Ms. Asgill's ERWC 2017-2018



Brave New World Essay NotesToday’s Date: Thu., 3/29/18Essay DUE: Wed., 4/11/18NOTE ABOUT FINDING A THEME AND HAVING SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT:One of the biggest obstacles you will face in college next year will be trying to find something to write about when you’re asked to ANALYZE a piece of literature. Analysis means that you’re breaking the text down to its smallest components so that you can understand the whole thing. So, if you were asked to analyze peperoni pizza, it means that before you can make a judgment about how good the WHOLE pizza, you would have to understand (analyze) each of the PARTS individually first. You might break down the pizza parts this way:Look at the doughThe dough is (thin, sort of sweet, kind of crunchy, is hand-tossed, tastes like it was just baked, etc.)Look at the sauceThe sauce is (spicy, thick, spreads evenly over the dough, has fresh tomato chunks, is a little sweet – not too much acid, etc.)Look at the cheeseThe cheese is (made from real milk – not artificial, is very elastic – stretches across the entire pizza, not clumpy, etc.)Look at the peperoni The peperoni is (big pieces, sliced thinly, a little spicy, not greasy, etc.)An analysis of a piece of literature works the same way. You’ve got to break down the small parts of the novel in order to locate the message about the theme (the WHOLE book).Look at what the author is repeating. He’s doing it for a reason. This will help you find a theme….or you can use one of the themes from the Sparknotes. I’ve already said that you have to look at this book through the lens of feminism. So, that’s done. Now find another lens through which to view feminism. Look at what Huxley is repeating.Sex (what is repeating about sex? Why is the author repeating it? What point does he want us to understand?)The women are initiating sex as equally as the men.The main female character, Lenina, has sex promiscuously and is applauded by society.John’s mom, Linda, sleeps with the director – gets pregnant – has the baby “naturally” and is called a “mother” – so she has sex for procreation and is frowned on in society.The women in the brave new world still are responsible for stopping their pregnancies – just as they are in the “real world.” Why? If he’s making them use their bodies like pieces of “meat” – why not have the men share in the responsibility of avoiding pregnancies? …and so on, and so on, and so on…Can you find a pattern that you can make a claim from? SAMPLE: Huxley makes the argument that women’s sexual relationships are disconnected from the emotions of love and motherhood, and their bodies are just used as objects in order to show that if this happens in a real society, they are simply making themselves robots – not real people – even though he makes women responsible for avoiding pregnancies. His examples are extreme because he wants to prove that Drugs (what is repeating about drugs? Why is the author repeating it? What point does he want us to understand?)People take soma daily.Soma prevents them from feeling.Some comes in many appealing forms – such as ice cream.Without soma, people start to think clearly and ponder what’s really going on.You’ll write a ton of essays and may not always be given a specific prompt – and even with a specific prompt, you still might need the aid of online analysis sources: Sparknotes, etc. So, to you them responsibly, you must understand the following things about writing analyses:The notes are not the Holy Grail. The notes were written by a person. This person has her ideas – just as you have yours. No better. No worse. Everyone has a voice.Every analysis can be/should be different. We can read the same text but walk away with different ways of seeing it. Everyone has a different set of eyes.Analysis simply means that you think the author is trying to make a particular point about the literature. What’s the point? It depends on your own reading of the text. You already know how to analyze everything. All you did was pay close attention to what you were looking at – then located a pattern based on whether it was repeating – then made a judgment about what you were looking at: For example, when you met your new teachers at the start of the year you made observations. Teacher A likes to talk a lot about his travel adventures. How do you know? He does it a lot. Teacher B is cool. How do you know? He constantly does stuff that you like and enjoy. Anybody can analyze anything by asking these four questions – the first two being the most important (what repeats? And what contrasts?). When the writer does these four things (…the writer is ALWAYS doing these things…), you should pay attention. This is how you will find something to write about that is unique from other writers. Look for patterns once you ask the four questions – and what out for the answers as you read. What repeats?What contrasts?What are the symbols? (Could the Henry Ford and his Model T car symbolize progress for women or their downfall? Why does the author consider Ford a symbol for God?)What is different, strange, or unusual? (Is it weird that Bernard – the person who has gotten almost everything he wants from the Brave New World – is trying to have feelings and emotions instead of enjoying himself the way the other Alphas are? Why would he want to have feelings and be unhappy? Why does he not always take his soma?)Only read the summaries – not the analyses of the work. If you do this, it will prevent your OWN IDEAS from coming to the surface. Remember that your instructor will have read the online resources also. So, don’t cheat. You could get kicked out of college for plagiarism. Colleges also use many online plagiarism detectors – such as But more than this, if you take someone else’s ideas, you get closer and closer to becoming a potato. You forget how to think – and just go along with whatever someone else says. The Sparknotes writer is not anyone special – just a person. Ask Miss Barr (room L5) to tell you her funny story about being a Sparknotes writer one day. It’s hilarious! Have faith that you will have something to say. You understand argument structure. Find ALL of your notes. You have been given notes on EACH aspect of argument. Use them:Claim – a sort of opinion (an assertion, really) that you must prove using evidence Explain – why you have the viewpoint that you haveEvidence x 4 – fact-based, verifiable evidence from the text. A text is anything that you can have an opinion about (movie, book, newspaper, someone’s clothing, etc.). Commentary – commentary is your opinion about how the evidence helps to prove your point (your claim). COMMENTARY IS THE ANALYSIS of the paper. This is what your paper is about. This is what makes your thinking different from the people who wrote the Sparknotes. You get to include your experiences, things you heard about in the news, something you witnessed, that is similar to what’s going on in the book. These OPINIONS are yours. Commentary just means that you are using your examples, analogies, and explanations to explain the book evidence to the reader in a way that makes your point about the claim. Commentary is the most important part of your paper. ASSIGNMENT: Essay DUE: Wed., April 11th – before midnightEMAIL: masgill@INVITE: invite me to your Google-Doc.If you cannot use your Turlock Email Address. Use your Gmail. Then email to the class Gmail: thsenglish12@Critical Perspectives: Write your paper from one of the critical perspectives. It does not have to be feminism. I’m modifying the assignment because I believe that will all of the research and discussions, you do have an understanding of it and the different types of feminism. Here, again, are the four perspectives:FeminismHistoricalEconomicPsychologicalUse the class website resources to help you gain more insight about each. Also use your class notes. I gave you each another copy of the notes yesterday.Prompt: What message is the author sending about life as it relates to __________ (one of the critical perspectives). For example: Regarding Feminism, what does Huxley want us to learn about being a woman as it relates to ___________________________ (one of the themes in the book). For example, look at the first theme below: Free Will versus Enslavement from the Shmoop website).READ THE “FREE WILL VERSUS ENSLAVEMENT” piece first – then read the example.Example: CLAIM: What message is Huxley sending about life as it relates to women and free will?If only the controllers of the society have free will, and if none of the women are controllers, then even in the Brave New World, women are still seen as objects to be used to the will of a man. Explain: What do you mean?Huxley may have been trying to equalize women’s plight in the book by making them equally as sexually promiscuous and unfeeling about how they used their bodies to make the point that they are just as equally unfeeling as men are about sex. This does not, however, make anything equal, because, in reading this book from a feminist perspective, the women still are being controlled by the men since all of the controllers are men. Evidence + Commentary: Lenina gets “invited” to view the reservation by Bernard. (Evidence #1)Evidence #2Evidence #3Evidence #4FORMAT & STRUCTURE:MLA format (double space…SEE Owl Purdue if you need a refresher. point fontINTRODUCTIONAttention grabberContextualization (see notes)…provide background on the TOPIC/theme that concerns youThesis (main claim)BODYSub claim #1Explain Evidence x4 + commentary Sub claim #2ExplainEvidence x4 + commentary Sub claim #3Explain Evidence x4 + commentary CONCLUSIONRestate thesis using different wordsGive your final opinion about the Brave New World as it relates to the topic you choice. In 2018, would Huxley’s world work? A PAPER: write at least 3 body paragraphs and the most you could earn on this essay is an A, but you could earn a lesser grade, depending on the quality B PAPER: write at least 2 body paragraphs, and the most you could earn is a B – even if the paper is excellent.C PAPER: write at least 1 body paragraph, and the most you could earn is a C – even if the paper is excellent.Themes in Brave New WorldBrave New World is Huxley's satirical look at a totalitarian society of the future, in which the trends of Huxley's day have been taken to extremes. When an outsider encounters this world, he cannot accept its values and chooses to die rather than try to conform to this "brave new world."Free Will versus Enslavement (Shmoop)Only the Controllers of society, the ten elite rulers, have freedom of choice. Everyone else has been conditioned from the time they were embryos to accept unquestioningly all the values and beliefs of the carefully ordered society. Upper-class Alphas are allowed a little freedom because their higher intellect makes it harder for them to completely accept the rules of society. For example, they are occasionally allowed to travel to the Indian reservation to see how outsiders live. It is hoped that exposure to an "inferior" and "primitive" society will finally squelch any doubts about their own society's superiority.Beyond this, however, no room exists in "civilized" society for free will, creativity, imagination, or diversity, all of which can lead to conflict, war, and destruction. Therefore, dissidents who want these freedoms are exiled to remote corners of the earth. Anyone who feels upset for any reason quickly ingests a dose of the tranquilizer "soma." John the Savage believes that the price to be paid for harmony in this society is too great. He sees the people as enslaved, addicted to drugs, and weakened and dehumanized by their inability to handle delayed gratification or pain of any sort. He exercises his freedom of choice by killing himself rather than becoming a part of such a world.Class Conflict (Shmoop)As a result of conditioning, class conflict has been eliminated in Huxley's future world. The Controllers have decided there should be five social classes, from the superior, highly intelligent, and physically attractive Alphas--who have the most desirable and intellectually demanding jobs--to the inferior, mentally deficient, and physically unattractive Epsilons, who do the least desirable, menial jobs. Huxley makes the Alphas tall and fair and the Epsilons dark-skinned, reflecting the common prejudices at the time the novel was written. All people are genetically bred and conditioned from birth to be best adapted to the lives they will lead and to accept the class system wholeheartedly. Members of different classes not only look physically different but wear distinctive colors to make sure that no one can be mistaken for a member of a different group. Here, Huxley points out the shallowness in our own society: members of different social classes dress differently in order to be associated with their own class. Only John the Savage can see people as they really are because he has not been conditioned to accept unquestioningly the rigid class structure. Thus, when he sees a dark-skinned person of a lower caste, he is reminded of Othello, a Shakespearean character who was both dark-skinned and admirable. John does not think to judge a person by his appearance. Because Huxley was from a distinguished, educated, upper-class British family, he was very aware of the hypocrisies of the privileged classes. The Controller and Director represent the arrogant hypocrisy of the ruling class.Sex (Shmoop)The inhabitants of Huxley's future world have very unusual attitudes toward sex by the standards of contemporary society. Promiscuity is considered healthy and superior to committed, monogamous relationships. Even small children are encouraged to engage in erotic play. The Controllers realize that strong loyalties created by committed relationships can cause conflicts between people, upsetting productivity and harmony. Since the needs of society are far more important than the needs of the individual, the Controllers strongly believe that sacrificing human attachments--even the attachment between children and their parents--is a small price to pay for social harmony. Women use contraception to avoid pregnancy, and if they do get pregnant accidentally, they hurry to the abortion center, a place Linda recalls with great fondness. She regrets bitterly having had to give birth in what she feels was a "dirty" affair.People in Huxley's day were becoming more accepting of casual sex than previous generations, and they had much greater access to birth control. However, as Huxley shows, even with the best technology to prevent pregnancy, people can only maintain their loose sexual mores by sacrificing intimacy and commitment.Sex (Sparknotes)Brave New World?abounds with references to sex. At the heart of the World State’s control of its population is its rigid control over sexual mores and reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are controlled through an authoritarian system that sterilizes about two-thirds of women, requires the rest to use contraceptives, and surgically removes ovaries when it needs to produce new humans. The act of sex is controlled by a system of social rewards for promiscuity and lack of commitment. John, an outsider, is tortured by his desire for Lenina and her inability to return his love as such. The conflict between John’s desire for love and Lenina’s desire for sex illustrates the profound difference in values between the World State and the humanity represented by Shakespeare’s works.Science and Technology (Shmoop)Science and technology provide the means for controlling the lives of the citizens in Brave New World. First, cloning is used to create many of human beings from the same fertilized egg. The genetically similar eggs are placed in bottles, where the growing embryos and fetuses are exposed to external stimulation and chemical alteration to condition them for their lives after being "decanted" or "hatched."Babies and children are subject to cruel conditioning. They are exposed to flowers, representing the beauty of nature, and given electric shocks to make them averse to nature. They are brought to the crematorium, where they play and are given treats so that they will associate death with pleasantness and therefore not object when society determines it is time for them to die. Also, hypnopaedia, or sleep teaching, is used to indoctrinate children. All of these extreme methods of conditioning could conceivably work.Adults use "soma," a tranquilizer, to deaden feelings of pain or passion. Frivolous gadgets and hi-tech entertainment provide distractions, preventing the childlike citizens from engaging in rich emotional and intellectual lives or from experiencing challenges that might lead to emotional and intellectual growth. Indeed, the Controller feels that technology's purpose is to make the distance between the feeling of desire and the gratification of that desire so short that citizens are continually content and not tempted to spend their time thinking and questioning.Since books are taboo and knowledge restricted only to the powerful elite minority, the citizens are unaware that technology has been used to limit their lives. In fact, in writing this novel of ideas Huxley aims to make contemporary citizens question the ethics of using technology for social purposes and to realize the dangers of misuse of technology by totalitarian governments.The Use of Technology to Control Society (Sparknotes)Brave New World?warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. One illustration of this theme is the rigid control of reproduction through technological and medical intervention, including the surgical removal of ovaries, the Bokanovsky Process, and hypnopaedic conditioning. Another is the creation of complicated entertainment machines that generate both harmless leisure and the high levels of consumption and production that are the basis of the World State’s stability. Soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that?Brave New World?criticizes most sharply.It is important to recognize the distinction between science and technology. Whereas the State talks about progress and science, what it really means is the bettering of technology, not increased scientific exploration and experimentation. The state uses science as a means to build technology that can create a seamless, happy, superficial world through things such as the “feelies.” The state censors and limits science, however, since it sees the fundamental basis behind science, the search for truth, as threatening to the State’s control. The State’s focus on happiness and stability means that it uses the results of scientific research, inasmuch as they contribute to technologies of control, but does not support science itself.The Consumer Society (Sparknotes)It is important to understand that?Brave New World?is not simply a warning about what?could?happen to society if things go wrong, it is also a satire of the society in which Huxley existed, and which still exists today. While the attitudes and behaviors of World State citizens at first appear bizarre, cruel, or scandalous, many clues point to the conclusion that the World State is simply an extreme—but logically developed—version of our society’s economic values, in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs, and success as a society is equated with economic growth and prosperity.The Incompatibility of Happiness and Truth (Sparknotes)Brave New World?is full of characters who do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about their own situations. The almost universal use of the drug soma is probably the most pervasive example of such willful self-delusion. Soma clouds the realities of the present and replaces them with happy hallucinations, and is thus a tool for promoting social stability. But even Shakespeare can be used to avoid facing the truth, as?John?demonstrates by his insistence on viewing Lenina through the lens of Shakespeare’s world, first as a Juliet and later as an “impudent strumpet.” According to?Mustapha Mond, the World State prioritizes happiness at the expense of truth by design: he believes that people are better off with happiness than with truth.What are these two abstract entities that Mond juxtaposes? It seems clear enough from Mond’s argument that happiness refers to the immediate gratification of every citizen’s desire for food, sex, drugs, nice clothes, and other consumer items. It is less clear what Mond means by truth, or specifically?what?truths he sees the World State society as covering up. From Mond’s discussion with John, it is possible to identify two main types of truth that the World State seeks to eliminate. First, as Mond’s own past indicates, the World State controls and muffles all efforts by citizens to gain any sort of scientific, or empirical truth. Second, the government attempts to destroy all kinds of “human” truths, such as love, friendship, and personal connection. These two types of truth are quite different from each other: objective truth involves coming to a definitive conclusion of fact, while a “human” truth can only be explored, not defined. Yet both kinds of truth are united in the passion that an individual might feel for them. As a young man, Mustapha Mond became enraptured with the delight of making discoveries, just as John loves the language and intensity of Shakespeare. The search for truth then, also seems to involve a great deal of individual effort, of striving and fighting against odds. The very will to search for truth is an individual desire that the communal society of?Brave New World,?based as it is on anonymity and lack of thought, cannot allow to exist. Truth and individuality thus become entwined in the novel’s thematic structure.The Dangers of an All-Powerful State (Sparknotes)Like George Orwell’s?1984,?this novel depicts a dystopia in which an all-powerful state controls the behaviors and actions of its people in order to preserve its own stability and power. But a major difference between the two is that, whereas in?1984?control is maintained by constant government surveillance, secret police, and torture, power in?Brave New World?is maintained through technological interventions that start before birth and last until death, and that actually change what people want. The government of?1984maintains power through force and intimidation. The government of?Brave New World?retains control by making its citizens so happy and superficially fulfilled that they don’t care about their personal freedom. In?Brave New World?the consequences of state control are a loss of dignity, morals, values, and emotions—in short, a loss of humanity.Knowledge and Ignorance (Shmoop)To control the citizens, the Controllers make sure people are taught only what they need to know to function within society and no more. Knowledge is dangerous. Books are strictly forbidden. Art and culture, which stimulate the intellect, emotions, and spirit, are reduced to pale imitations of the real thing. Existing music is synthetic and characterized by absurd popular songs that celebrate the values of society. Movies appeal to the lowest common denominator. Citizens are conditioned to believe that wanting to be alone is strange. They seek shallow relationships with each other, minus intimacy and commitment, rather than spending time alone thinking. If they did spend time in contemplation, they might, like Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson, start questioning the meaning of their lives and the function of the society.Only the Controller has access to the great literature and culture of the past. He enjoys discussing Shakespeare with John the Savage. Huxley, by making his primitive character have only Shakespeare's works on which to base his perceptions, shows the power of such great literature: that it can capture an enormous range of human experience, to which the citizens of the brave new world are completely oblivious. In the end, however, the people who accidentally attain knowledge have only two choices if they are to survive: they can become oppressors or modification (Gradesaver)Huxley views commodified society as a detriment to human creativity. In the novel, society modifies human behavior so that people will seek to consume goods and services as much as possible. This modification in turn means that everyone who makes such goods or provides such services will be able to stay employed. Thus, the society's economy will remain stable.However, such reliance upon commodification also blunts any attempt at original thought. Consumption becomes so important to the society that all of a person's energy and reason is put into activities of work and play that consume goods that in turn keep the economy running. This is, of course, important for maintaining the structured and controlled environment of Huxley's dystopia, but it also produces human beings who simply do what they have been taught and have no reason to think on their own.Dystopia (Gradesaver)A dystopia is a kind of science fiction, or fantasy, world that predicts the future in a negative light. Huxley's?Brave New World?and George Orwell's?1984?were two of the first modern dystopian novels. Both told of a future society in which governments had complete dictatorial control over people, while state control and conformity replaced the freedoms of modern life and a person's right to the pursuit of happiness.Dystopian novels such as?Brave New World?are critiques of modern institutions. Such works take an instance of injustice or perceived ill in a society and take those situations to what would be their logical ends. In?Brave New World, Huxley critiques modern governmental institutions whose power has slowly crept into the lives of ordinary people. This process often occurs in the name of security or peace, yet such actions inevitably lead to the destruction of everything that is good in a society such as freedom or creativity.Freedom (Gradesaver)Brave New World?largely defines freedom through the structures that prevent freedom. Bernard feels these constraints most acutely, as in a scene from chapter 6, when Bernard and Lenina have a conversation about freedom. Lenina insists that everyone has a great deal of freedom - the freedom "to have the most wonderful time." Soma represents this kind of freedom, as it puts people in a hypnotic state in which they no longer feel as though they should ask questions or defy the structures of society. Bernard insists that this is no freedom at all.Bernard claims that his ideal of freedom is the freedom to be an individual apart from the rest of society. Bernard strives to be free in his "own way...not in everybody else's way." Huxley argues here that certain structures in our own modern society work in the same way that drugs like soma work in this fantastical dystopia. Huxley often argues against the use of advertising specifically for the way that it hypnotized people into wanting and buying the same products. Such things keep people within predefined structures, and it quashes free thought, which ultimately restricts freedom.Human Impulse (Gradesaver)Human impulses play a complicated role in the novel. First, Huxley suggests that they can both stabilize and destabilize society, as in the case of sexual activity. In?Brave New World, the authorities encourage all humans to sleep with as many other people as often as they can. In previous generations, institutions such as marriage controlled these impulses. People tried to confine their impulses, buy when they no longer could, such institutions unraveled.By abolishing institutions such as marriage and encouraging behavior that society once considered immoral, the leaders of the new world have gotten rid of the inherent dangers of these sexual impulses. However, Huxley also suggests that the freedom of these impulses undermines humanity's creativity. Complete freedom to have pleasure has made each person like an infant, incapable of adult thought and creativity. For example, Bernard longs to have more control over his impulses, but the display of such control unnerves others who have learned to be free with their impulses.The Power of Knowledge (Gradesaver)Huxley's civilized world is a society of ultimate knowledge. Humans have conquered almost all areas of scientific inquiry; they control life, death, aging, pleasure, and pain. This mastery of knowledge has given human beings great control over their world, and this control in turn has given great power to those who first envisioned such a society, and who continue to maintain its existence.However, such knowledge and the abuse of power that it inspires often lead to downfall, as symbolized by Huxley's frequent allusions to Shakespeare's?Macbeth. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth gains small pieces of knowledge of present and future events that leads him to seek more power and control over his kingdom. However, this knowledge leads to abuse of power and is the cause of his ultimate demise. In the same way, characters in Huxley's novel must stay in the dark about the true workings of society because knowledge will lead to their ultimate demise.Utilitarian Happiness (Gradesaver)A utilitarian society aims to produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. In Huxley's society, this particular good is happiness, and government, industry, and all other social apparatuses exist in order to maximize the happiness of all members of society.John the Savage rebels against this notion of utilitarian happiness. He argues that humanity must also know how to be unhappy in order to create and appreciate beauty. The use of soma is an example of the opposite. People take the drug in order to go on a "holiday" from any kind of unhappiness. Because they refuse to experience unhappiness, the drug keeps them from wonder and the appreciation of beauty, as in the scene when Lenina and Bernard fly over the tossing English Channel. He sees a beautiful display of nature's power; she sees a horribly frightening scene that she wants to avoid.The Transformation of Human Relationships (Gradesaver)The society in?Brave New World?can only survive because it has destroyed any remnants of human relationships and bonds. The relationships of father and mother no longer exist because all human beings are born in a scientific lab. The relationship between husband and wife is no longer necessary because society shuns monogamy, and all men and women learn to share each other equally.The cost of such actions is that human beings cannot truly experience the emotions of love. Both John and Lenina begin to feel these strong emotions over the course of the novel, but they cannot act on these emotions in a constructive way because neither can comprehend how to have such a relationship in their society.The Limits of Science (Gradesaver)While society has mainly banned art and religion rather than science,?Mustapha Mond?also claims that too much scientific progress can also reduce the ultimate happiness of each individual. Science, he tells the reader, is responsible for a great many of the achievements of their society and for the levels of happiness that each individual achieves. Nevertheless, if scientific progress occurs without restraint, it will lead to less happiness.For instance, the government does not engineer food in a scientific laboratory, even though it would be faster and would feed more people. By farming food naturally, the government gives more work for the lower caste people to do and thus keeps them occupied and happy. This example shows that progress does not always maximize happiness, a fact that John the Savage clearly sees in his new society. ................
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