 6. Who is Mustapha Mond? What does he say about history?

37. Chapters 1-3 • 6. Who is Mustapha Mond? What does he say about history? • Western European Controller; It’s bunk

38. Chapters 1-3 • 7. Describe Lenina Crowne.

39. Chapters 1-3 • 7. Describe Lenina Crowne. • A young and attractive woman who works at the Hatcheries and Conditioning Centre, Lenina is “having” Henry Foster exclusively.

40. Chapters 1-3 • 8. What is “wrong” with Bernard Marx?

41. Chapters 1-3 • 8. What is “wrong” with Bernard Marx? • He is a bit small for an Alpha, likes to be alone, doesn’t like to hear Lenina discussed as if she were a mere piece of meat.

42. Chapters 1-3 • 9. What is soma?

43. Chapters 1-3 • 9. What is soma? • A drug with no side effects which provides an escape from reality