Brave+New+World

__Key Plot Events__

-The book begins with a group of students on a tour of a hatchery, where people are born to different classes based on how they are developed, and babies and children grow up and are molded to fit into society. -Lenina and Fanny talk about Lenina’s odd relationship with one person instead of getting with many different people, which is mare accepted. -Bernard Marx is angry to hear his colleagues talk about Lenina, “as though she were meat.” -Bernard gets permission from the director of the hatchery to go to the savage reservation. The director warns him that he will be moved to Iceland if he continues to act strange but allows him to go and tells him about how he lost a girl there once. -Bernard and Lenina go on a vacation to the savage reservation. Both of them and especially Lenina are astounded by the lack of technology and the poor physical states of the people in the reservation. They meet John and his mother Linda, who Bernard remembered that the director of the hatchery told him about losing on his trip. -Bernard and Lenina return home with Linda and John. The director is about to fire Bernard but he reveals that the director has a son, which is an offense against society, and he ends up resigning. -Linda is too ugly to fit back into society and she spends her days continually on soma. -Bernard becomes very popular for bringing back John and now becomes a happy part of the society which he criticized before. -John, who has a crush on Lenina, becomes overwhelmed by society and is tired of being used by Bernard and refuses to make an appearance for him. -Bernard loses his popularity and Lenina tries to have sex with John who gets angry and attacks her. -Linda dies from too many drugs and John is distraught, which is unheard of in the BNW society, and starts a riot by throwing away the soma rations for a group of workers. Helmholtz helps John and Bernard is also present and the three are arrested and brought before Mustapha Mond. -Mond tries to explain to John why the BNW society is so much different than the reservation. Bernard and Helmholtz are banished to islands and John decided he can no longer remain in the society and runs off and tries to live in an abandoned light house. -John tries to live a life that, unlike the society, includes pain. He whips himself. This is recorded by a reporter and John becomes a freak show with many people coming everyday to watch him. John sees Lenina and he beats and maybe kills her. -Eventually John can’t take it anymore and hangs himself.

__Key Characters__
 * 1) John the Savage: son of Linda who lived on the Savage Reservation and lived as an outcast from the other "savages"because of his mother's origins in the World State. In the end, he chooses a life of self-denial and self-inflicted corporal punishment against a life of self-indulgence and complacency.
 * 2) Linda (John's mother): had John with Mustapha Mond and was subsequently left on the Savage Reservation (pregnancy and any reference to childbearing and motherhood are looked upon as pornographic and base in the World State). She know very little valuable information and utterly lacks wisdom. An outcast, she has affairs with many men from the Reservation, which enrages John. When she dies and the citizens of the World State express their apathy about death, John actively seeks revenge against the World State, to no avail.
 * 3) Lenina: John's love interest, Lenina is very attractive. She goes on dates with Bernard on several occasions, an unusual practice as committed relationships are frowned upon in the World State. She goes with him to the Savage Reservation where John falls in love with her. When he professes his love, however, she is disgusted at the idea.
 * 4) Bernard Marx: At the top tier of the social structure, Bernard is genetically provided with a minimal degree of freewill, unlike the lower classes. He does not fit in, however, and constantly feels inadequate and unsuccessful, a fact that precludes his hopes for happiness in the novel. He goes out with Lenina and, after brining home the Savage, experiences some degree of fame and happiness until ultimately he is shamed as the Savage does not show up at an event he had planned.
 * 5) Helmholtz: Bernard's friend, Helmholtz also feels out of place because he cannot express anything meaningful in his writing. John suggests that he write about love, as Shakespeare did in //Romeo and Juliet // , but Helmholtz's upbringing makes him incapable of love, so he chooses to live outside of the World State on an island with unpredictable weather patterns, which he finds a brilliant source of inspiration for his poetry.
 * 6) Henry Foster: a love interest of Lenina, Henry is the tour guide at the beginning of the novel in the Hatchery.
 * 7) Director Mond: Mond is the mastermind behind the stability and immutability of the World State. He designed the entire society to resist change by psychologically and biologically engineering the people to be happy in their places within society and to enjoy their jobs, while discouraging families and procreation because they are not conducive to institutionalized stability. He is well-read in classical literature and philosophy and is not subject to the social controls set on the rest of society.
 * 8) Thomas/Thomakin: The Director of Hatcheries and Condition. He is later revealed to be John's father, a point of hypocrisy that undermines the work he does for the society.

__Setting (time and place)__
 * 1) Central London- Hatching and Conditioning Center
 * 2) Savage Reservation in New Mexico
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Lighthouse- John’s final outcome
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Falkland Islands- depressing place for Helmholtz to write

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">__Key Symbols__ Animal Symbolism: 1. "Straight from the horse's mouth" 2. "Maggots" to describe bokanovski children 3. "Stupid curiosity of animals" to describe Delta children Used to to show how civilization has dehumanized itself to the point where it resembles animals. 1. Mustapha, in response to John, "Nice tame animals" to describe people Citizens of World State resemble domesticated pets as opposed to people with their own free will. At the end of the novel when the people hoard around John whipping himself, the helicopters are described as "grass hoppers" and "locusts." Also, the people throw food at John...similar to animal in the zoo. <span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;"> > <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">__Key Images__ Governmental and Societal Power- The government controls the behaviors and actions of the population in order to maintain stable power. The government controls the population via technological intervention by genetically creating the human beings, manipulating the humans' desires, and intimidating the humans to enforce constant control. The government retains its' control by enforcing superficial happiness upon the population by means of the drug called "soma" and activites such as attending "feelies". Uniformity of classes and social control - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">All citizens of one class are held to the same standards. People are bred to be a certain class and thus little individuality is possible, except among those of the Alpha class. Those of Delta and Epsilon are taught by the hypnopaedia to be happy with their lot in life and to question nothing. Even in the upper levels, those who question are sent away so imbalance cannot be created.
 * Shakespeare in Brave New World**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Savage and the Controller, Mustapha Mond, have both read Shakespeare.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Contrast between World State simplicity and prior elegance
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">References to passionate human relations the society eliminates
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Soma- Soma is a key symbolic source of society's superficial happiness. Soma represents instant gratification by means of others' invention and creation instead of personal hard work and achievement. Soma represents the artificiality the government induces.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"Orgy Porgy" -<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;"> this child-like poem highlights how society has become deadened to immoral behavior and that monogamy and self-control have been extinguished. Immorality of this society is a warning of what will happen in the future.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">

__Key Themes__ <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">__Key Structural Elements__
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Sexual desire invokes rebellion in a society. This exists and we cannot control it.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Cinema and TV are used to politically dominate people and force them to conform. The media tells us what to do or think. We never learn all the details in society and there are dangers in an all powerful state.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Feelies” representing “talkies” present the ruin of art, culture, and the individual in modern society.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">When people cannot overcome their conditioning and background, then the future is hopeless.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">You can have the truth or be happy, but you cannot have both. One must look at society objectively to discover the truth.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">When there is a loss of dignity, morals, and emotions, then there is a loss of humanity.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The use of technology to control the society: Brave New World actually was written as a a warning about what too much technology will make the world become. Even the reproduction process is controlled by technology through the Bokanovsky Process.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Individuality is trumped by acceptance. From the modern reader's perspective, John appears to be doing the right thing by leaving the society and existing on his own. However, the human need for community is more important than pride. People need society, society does not need people.


 * 1) Chapter 3: Huxley shifts between multiple scenes and perspectives in this chapter. He discusses hypnopaedia, while introducing Mustapha Mond, showing the actions of Bernard, and the actions of Lenina and Fanny. This overwhelms the reader, by providing them with a lot of information at once. There are many reasons why Huxley could have chose this structure: It shows the building to chaos of the society, it highlights the differences between the various characters mentioned, it shows the inner connectivity of all character, and it could possible mirror the sensory overload present within the society.

__Satirical Elements__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Bernard Marx: "Marx" refers to the famous Karl Marx, a German man who created the system of modern communism, and wrote Das Kapital, a philsophical critique of Capitalism. This is ironic, as Bernard is a character that is upset merely by the fact that he does not fit into his society, not due to its structure. Further, Bernard comes across as an individual in the novel, different from the rest, which is the not the goal of a communist society. Helmholtz Watson: "Watson" was an animal behavior researcher. He did something called the "Little Albert" experiment, which tested the effects of classical conditioning on an infant. This is satirical as well. Watson, the character in Brave New World, was an intellectual who had no desire to fit in with society, or to be conditioned. 4. Also, the novel uses Ford/Freud interchangeably to describe the same person. However, in reality, Ford and Freud are two different people. Ford was a man focused on the ideas of consumerism, the assembly line, and most importantly, efficiency. Thus, his ideas can be related to a loss of individuality, which is a common theme present in the novel. Further, Freud was a man who studied the true motivations of human life, and created the Oedipal complex. Interestingly enough, combining both of their ideas produces the Brave New World outlined in the novel.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Disapproves of the consumer society, warns against the idea of success is equal to economic growth and prosperity, and critiques how technology controls society.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Establishes a viewpoint stating that if people become too dependent on technology and trust the government without consideration or speculation then the population will face a threat of losing free will and all personal freedoms.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The names of main characters in society: