Why is the first sentence strange? What does it set up? ✔✔This sets up that
everything in this time period is larger and more advanced, and that people's
perceptions of "normal" have grown with the building sizes to think that a 34
story building is small and quaint.
What is the meaning of the World State's motto "COMMUNITY, IDENTITY,
STABILITY"? ✔✔The leaders want everyone to feel part of a community, and to
feel accepted. They want everyone to feel like they have individual identities,
while being seen in their predetermined classes. And of course they depend on
people continuously consuming and buying to keep markets and the government
stable.
Why does the fertilizing room look so cold when it is actually hot inside? What
goes on there? ✔✔I think that the fertilizing room looking cold is a metaphor
because of the lack of emotion that goes on inside. There is no love or affection
for the embryos, because the workers have been conditioned since they were
children not to feel emotions for anything or anyone else. Workers fertilize eggs,
and create children of each caste in this room.
Why do particulars "make for virtue and happiness," while generalities "are
intellectually necessary evils?" ✔✔Their main goal will always come back to
getting happiness for themselves, whether that's buying it or receiving it some
other way.
How do people know who they are in this society? ✔✔Before people are even
born, their fate in this society's hierarchy has already been decided for them.
Workers mass produce eggs to "be born" into a fixed category of Alpha's, Beta's,
,Gamma's, Delta's and Epsilon's. The last three castes have a mental disorder due
to lack of oxygen as a fetus that makes them less intelligent.
Why use the Bokanovsky's process at all? How is it an instrument of social
stability? ✔✔Bokanovsky's process was used because 96 human beings could
grow where only one or two (twins) can grow in our lifetime. His process is used
alongside the social status so they can have more embryos growing from one bud,
therefore using less buds. Also they can use these 96 embryos in the category
lacking, instead of just one.
Why don't Epsilons "need human intelligence"? ✔✔Epsilons don't need human
intelligence because they aren't required to think very much in the jobs they were
created for. They work in factories doing the grunt work, and do not have the
brain capacity to run countries, like Alpha's.
What work does the conditioning do? Who gets conditioned? How does
hypnopaedia work? ✔✔Babies and children get conditioned to learn the basics
of what they will need to know as they grow up into adults. During conditioning,
they learn the things to stay away from, things that aren't politically correct, and
things that are expected of them; things that are the "norm" of their society.
Hypnopaedia, the "principle of sleep-teaching," was the act of memorizing certain
facts in your sleep, but not thoroughly understanding the concepts.
Why condition the Delta's to hate nature but love outdoor sports? ✔✔Long ago,
Delta's were conditioned to like nature, because it was thought that they would
consume more transport, which they did. However, it prevented factories from
being busy. They had to abolish the love of nature to keep people consuming
products and keeping factories in business. People were conditioned to love
country sports, but it was made sure that all country sports entail the use of
elaborate apparatus. "People consume manufactured articles as well as
transport."
, How does time work in this book? History? Why does Ford say "History is bunk"?
✔✔Learning about history is discouraged because if people know about the past
they can compare their lives to people's back then, and they may discover that
people of our time were just has happy, and this makes people of Ford's time to
question their lifestyles. Ford wants people to live and consume in the present, he
believes history is garbage, unimportant.
What are the various castes like and why? ✔✔Alpha's are the smartest, are
used to invent and run the country, and wear grey. Beta's are less intelligent than
Alpha's, but are still considered upper-class. Gamma's wear green, Delta's wear
khaki, and Epsilon's wear black. The last three caste's have a mental disorder due
to lack of oxygen and are used for manual labour.
How do the students demonstrate their own conditioning? ✔✔The upper-class
students have been conditioned to look down upon the caste's below them, but
to be happy with their own.
How do the children play together? What is childhood like? ✔✔Naked children
play ball games, or squat silently in twos or threes in the shrubs. Children are
conditioned to start having sex at the age of seven, and learn how to act and treat
others in their castes.
How is our world depicted? How do we get from here to there? ✔✔Our world is
looked down upon because things were simpler and not everything was invented
or based on increasing consumption. With each new and complicated game or toy
that was invented, the next one had to be more elaborate and in some may more
challenging, and eventually people started basing their worlds around waiting for
the next best thing.