BNW Writing Outline Task: Thesis Claim 1: Quote (from the book) 1: Analysis/Explanation Quote (from the book) 2 : Analysis/Explanation Body Significance of Claim 1: Claim 1: Quote (from the book) 1: Analysis/Explanation Quote (from the book) 2 : Analysis/Explanation Significance of Claim 1: Conclusion Writing Prompts: Brave New World Writing Task 1: Entertainment as a Form of Control Core Question: Have we become a trivial culture preoccupied with entertainment? In the foreword to his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, author Neil Postman notes that the year 1984 had come and gone without a fulfillment of George Orwell’s dark, dystopian vision and that Americans felt satisfied that the “roots of liberal democracy had held.” However, he reminds us that alongside Orwell’s dark vision there was another— “slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” As Huxley saw it, “people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” Postman follows these observations with a series of further oppositions comparing the two visions. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. (xix-xx) Postman makes it clear that he thinks Huxley’s vision is coming true. Postman, however, blames television for most of the problem. Today, almost thirty years later, the Internet has more influence than television, and Postman’s arguments appear a bit dated. Have we avoided Huxley’s vision too? Or has the Internet made Huxley’s, and Postman’s, vision even more likely? After reading Brave New World, do you think that Postman was right? Is a constant barrage of entertainment making us passive and self-centered? Are we being controlled and conditioned by pleasure as effectively as we would be by a secret police armed with guns and nightsticks? In other words, how similar is our world to the World State depicted in Brave New World? And what is the trend? Are we becoming, as Postman suggests, more like Brave New World or less? In answering these questions, identify some important aspects of each society that you want to compare. Then discuss the differences and similarities between Brave New World and our own society on each of the aspects you have chosen. Writing Task 2: “Community, Identity, Stability” Core Question: Is social stability worth the price? The motto of the World State depicted on the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” is “Community, Identity, Stability.” This is a statement of values. Mustapha Mond says that sacrificing real feelings and emotional attachments is the price the society has to pay for stability. Mond himself has made sacrifices for the sake of social stability and uses his power to place limits and controls on science and the arts if instability might result. Individuals who threaten this stability are sent away to live on an island. What is the significance of “community” and “identity” in this motto? And how are these related to the stability of the individual? Of society? Do you think that the sacrifices that the World State requires of its citizens are a price worth paying to maintain social stability? To answer this question, go through your reading notebook to find as much evidence as you can that the World State insures that individuals are happy, productive, and compliant. Analyze the positive and negative aspects of each of these practices. Then write an essay arguing whether or not such social stability is worth the price the World State is paying. Support your arguments with details from the book and examples from our own world. Writing Task 3: Self identity Core Question: What is the struggle between individuality and the need to belong to a community? Each of the main characters in Brave New World struggle with identifying their own individual needs with the restrictions of the rules in the World State. The motto of the World State depicted on the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” is “Community, Identity, Stability.” This is a statement of values. In your essay explain how at least one character struggles with creating their own identity. What events in their life force them to question their own needs versus the needs of the World State. In your essay you must conclude whether or not the character or characters decide to become an individual or support the needs of their community to create stability. Writing Task 4: Literature Core Question: How does John’s understanding of literature shape his identity? In Brave New World, the citizens of the World State can read, at least the Alphas and Betas, but they read very little. Most of their education is delivered through hypnopaedia, or sleep teaching. Deltas and below are conditioned to dislike books. Linda, who is a Beta Minus, brings one book to the Reservation, The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo: Practical Instructions for Beta EmbryoStore Workers, which is a job manual. She gives it to John and teaches him to read. Later Popé brings him The Complete Works of Shakespeare, which he found in an old chest in the Antelope Kiva. John’s education consists of those two books plus whatever Mitsima taught him about making pots, bows, and other crafts. There are thus three types of education represented in Brave New World: sleep teaching, in which very little reading is done; book learning, in which a few books are read very thoroughly; and the hands-on teaching of crafts without any reading at all. Sleep teaching clearly has advantages. It is less work for the student, and it doesn’t waste time. It also doesn’t require teachers. However, the complex concepts and principles that John learned from reading Shakespeare certainly helped him understand the society of the World State, even though Shakespeare was forbidden there. John relationship with literature shapes his identity. In your essay discuss how this relationship helped him understand the world around him, hurt his ability to make appropriate choices, and/or showed him how to become a man. Writing Task 5: Gender Equality Core Question: Are men and women equal in Brave New World? There are no housewives in Brave New World. None of the traditional roles of women are represented. Marriage has been abolished. Child rearing is done by professionals conditioned for the job. Cooking is never mentioned. In fact, food is rarely mentioned, and no one is described eating a meal. Food preparation does not seem to be an issue. Cleaning house is not either. When John offers to sweep the floor for Lenina, she says, “But there are vacuum cleaners . . . and Epsilon SemiMorons to work them.” Because housewives do not exist in the Brave New World society and because the society is founded on rational scientific principles, there would seem to be no reason men and women could not finally be equal. But are they? If the traditional roles of men and women have been abolished in the World State, what evidence do we have that leads us to think there may or may not be equality? What is the essential difference of men and women in the World State, and do these differences reinforce gender roles as we know them? In responding to this question, look through your reading notes for examples of the role of women in the society of Brave New World. Then write an essay discussing what the gender roles are in Brave New World and whether or not they make sense in the context of that society. 
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