A Teacher's Guide to Brave New World

Common-Core Aligned Teacher Materials and a Sample Chapter

Aldous Huxley, Amy Jurskis

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780062374271
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

For teachers

We know that the Common Core State Standards are encouraging you to reevaluate the books that you assign to your students. To help you decide which books are right for your classroom, each free ebook in this series contains a Common Core–aligned teaching guide and a sample chapter.

This free teaching guide for Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is designed to help you put the new Common Core State Standards into practice.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English."— Chicago Tribune

Aldous Huxley's tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified students for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

Teacher’s Guide

NOTE TO TEACHERS

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In the past several years there has been an explosion of interest in dystopian fiction among young adults. Popular series like Hunger Games, Uglies, and Divergent have renewed student interest in this genre, and teachers are encouraged to use this interest to introduce a unit on dystopian fiction/the individual vs. society that features Brave New World as an anchor text.

John, the Savage of Brave New World, references several works by William Shakespeare. Students will likely be familiar with Romeo and Juliet, but teachers may also find it helpful to build background knowledge by exposing their students to the play Othello prior to teaching Brave New World.

The questions and activities in this teaching guide were written to support standards-based instruction. Brave New World meets the standard for Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity for grades 9-10.

A complete list of the Common Core State Standards can be found at http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards.

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

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This Teacher’s Guide is divided into three sections. The first, “Guided Reading Questions,” will help students with reading comprehension and appreciation. These questions can be used as a guide for annotating the text, journal responses, or discussion. A focus on analysis of both characters and the structure of the novel is embedded within the questions. Lists of vocabulary words for each chapter are provided in order to facilitate the teaching of vocabulary in context. The second section, “Writing and Discussion Prompts,” consists of analytical writing and discussion prompts and is subdivided into genres based on the Common Core writing standards. Consulting established literary criticism may be beneficial for advanced students, but it is not necessary. The topics in the third section, “Research Topics,” will require students to conduct and synthesize significant outside research on topics related to the novel.

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Guided Reading Questions

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

CHAPTER ONE

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Vocabulary: pallid, callow, abject, geniality, florid, zealous, salinity, viscosity, bouillon, prodigious, viviparous, vivacious, interminable, deft, optimum, predestination, sultry, caste, decant CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.4a-d

1. Explain how Huxley uses imagery to establish setting and mood. Cite specific examples that you find particularly effective in your response. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4

2. The World State’s motto suggests that community, identity, and stability are the most important qualities in their society. What do you believe are the three most important values for a society? Explain your answer. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.6

3. Explain the fertilization process used in Brave New World. How does the Hatching and Conditioning Centre acquire the necessary ovum and spermatozoa? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

4. What is Bokanovsky’s Process? Which classes undergo Bokanovsky’s Process? Which do not? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

5. Why would Bokanovsky’s Process help create social stability? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

6. Based on context clues, what do you think the term “unforeseen wastages” is a euphemism for (10)? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4

7. What do you think a “freemartin” is (13)? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4

8. According to Mr. Foster, at what point does the Centre leave the realm of imitating nature and begin to apply human invention to reproduction? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

9. What is the purpose of depriving some embryos of adequate oxygen? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

10. Why do the scientists hope to discover a way to speed up maturation? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

11. According to the Director, what is the secret of happiness and virtue? Do you agree with him? Explain your answer. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

12. Explain some of the processes that the Centre uses to prepare embryos for their “inescapable social destiny” (16-17). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

CHAPTER TWO

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Vocabulary: viscose, posthumous, apoplectic, suffuse, indissolubly, gratuitous, smut, sibilant, imperative, indefatigably, inculcate, insinuating CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.4a-d

1. Research the experiments of Ivan Pavlov and explain Pavlov’s theory. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9

2. Explain the conditioning exercise that the Delta infants at the Centre experience. What is the purpose of the “lesson”? How does it reflect the Pavlov’s theory? Explain the economic rationale for conditioning lower-caste children to hate flowers. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

3. What is suggested by Huxley’s decision to replace the words “mother” and “father” with “crash and crash” and “wink and snigger” (25)? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4

4. How was hypnopædia discovered? What were its limitations? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

5. Based on context clues, what historical figure is referred to as “Our Ford”? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

6. What is moral education? Why was it possible to adapt hypnopædia for moral education? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

7. Explain the methods used by the class, Elementary Class Consciousness, to condition children. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

8. What does Huxley mean when he compares hypnopædia to drops of sealing wax falling on granite (28)? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4

9. How do you think the Director would have finished the sentence “It therefore follows�”(29)? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

10. Explain how Huxley develops the motif of Henry Ford as a God figure. Use specific examples from the text to support your analysis. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.5 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

CHAPTER THREE

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Vocabulary: centrifugal, rudimentary, patronizing, contempt, maudlin, rigorously, suppressed, incredulity, surreptitious, averted, unsavory, bunk, derision, contemptuous, teeming, rabble, evocation, squalid, chypre, inscrutable, sadism, chastity, incongruous, emphatically, axiomatic, truculently, stickler, furtive, keen, pneumatic, insurmountable, degrading, indignant CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.4a-d

1. Explain how Centrifugal Bumble-puppy is played. What is the government’s perspective on the purpose of games? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

2. How does the Director respond to the children he catches engaged in sexual play? In this society, what sort of behavior is considered “normal” and “abnormal?” CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

3. What does the Director tell the students about the way children were raised in the past? How do the students respond to this information? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

4. Who is Mustapha Mond? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1

5. Beginning on page 34, Huxley juxtaposes scenes between the Director and his students with scenes between Henry Foster and Bernard Marx and scenes of a discussion between Fanny and Lenina Crowne. What is happening in each of these three vignettes? What effect does the juxtaposition of the scenes create? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.5

6. Explain the saying “History is bunk.” Consider the list of things (found on page 35) that the Controller dismisses and suggest a reason for his inclusion of these particular examples of “bunk.” Are there any common themes among them? CCSS.ELA-Literacy...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Sample Material
• Teacher’s Guide
• Books by Aldous Huxley
• About the Authors
• Copyright
• About the Publisher