These are the vocabulary words and reading comprehension questions for the entire book. Please print this document and bring it with you to our next meeting.
Brave New World
Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Questions
* = a rare word or a word that Huxley invented (you’ll need to rely on context to define these words)
Foreword
aesthete (viii)
phenomenon (viii)
benefactors (ix)
sanity (ix)
immanent (ix)
prognostications (x)
apostle (xi)
inhibitions (xii)
penultimate (xii)
ruinous (xiii)
totalitarian (xiii)
decentralization (xiv)
statism (xiv)
pedagogue (xiv)
eugenics (xvi)
supranational (xvii)
Chapter 1
1) What does “DHC” stand for?
2) What takes place at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre?
3) What is the meaning and significance of the society’s slogan, “Community, Identity, Stability”?
4) What are some of the society’s values? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
pallid (3)
callow (4)
incubators (5)
ova (5)
*bokanovskification (6)
peritoneum (9)
specters (11)
decanting (13)
*freemartins (13)
caste (14)
sententiously (16)
Chapter 2
1) What are Deltas conditioned to love and hate? Why are Deltas conditioned this way?
2) How does hypnopædia work?
3) How is the society organized?
4) Arrange the castes from highest to lowest.
apopleptic (19)
suffuse (20)
spasmodic (21)
indefatigably (26)
sibilant (28)
*hypnopædia
Chapter 3
1) In what way does the Controller believe the “pre-modern” world was flawed?
patronizing (31)
discarnate (33)
torrents (36)
evocation (37)
conventionality (42)
indignant (46)
liberalism (46)
proffered (54)
renounce (55)
Chapter 4
1) Why does Lenina hate the color khaki?
2) What makes Bernard different from other Alphas?
3) Why is Bernard irritated with the twin attendants? What does this tell us about Bernard as a person?
4) What makes Helmholtz an individual?
5) What do Helmholtz and Bernard have in common?
pneumatic (60)
ruminating (60)
revitrifying (61)
corporeal (65)
asceticism (69)
Chapter 5
1) How might we interpret the song “Bottle of Mine”?
2) What is supposed to happen in a Solidarity Ceremony?
3) Why doesn’t the ceremony “work” for Bernard?
incessant (73)
diminuendo (74)
quaffed (81)
rite (82)
imminence (82)
Chapter 6
1) Why is Lenina reluctant to go to the Savage Reservation with Bernard?
2) What distinction does Bernard make between freedom and happiness?
3) What does Bernard mean when he says that members of his society are “adults intellectually and during work hours” but “infants where feeling and desire are concerned” (94)?
4) What happened to the DHC on the Savage Reservation?
5) Explain the meaning of the DHC’s utterance: “the social body persists although the component parts may change” (97).
6) What do you think might be the “lapse from a proper standard of infantile behavior” to which the DHC refers (98)?
7) Why does Bernard feel confident after his meeting with the DHC?
8) How is the Savage Reservation different from London?
9) What bad news does Bernard receive in New Mexico?
eccentricity (86)
haggard (90)
*tremoloing (90)
cajolery (92)
solecism (96)
indecorous (97)
swagger (98)
*brachycephalic (101)
rapt (101)
stoically (104)
fulminated (105)
Chapter 7
1) What are Lenina and Bernard’s reactions to Malpais?
2) Who is John’s father?
3) Why does John want to “sacrifice” himself during the ceremony?
precipitous (107)
inaudible (108)
incredulity (109)
emaciated (110)
viviparous (111)
innocuous (113)
plaited (116)
benevolent (117)
squalor (118)
torrent (119)
ecstatically (120)
Chapter 8
1) How has Linda’s past as a Beta made her life in Malpais more difficult?
2) Describe John’s childhood in Malpais.
3) How does John interpret his first stanza of Shakespeare?
4) How are Shakespeare’s words “magic” for John?
5) Why isn’t John allowed into the kiva?
6) What are Bernard’s motives for inviting John and Linda to London?
*mescal (125)
trousers (129)
lecherous (132)
gestures (134)
mesa (135)
kiva (136)
patronizing (137)
elaborating (138)
lustrous (139)
Chapter 9
1) What “business” does Bernard take care of while Lenina is sleeping?
2) What are John’s feelings for Lenina? How can you tell he feels this way?
agaves (140)
essential (143)
*zippyjamas (143)
vestal (144)
Chapter 10
1) Why does the DHC hate unorthodoxy?
2) Of what does the DHC accuse Bernard? What does the DHC propose should be done with Bernard?
3) Why is the word “father” so funny to everyone in the Fertilizing Room?
*bokanovskified (146)
languished (146)
recapitulated (146)
pasteurized (147)
blithe (147)
unorthodoxy (148)
ignominy (149)
undulation (150)
scatological (151)
Chapter 11
1) Why aren’t people as interested in seeing Linda as they are in John?
2) Why does Dr. Shaw prescribe so much soma for Linda?
3) How does John’s presence in London change Bernard both socially and internally?
4) What is “civilized infantility”? What do you think John means by finding it “too easy, or, as he put it, not expensive enough” (159)?
5) How does John react to seeing the helicopter factory? Why do you think he reacts this way?
6) Explain the significance of John’s mistaking the soma crates for caskets.
7) Why isn’t Fanny jealous of Lenina’s good luck?
8) What does a “secret organ” do (166)?
9) How does the feely “Three Weeks In A Helicopter” reinforce the society’s values?
10) What does John think of the feely? Why does he feel this way?
intrinsically (154)
demurred (153)
sonorous (155)
*patchouli (155)
cadged (156)
*prognathous (160)
venerable (161)
vitrified (163)
queued (164)
languor (167)
galvanic (168)
maniacal (168)
tête-à-tête (169)
disengaged (169)
lest (169)
ignoble (170)
base (170)
Chapter 12
1) Why doesn’t John want to join Bernard’s party?
2) What is Lenina anxious about at the party?
3) Why does Mond reject the biology paper?
4) Why does Lenina need soma on her date with the Arch-Community-Songster?
5) Explain the meaning of the following passage: “One of the principle functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies” (179). How does this sentiment apply in the story? Do you think it’s true in real life?
wheedled (172)
unwonted (173)
sepulchral (176)
subversive (177)
provocation (179)
magnanimity (180)
defilement (183)
quenchlessly (185)
Chapter 13
1) Why does John want to “undergo something nobly” for Lenina (190)? What does he want to do?
2) Explain John’s Shakespearian utterance on page 192 (“ ‘The murkiest den ... Never, never!’ ”). Whose voice is the “voice of conscience” in this passage?
3) Why does John get angry with Lenina?
4) What information does John learn through the phone call that he receives at the end of the chapter?
sententiously (188)
bewilderment (189)
prodigious (195)
impudent (196)
strumpet (196)
usurp (197)
Chapter 14
1) Why does it surprise the nurse that John is distressed over Linda’s impending death?
2) How is Linda different from the other patients in the Hospital?
3) Why does John get angry with Linda?
4) What are the children doing in the hospital?
moribund (198)
senility (199)
constituents (200)
sexagenarians (202)
truculently (203)
crescendo (204)
balked (204)
Chapter 15
1) Explain the significance of John’s recitations of Shakespeare on pages 209-210 (“ ‘How many goodly creatures are there here! ... O brave new world ...’ ” [209]; “ ‘O brave new world, O brave new world ...’ ”[210]).
2) Why does John decide to interrupt the soma distribution at the Hospital?
3) Why does John consider throwing away the mob’s soma an act of liberation?
4) How do the police break up the fight?
menial (208)
jaunty (209)
propitiatingly (211)
ardour (212)
indignation (212)
carapace (212)
valedictions (215)
Chapter 16
1) Explain Mustapha’s utterance: “ ‘you can’t make tragedies without social instability’ ” (220). How does this notion contribute to the organization of Brave New World’s society?
2) Do you agree that “you’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call ‘high art’ ” (220)? Besides high art, what other sacrifices are made for happiness in Brave New World? Are these sacrifices worth it?
3) Describe the Cyprus experiment (223). What might this experiment be allegorizing?
4) Explain Mustapha’s metaphor: “all our science is just a cookery book” (223). Why is science considered an “enemy” to society?
5) Explain Helmholtz’s assertion that “one would write better if the climate were bad” (229). How might this sentiment be relevant to the larger message of the book?
deprecating (217)
parenthetically (219)
flivvers (221)
gesticulating (222)
chary (225)
platitude (225)
galvanized (226)
paroxysm (226)
sedulously (228)
approbation (229)
Chapter 17
1) Compare John’s and Mustapha’s understandings of God.
2) What do Mustapha’s books say about independence (“We are not our own anymore ... safely to the end” [232]) and God (“a man grows old ... our other losses” [233-234])?
3) According to Mustapha, why does the society no longer need religion?
4) Explain Mustapha’s comparison: “ ‘You might as well ask if it’s natural to do up one’s trousers with zippers’ ” (234). How does Mustapha believe belief and social conditioning are related?
5) Summarize John and Mustapha’s argument. What is the main point that each character is trying to make?
neurasthenia (237)
allegiances (237)
tonic (239)
Chapter 18
1) Explain the following passage: “their sadness was a symptom of their love for one another—the three young men were happy” (242). How might this passage be relevant to the larger message of the book?
2) Why does John punish himself during his first night at the lighthouse?
3) What are John’s reasons for going to the lighthouse?
4) How is John’s situation with the nosy reporters analogous to the story he told Mustapha (in chapter 17) about the Maiden of Mátsaki?
5) Who is the woman who steps out of the helicopter? What does John do to her? Why does he do it?
6) Why do you think Huxley compares John’s body to a compass in the very last lines of the novel?
solicitously (241)
hermitage (243)
excruciating (244)
crucifixion (244)
plumbless (245)
lorry (248)
ingratiating (249)
gingerly (250)
importunately (251)
flogging (252)
plaintive (256)
incongruous (257)
