Brave New World

Grade Levels

Excerpt

TERMS: Provide a definition for each term.

• Caste System:

• Soma, or Soma Holiday:

• Malthusian Belt:

• Hypnopaedia:

• Centrifugal Bumbe-Puppy:

• Bokonovsky Process:

MULTIPLE CHOICE: Circle the best answer.

• Who said the following: “I’m thinking of a queer feeling I sometimes get, a feeling that I’ve got something important to say and the power to say it -- only I don’t know what it is, and I can’t make any use of the power.” a.) John b.) Hemholtz Watson c.) the D.H.C. d.) Linda

• Who said the following: “Don’t you want to be free and men? Don’t you even understand what manhood and freedom are?” a.) Lenina b.) John c.) the D.H.C. d.) Mustapha Mond

• Which world drug does Mustapha Mond describe as “Christianity without tears”? a.) sex-hormone chewing gum b.) soma c.) peyote d.) violent passion surrogate

• What are Delta children, who are created for rote factory work, taught to dislike? a.) biological mothers b.) science & math c.) animals & nature d.) books & nature

• Early in the novel, Fanny Crowne lectures Lenina for her unacceptable social behavior. What is Lenina’s fault, as Fanny sees it? a.) Lenina is not promiscuous enough. b.) Lenina is consuming too much soma. c.) Lenina is not dedicated enough to the World State. d.) Lenina has been secretly reading a book.

SHORT ANSWER: For each question, write a well-develop paragraph explaining your answer. Do not re-tell plot only. Write for an audience who has read the novel.

• In what year did Huxley publish Brave New World? What was happening (or about to happen) in the world at the time Huxley published Brave New World? Why were these years so important in human history?

• Huxley uses many foils (characters who are reflections of each other) in the novel. Select a character from the Utopia and one from the Dystopia and comment on how they are foils of each other.

• Choose a major symbol in the novel. What does it represent? Which character(s) connect(s) with it?

• We read two essays on human reproductive cloning, one by Annas and Robertson. Whose essay would Huxley most likely agree with? Why?

• How is Brave New World like the movie Gattaca? (Focus on one similarity only).

• In the final chapters, the World Controller says the Utopians achieve happiness by giving up certain fundamental rights and/or institutions. Identify two (2) of these rights or institutions and discuss how the Controller justifies his statement that the people are “happy” to lose them.

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Novel test on Brave New World. Includes short answer, multiple choice, and mini-essay.