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Final exams for Brave New World

On Friday, Oct. 5 students will write an in-class blue book essay. On Friday, students will be given four essay questions, and they get to choose which one they wish to answer. The essay will be worth 50 points. Students are allowed to use their notebook and their novel on this essay exam.

On Monday, Oct. 8 students will answer a 50-question multiple choice exam (also for 50 points). The test has multiple choice questions on plot, a character matching section, a vocabulary matching section, and a miscellaneous multiple choice section with questions on Huxley's life and the three short pieces of fiction we studied--"Assembly Line," "Unknown Citizen," and Stanislaw Lem's "Electronic Bard." If you wish to review any of those short selections, links are available on this blog.

Unknown Citizen

Today's seminar on Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" led to some interesting comparisons to Brave New World, but most students did not make any personal connections to the poem.

Here are the questions for the seminar:

Stage 1 (Tell the Story)

Round Robin: Besides “unknown” what word sums up the citizen’s life and why?

What details are known about the citizen’s life?

Stage 2 (Themes)
What timeless themes does Auden develop?
What is Auden saying about individuals and society?

Stage 3 (Extend to Literature and Life)
Compare and contrast the characters and themes in this poem with the characters and themes in Brave New World.
How does the poem connect to life today?

In hour 6, I asked if people felt like "Unknown Students" in the school--students reduced to statistics for test scores, sports scores, etc. That opened up the discussion to a personal level, and the de Cafe got a little more lively then

If you still had thoughts on the poem or would like to comment further about the "Unknown Student" idea, feel free to do so as part of the comments of this post.

To re-read Auden's poem, click here.

Auden and Huxley lived very similar lives. To read about their entwined lives as pacifists who left Europe before World War II broke out, click on this Peace Magazine article.

I think both Huxley and Auden are putting down Henry Ford in their works, but I can't discover Ford's reaction to Brave New World or "Unknown Citizen."

Character Analysis

Our two-day, character analysis lesson involves the following steps:

1. Student-selected groups of four will be assigned a character in Brave New World.
2. In their notebooks, students create a tree map for direct and indirect characterization. Items in the direct characterization branch are found directly in Huxley's quotations and include both physical descriptions and personality traits. Indirect characterization branches include actions, thoughts, and reactions of others.
3. To extend the thinking, students will also complete a bubble map to describe the character. Some adjectives may be directly in Huxley's text, and those should be given a small line to the bubble. Other adjectives are inferred from the indirect characterization branches of the tree map. Inference adjectives should have a long line to the appropriate bubble.
4. A few key quotations should be included in the frames of both Thinking Maps. Do not use the same quotations in both maps.
5. The frame should also contain thoughts on Huxley's intent for including this character in the novel. What themes in the novel does the character help develop?
6. After extensive thinking about the assigned character, groups will create an artistic representation of the character to use as a visual aid for the presentation.
7. Character presentations will include a discussion of the visual aid, the Thinking Maps, and Huxley's intent.
8. During presentations, all class members complete a Key Word Notes chart where they summarize the presentation into one word and then write a summary sentence to capture Huxley's style of characterization and/or intent for certain characters.

The characters to be analyzed include:

• Bernard
• John
• Linda
• Lenina
• The D.H.C.
• Helmholtz
• Mustapha Mond

After the presentations, students return to their country base groups to complete a double bubble map that examines an assigned foil set. Character foils to be analyzed include:

• Bernard vs. Linda
• Bernard vs. Helmholtz
• Bernard vs. John
• Bernard vs. Lenina
• Bernard vs. DHC
• Bernard vs. Mustapha Mond
• Linda vs. Lenina

Review this definition of foil from Cummings Study Guides.

Foil: (1) A secondary or minor character in a literary work who contrasts or clashes with the main character; (2) a secondary or minor character with personal qualities that are the opposite of, or markedly different from those of another character; (3) the antagonist in a play or another literary work.

A foil sometimes resembles his or her contrasting character in many respects, such as age, dress, social class, and educational background. But he or she is different in other respects, including personality, moral outlook, and decisiveness.

Stanislaw Lem and Science Fiction Satire

For more information on Stanislaw Lem and his science fiction, click here.

To re-read the math poem that the electronic bard created in the story read in class today, click here and scroll down. Since I don't understand math (just ask Mr. Woelber), you can comment here to tell me what is funny in the poem.

Literary Devices in Brave New World

The class will explore how Huxley employs literary devices to criticize society, keep the reader interested, and connect to past literature.

Devices of Satire

• Sarcasm: harsh comments that aim to hurt
• Overstatement: exaggeration
• Understatement: saying less than is meant
• Parody: mocking a known person, literary work, movie, etc.
• Irony: saying one thing yet meaning another
• Pathos: going from the serious to the ridiculous quickly
  

Other Literary Devices

Foreshadowing: clues that suggest events that have yet to occur

Allusion: reference to another literary work

Science and Technology Journal Entry

After the Final Word discussion on The Art of Being Human selection, students answered one of the prompts with at least one page in their notebook.

1. What positive and negative effects does industry have on a person’s life as a worker and as a consumer?

2. What mechanical device can you not live without? Is there a piece of technology that is controlling your life?

3. Are medical researchers playing God? What medical advances go too far?

4. What are you doing to show stewardship towards the earth? How are you going green?

5. What Frankensteins have been created in our world? In other words, what technological advancements do you feel have been abused and why?

Students should feel free to share their journal entries by posting a comment here.

World Issues in World Ark and Star Tribune

This weekend I was reading the latest issue of World Ark magazine, a promotional piece put out by the non-profit Heifer International. World Ark articles referenced a number of Internet sites for people to visit to find out more information on certain topics facing our world. I found an uncanny overlap with this magazine and the A to Z taxonomies that were developed in class. I was comforted by the fact that the world's future is in your hands because World Lit students were concerned about many of these pressing issues.

You may want to visit two of the websites listed in the World Ark magazine:

For information on climate change and a humanitarian challenge, visit www.terradaily.com.

To learn about how attitudes in Africa towards "women and their position in society" are affecting their contracting of AIDS, visit www.irinnews.org.

Another science and technology issue that what raised in class is the shortage of safe drinking water facing the world. The Star Tribune ran a detailed feature article yesterday and today on the water supply in the Twin Cities. One contaminated water well in Edina that needed to be shut down was even mentioned. Read the full article for more information.

A to Z Taxonomies of Science and Technology Issues

Students created the following A to Z taxonomy lists of science and technology issues that they feel they will have to deal with in their lifetimes. Each class will revisit their list near the end of the Brave New World unit to determine if Huxley, 75 years ago, was already concerned about these issues. Revisiting the list will not only allow students to evaluate to what extent Huxley can be called a futurist, but also allow students to develop these topics into Brave New World themes.

Hour 1 Issues

Abortion
Bombs
Clones
Drugs
Environment
Fossil Fuel
Global Warming
Health
Internet
Jobs
Kinetic Energy (How will things move?)
Life Forms in Space
Medical Advances
National Defense
Obesity
Population
Questioning Things
Race and Religion Impacted by Science
Solar Power
Transportation
Universe
Vaccines
Water
X-Rays
Youth Preservation
Zygotes


Hour 2 Issues

Automation
Biomedical Ethics
Cloning
Debating Issues
Evolution
Fertility
Global Warming
Heredity
Inventions
Jobs that are ever-changing
Knowledge
Land Preservation
Media
Nuclear Power and War
Oil
Population
Quantum Physics
Robots
Satellites
Travel and Transportation
Utopias (Are they possible?)
Video Games
World Wide Web
X-Rays
Youth Preservation

Hour 6

AIDS
Biomedical Ethics
Cloning
Designer Babies
Extinction
Fossil Fuels
Global Warming
Hunger
Interstellar Travel
Jobs
Kinetic Energy
Logistics of Communication
Medications
Nuclear War
Over Population
Pollution
Quantum Physics and the Existence of God
Robots
Sex
Transplants
UV Rays
Viruses
Water
X-Ray
Youth
Zoology

Settings in Brave New World

Brace Map

To bring Huxley's settings to life, base groups will dissect an assigned portion of the novel to uncover all of Huxley's details. The following settings in the first three chapters of Brave New World will be explored:

Fertilizing Room, pages 3-10

Embryo Store, pages 10-18

Infant Nurseries, pages 19-26

Dormitory with Hypnopedia, pages 26-29

Garden at Playtime, pages 30-33

Girls’ Dressing Room, pages 36-38

Montage of Nine Years’ War, pages 47-52


Steps of the Setting Assignment:

1. After the lottery for setting selection, base group members will skim the assigned pages, jotting down all objects they encounter in those pages in their notebooks. This is similar to what we did for objects in Room 271.


2. Then students will take all the sub-parts and work back to the whole of the assigned setting by organizing the details in a brace map. The brace map should be created in your notebook.


3. The frame of the brace map should contain the most illustrative and visual quotation, in your opinion, that Huxley puts forth in your assigned setting pages.


4. The frame of the brace map should also contain your thoughts about Huxley's intent for including the specific objects. How does the setting relate to themes, images and character development in the novel?


5. The base group will create an artistic representation of the setting to use as a visual aid for the class presentation.


6. Groups present their setting creations while discussing their brace map and sharing their key quotation and commentary on the author's intent.


7. Students will reflect on their classmates' setting presentations on a Key Word Notes page, which includes a summary sentence at the bottom of the chart on Huxley's intent regarding his detailed settings.

Brave New World Reading Schedule

Below is the reading schedule from the bookmark.

Read the pages indicated that night for homework.

Sept. 11: Chapter 1, pp. 3-18
Sept. 12: Chapter 2, pp. 19-29
Sept. 13: Chapter 3, pp. 30-56
Sept. 14: Chapter 4, pp. 57-71
Sept. 17: Chapter 5, pp. 72-86
Sept. 18: Chapter 6, pp. 87-106
Sept. 19: Chapter 7, pp. 107-122
Sept. 20: Chapter 8, pp. 123-139
Sept. 21: Chapters 9 and 10, pp. 140-152
Sept. 24: Chapter 11, pp. 153-171
Sept. 25: Chapter 12, pp. 172-185
Sept. 26: Chapter 13, pp. 186-197
Sept. 27: Chapters 14 and 15, pp. 198-216
Sept. 28: Chapters 16 and 17, pp. 217-240
Oct. 1: Chapter 18, pp. 241-259

Brave New World Vocabulary

Below is a list of vocabulary words from Brave New World that will be part of your multiple choice exam at the end of the unit.

Your notebook assignment for vocabulary is to create a 30-box flow map (that's one box per vocabulary word) and to illustrate that word after you encounter it in the reading. Not only will the illustrations hopefully cement the definition in your mind, but also when you are finished with the book, you will have a graphic representation of this futuristic novel to help you remember the plot.

If you have helpful hints to remember a word, add those hints to the comments of this post. For example, the word may be close to a word in French, Latin or Spanish.

Here are the words:

predestination: p. 10, all things are decided in advance

freemartins: p. 13, sterile female

conditioning: p. 24, providing a stimulus until desired behavior is achieved.

hypnopaedia: p. 25, sleep teaching

viviparous, p. 36, giving birth to offspring that develop in the mother’s body.

pneumatic, p. 44, filled with air; ample bust

simian: p. 58, ape or monkey

stupor: p. 59, lethargy; mental confusion

sententious: (p. 74, “sententiously”) terse; moralizing; short statements about life

soma: p. 75, a drug that dulls emotion and creates a false sense of happiness.

solecism: p. 96, impropriety, mistake, violation of etiquette

octoroon: p. 104, a person who is one-eighth Black.

pueblo: p. 107, a community dwelling up to five stories high built out of adobe by Indian tribes in the Southwest U.S.

goitre: p. 112, a non-cancerous enlargement of the thyroid, visible on the neck

mescal: p. 125, Mexican liquor fermented from the agave

viscose: p. 139, rayon—manufactured fabric

vestal: p. 144, chaste, pure, virgin

peritoneum: p. 146, membrane lining the abdominal walls

sonorous: p. 155, producing a full, deep or rich sound

brachylcephalic: p. 159, having a short, broad head

heretical: p. 173, departure from established beliefs or standards

sepulchral: p. 176, suggestive of the grave; funereal

abstemious: p. 193, eating and drinking in moderation

strumpet: p. 194, prostitute, whore

moribund: p. 202, Approaching death; about to die

derision: p. 210, contempt; ridicule

impunity: p. 219, exempt from punishment

postulates: p. 236, basic principles

copse: p. 247, a thicket of small trees or shrubs

turpitude: p. 258, depravity, baseness, moral corruption

Aldous Huxley Brief Biography

photo from somaweb.org

Aldous Huxley

British Novelist
1894-1963




Key facts:

• Grandfather and brother were biologists


• Educated at Eton and Oxford


• Nearly blind so learned Braille


• Published travel books, poems, novels, plays and essays


• Huxley’s style is known for its brilliant dialogue, cynicism, and social criticism.


• Brave New World, first published in 1932, is a dark vision of a highly technological future society.


• Married twice; had one son


• “Huxley scandalized millions” (Malcolm X)

Read more about Huxley on Wikipedia or at somaweb.org (a website devoted to exploring Huxley and his works complete with a discussion board).

To view a brief video of Huxley himself discussing Brave New World, click here.

Brave New World Castes

Huxley uses the Greek alphabet to name the castes of people in Brave New World.

Caste and Color

alpha = grey

beta = mulberry

gamma = green

delta = khaki

epsilon = black