1. The novel Brave New World begins in London in the hatchery where the Director is guiding students on a tour of the Bokanovskify process. As the Director proceeds to explain the process throughout the introduction of the novel hypnopaedia is introduced. This is the process of teaching the children in their sleep. The children are encouraged to get involved in erotic play. This erotic play is known as obstacle golf and Bernard is first introduced when he does not participate. Lenina is then introduced when she finds interest in Bernard even though she is discouraged by Fanny. Lenina pursues Bernard and yet Bernard continues to feel more hopeless than ever. As the novel continues, characters like Hemholtz are introduced, because of their differences from the others. Many of these differences are shown through the different social classes as well as events such as the alcohol that is said to have been in Bernard’s blood surrogate before he was born. Soma is also introduced as the drug that keeps them going. It is the boost to their system when in need. Bernard continues throughout the novel as curious as ever and takes a trip to the reservation with Lenina in order to humor his curiosity. There he meets Linda and John who wish to return to London with them to see the Director; John’s father. When the four of them return things begin to go south and the Director is humiliated with Linda’s return. As John carries on with life in the Brave New World he is disturbed by the assumptions accepted by the society he sees. It comes to a point where John is so ooberly in love with Lenina but yet is so confused and can no longer take it anymore that as a result he hangs himself.
2. For the theme of the novel I concluded that there is to be no happiness without truth. The people of the Brave New World are so dedicated to their willful delusion that they know no true happiness. They only know what they have been told to be true yet characters like Bernard see that there is more to life and there are truths to which they do not know than what they have been told.
3. Defining the tone of Brave New World is difficult. I would consider the tone to be informative as well as dramatic. The entire novel is about the telling of a Brave New World in which we do not know unless we continue to read the novel. Huxley repeatedly states things such as, “But every one belongs to every one else,” in order to emphasize the attitude of the society of the Brave New World. The extended metaphor used to describe the sexual affair between Lenina and Bernard support the dramatic tone of the novel. The introduction of the novel when the D.H.C. is giving the tour of the hatchery and declares, "We condition the masses to hate the country but simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports," Huxley's audience is informed of the alterations that take place while the embryos are developing.
4. Repetition is used throughout the novel quite often to emphasize the society of the BNW. "But every one belongs to every one else."
Puns are also used by Lenina when she is plotting to seduce Bernard.
Similes like, "Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly--they'll go through anything," help to not only emphasize but clarify what is going on in the minds of the characters of society.
Parallelism is also often used to parallel with past or upcoming events that are to take place. Also parallelism occurs as the novel has resulted in paralleling with present society.
Imagery is a constant attribute to the novel that Huxley projects through statements made by characters like, "But cleanliness is next to fordliness." Statements like this create an image in the readers head that helps in grasping an understanding of the BNW that could not be grasped as well without the imagery.
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Two examples of direct characterization would be Bernard and John. Two examples of indirect characterization would be Lenina and the Director. Both Bernard and John are both directly characterized through their speech and actions. Lenina and the Director are characterized through the other characters. For example, Fanny as well as Bernard characterize Lenina by passing their own judgement about her actions.
2. Theme: “Hot tunnels alternated with cool tunnels. Coolness was wedded to discomfort in the form of hard X-rays. By the time they were decanted the embryos had a horror of cold. They were predestined to emigrate to the tropics, to be miner and acetate silk spinners and steel workers. Later on their minds would be made to endorse the judgment of their bodies. "We condition them to thrive on heat," concluded Mr. Foster. "Our colleagues upstairs will teach them to love it. “And that,"put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.” (pg. 11) This quote describes the pre-conditioning/controlled conception of humans via mechanical processes ultimately connoting one of the novel’s central ideas, theme: subjugation thru perfect content, apathy. I.E. Caste system according to the World State.
3. Allusion: “Bernard Marx,Lenina, Henry Foster etc.” (pg. throughout the novel) Huxley brilliantly incorporates the names of famous historical figures directly into that of his Brave New World characters often to further characterize the themes of the novel. EX. Communist proponent Karl Marx is the derivation of Bernard Marx, Russian ruler Lenin is feminized for Lenina, Henry Ford’s first and last name is similar to Jesus in stature/naming frequency in characters like Henry Foster.
4. Personification: “The roses were in bloom, two nightingales soliloquized in the boskage, a cuckoo was just going out of tune among the lime trees. The air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters.” (pg. 37) Huxley at times engages in beautiful bouts of imagery laden figurative language to juxtapose the otherwise cruel and grey atmosphere of the novel. I personally liked the use of personification in this passage with the soliquizing flowers and drowsy air, creates a mood contrasting with the overall foreboding feeling of oppression prevalent in the book.
5. Tone: “The overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber.The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables.” (pg. 12) Cold, clinical the tone of Brave New World is sterile in it’s diction, even the similes/figurative language (in bold above) are Huxley’s tool to crafting a tone fitting of a society automated by a hive of machines and identical automatons—I mean humans.
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