Download Introductory Activities to Brave New World

Introductory Activities to Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World:
1. In groups, discuss: What is a utopia? What is a
dystopia? Try to give some examples.
utopia - the perfect world where everyone gets
along and obeys the laws and rules of that given
place; a perfect world where everyone lives in
harmony; an ideal world.
dystopia - the opposite of utopia; the opposite of
perfection; an imaginary, dysfunctional where
people live a wretched life.
e.g. the US's war on drugs and terror: it's an
attempt to create a utopia, but it's causing more
problems (e.g. tons of money is spent on stamping
out drug use, but many people continue to use,
sell, and die from drugs every day. Look at Main
and Hastings; look at Mexico.
e.g. Hitler tried to create a utopia (e.g. the
superiority of the "Aryan" race; obviously major
atrocities were carried in this quest for a Aryan
utopia.)
e.g. Shakespeare's The Tempest : starts off as a
beautiful utopia on an island, but eventually
terrible creatures (like Caliban) do awful things
and smaller roles start to plot the murder of
Prospero
e.g. Lord of the Flies - group of little boys crash
onto a deserted island; they try to create a society
on the island; power struggle arises between Jack
and Ralph; boys die; a once-beautiful utopia
becomes a dystopia.
e.g. Scott Westerfield'sUglies, Pretties, Specials
trilogy - no war, no discrimination
e.g. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
From Wikipedia:
Utopia – an ideal community or society possessing a
desirable perfection. The word was coined in
Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia,
describing a fictional island in the Atlantic
Ocean. The term has been used to describe
both intentional communities that attempt to create an
ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed
in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most
prominently dystopia.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia
Dystopia - the idea of a society, generally of a
speculative future, characterized by negative,
anti-utopian elements, varying from
environmental to political and social issues.
Dystopian societies, usually hypothesized by
writers of fiction, have culminated in a broad
series of sub-genres and is often used to raise
issues regarding society, environment,
politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or
technology that may become present in the
future. For this reason, Dystopias have taken
the form of a multitude of speculations, such
as Pollution; Poverty; Societal collapse or Political repression and
Totalitarianism. Famous depictions of Dystopian
societies include Nineteen Eighty-Four, a totalitarian
invasive super state; Brave New World, where the
human population is placed under a caste of
psychological allocation and Fahrenheit 451 where
the state burns books out of fear of what they
may incite. The Iron Heel was described by Erich Fromm
as "the earliest of the modern Dystopian"[1].
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia
1. Create your own utopia or dystopia. In
particular, explain: its government, its
different social groups, how people live (e.g.
what do they do for work), its ideology (or
value system – may or may not include
religion), its physical environment, etc. What
is key to maintaining your utopia? How
should rebels of your utopia or dystopia be
dealt with?
2. Respond to ONE of the following quotes in
writing:
 “In a world where anything is available,
nothing has any meaning’ (xxiv, Atwood in
Huxley).
 “A really efficient totalitarian state would be
one in which the all-powerful executive of
political bosses and their army of managers
control a population of slaves who do not
have to be coerced (forcibly persuaded),
because they love their servitude…The
greatest triumphs of propaganda have been
accomplished, not by doing something, but
by refraining from doing. Great is the truth,
but still greater, from a practical point of
view is silence about the truth” (Huxley,
xxiii-xxiv).