CJ Gallo

4/21/22

Period 6

BNW: Prereading and Chapter 1 Notes

This module divides the novel into three main sections:

• The World State: Chapters 1-6 introduce the setting, the main concepts,
and the main characters of the novel.
• The Reservation: Chapters 7-9 describe the experiences of Bernard and
Lenina on the mesa and introduce John, the Savage, and his mother Linda,
who is from the World State.
• The Savage in Civilization: Chapters 10-18 describe the experiences of John,
the Savage, as he attempts to live in what he calls a "Brave New World"
quoting a Shakespearean character Miranda from the drama The Tempest.

Predictions of major ideas:

People are engineered at birth to do certain tasks

Pills are used to control the minds of the masses

People are diminished to the value of a mere cog in the machine of society: people are conditioned to
only do what they are told to do

People may be convinced that being free is wrong

There is a central power that controls the entire planet

There is always at least one person who diverges from mainstream ideas

People are punished severely when they do not follow rules

Society is dependent on the cooperation of the new generation

Brainwashing runs rampant in society

People are convinced that the world is perfect

People are still created through egg fertilization with sperm, but there is no sex

General Idea: In pursuit of a utopia, society ends up becoming a dystopia. Human experience is what
holds society back from being “perfect”
Purpose of dystopian literature is to warn current society to change their course in order to prevent
what may happen in the future.

Human experience includes emotions (love), individualism, free will, greed, relationships, family,
mistakes, personal growth, intelligence, curiosity, anger, power hunger, pride, the seven mortal sins in
general

Article 1: Big Think Article: October 13, 2018

Believes that Brave New World predicted our current society better than any other novel

Book warns society on “dangers of mass media, passivity, and how even an intelligent population can be
driven to gladly choose dictatorship over freedom”.

Book contrasts from others in the sense that the dictator is light handed and people choose to obey.

Book written in 1931: historical context: wwI is 1914-1918, roaring 20’s take place with emphasis on
new forms of self-expression, entertainment, alcohol, booming economy, wall street/stocks. 1929 is
when the stock market crashes, 1931 and forward is the great depression. Growing power of totalitarian
governments like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini is also happening.

The dictators are a group of 10 people and relies on an extensive bureaucracy to maintain complete
assurance and control

In the book, people are either incredibly happy that they have a meaningful job, or incredibly happy that
they do not have much work to do. Their emotions are dictated by the tenants of the Fordist religion
which supports mass consumerism, mass production, and being always happy at all costs. To support
this mass production, children are made on assembly lines and combine sperm and egg and are grown
without any parents. They are born, grown, and immediately sent to work. Even the smartest people
who can understand their slavery are entirely supportive of their condition.

Eugenics are taken to the extreme in the book, but soft eugenics are already happening currently.
Options like prenatal screening, or the choosing of a child's gender are already possible.

Some of the distractions include movies that draw on all 5 senses, constant parties, and extremely
complex games. Like the book, people now can hardly go 30 minutes without using their phone, among
other distractions that have become more prevalent. The book also supports the use of “soma” which is
a drug that can cause euphoria, hallucinations, and complete knockout. The amount of dosage you
receive is seemingly random and people don’t know the effect until they take it. The government
distributes this drug to the people. While not to this extent, people are continually moving towards this
with the increase in use of legal drugs like marijuana, sleeping pills, or alcohol.

In the book, automation is purposely stalled to ensure that everyone gets a job and therefore preventing
them from having time to think. With mass employment comes mass consumption, and new products
are forced upon people even if they don’t need it

The theme of a concentration of power in the book is also seen in society already with 6 corporations
owning 90% of the media and the top 1% of people have hold of the majority of the wealth. The book
conveys the message the people don’t want new media, because the current media has “friendly faces”
that tells them what they want to hear.

Later on, Aldous Huxley claims that the decentralization of government and the commitment to a
democratic form of government is the best possible option for society.

Chapter 1
Focus: Introducing the World State
Two reminders:

• Please try your best as a reader to do your own thinking and learning!!!
• Refer to the book as often as possible by keeping track of page numbers.

What is the World State? Add page numbers.

Pg.3, the world state oversees birthing

factories and conditioning of children
Motto: community, identity, stability
Collect terms/vocabulary related to World
DHC: director of hatching and conditioning State and define.
Add page numbers.
Pg.4: AF = after ford
Pg.6: people eligible to donate are paid 6 Bokanovsky’s process: like what happens
months salaries if they choose to donate with the birth of a twin, except there are
their eggs to the laboratory possibly 96 ppl at once.
Pg: 6 Alphas and Betas are separated from
other sperms to grow in their own eggs Podsnap’s technique accelerates the
because they have more capability for ripening process, allows people to achieve
intelligence the natural growth of 30 years in only 2.
Pg: 7epsilon, delta, and gamma sperms are
grown in sets of 96 from 1 fertilization Beta minus: embyos that are below beta
because they are less capable. quality
The less capable are then doused in alcohol
and x-rays to ensure their menial capabilities Alpha plus: embryos that are beta quality and
are diminished. This makes them suitable for above
all the menial jobs.
Pg: 8 Podsnap’s technique solves the world
states problem of maintaining a stable
population in a swift and consistent manner
Pg:9-13 everything is extremely orderly and
 Each embryo is given similar treatment. Only
30% of female embryos are developed the
same as the others, with the other 60%
forced to be sterile. This may be an effort by
the world state to maintain births to happen
exclusively in factories.
Pg:14 another form of the world state
keeping embryos below beta from
succeeding is depriving their brains of a
natural amount of oxygen
Pg:16 more effort goes into making the
embryos liking certain temperatures or
certain chemicals, which in turn makes them
predestined to enjoy their future job settings

What questions come to mind as you read What predictions do you have about the
chapter 1? Add page numbers that keep track potential issues/problems within the World
of when this question came to mind. State creation? Add page numbers.

Pg.4: how do people not procreate outside
of laboratories if they still have sex for
recreation
Pg.5: when is the abilities of science
overreaching on society
Pg. 11: why do the people in the embryo
store all have lupus
Soma may also be used to as a form of
sterilization that society doesn’t know about
The treatment of alpha plus will be much
more like regular raising conditions of a child
compared to other embryos, but still vastly
different compared to what the reader
believes is normal