Guiding novel study challenges even the most expert teachers. This is especially true with a mind-bending masterpiece like Brave New World. This Brave New World unit plan addresses the essential literary and contextual elements of the novel while leaving room for flexibility and creativity.
▫ Pre-reading: Welcome to Brave New World
▫ Reading 1 (Chs. 1-3): Where Do Babies Come From?
▫ Reading 2 (Chs. 4-6): Hypnopedia Britannica
▫ Reading 3 (Chs. 7-10): Classical Conditioning, Lenina, and You
▫ Reading 4 (Chs. 11-14): What’s Shakespeare Got to Do with It?
▫ Reading 5 (Chs. 15-18): The Two Johns / Biblical Allusions
▫ Final Task: Symbol Hunt
These Brave New World lessons align to the Common Core standards for reading literature, reading informational texts, speaking and listening, and writing. Four lessons accompany each reading, but many of the lesson plans could be used at different points depending on your teaching objectives.
Before Huxley’s soul-crushing dystopia envelops your students, prepare them with this Brave New World Introduction PowerPoint. The first part of the presentation explores the concept of dystopia, introduces Huxley’s imagined society, and gives an overview of the historical context. The second part previews the unit structure and goals.
I use a note-taking page to help students summarize the key information. If you intend to give students a Brave New World packet, this could be the first page.
This lesson takes students through a profound thought experiment. What might the most perfect human society look like? How would this utopia minimize or even eliminate societal problems? Furthermore, how could the best intentions of the designers go horribly awry?
Collaborative groups start by establishing the overarching goals and values of the society and then move toward specific ideas about the society will work.
Anticipation guides are a great way to start discussions before reading any novel. Pointing out theme subjects in advance enables students to read with purpose. Encouraging students to express their own ideas first always increases engagement later.
This anticipation guide prepares students to engage with the novel’s most important topics and themes. Students evaluate and express their own views on progress, solitude, suffering, freedom of thought, romance, consumerism, and equality before exploring Huxley’s ideas.
The narrative structure and point of view of Chapter 3 deserve special attention. Have students perform a choral reading (nine reading parts) to highlight the effects of the fragmented telling. Afterwards, students will analyze the effects of this device on the telling and the experience of the reader.
Effects of this device:
To take this Brave New World lesson to the next level, ask students to compose their own fragmented narration in small groups. The end result takes the form of a collective prose poem.
Depending on your approach, the Discussion Questions and K ey Excerpts for Analy sis may constitute a full lesson following each of the five readings. Check out Brave New World Discussion Questions for a printable PDF.
This lesson explores the pseudoscience of sleep-teaching, which was on-trend in Huxley’s time. The main goal is for students to analyze the hypnopedic slogans of Brave New World and gain insight about the society’s goals and values. As an added challenge, students must create their own hypnopedic slogans and prescribe an appropriate brainwashing schedule.
To conclude, students reflect on the dangers that a practical methods of hynopedia might present if they were ever employed on a large scale.
Have students research and present on one element of life in Western society in the 1920s and 1930s in order to contextualize the novel. The worksheet shown above steers students toward the developments that inspired Huxley’s writing in 1931.
What connections can we find between Brave New World and its historical context? Based on the novel, what were Huxley’s concerns and speculations regarding…
This lesson diverts from the novel in order for students to refresh their skills in recognizing and analyzing literary symbols. If nothing else, it clues students in to the fact that they should be looking for symbolism in the novel. The handout above will work with any short story that contains symbolism, but here are some suggestions:
In addition to the discussion sets shown previously, each reading has a Key Excerpts for Analysis handout.
But the young man had evidently not heard the question. “O wonder!” he was saying; and his eyes shone, his face was brightly flushed. “How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!” The flush suddenly deepened; he was thinking of Lenina, of an angel in bottle-green viscose, lustrous with youth and skin food, plump, benevolently smiling. His voice faltered. “O brave new world,” he began, then suddenly interrupted himself; the blood had left his cheeks; he was as pale as paper.
…
“O brave new world,” he repeated. “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once.”
What are some of the ways that one person can control another? For example, a prisoner’s movement is controlled through walls, bars, and fences. Now imagine that the walls, bars, and fences are in your own mind. Someone else has built them. You may not know that you are being controlled.
This lesson uses a personal survey to explore the influence (often unwelcome) of technology, corporations, governments, and institutions on our minds and decision making.
The content of this lesson is essential to the Brave New World unit. Students synthesize their skills and knowledge in analyzing textual evidence, connecting literary elements, and tracing theme development.
Authors often smack you in the face (figuratively) with their symbols. Think about titles like “The Raven,” To Kill a Mockingbird, “Caged Bird,” A Raisin in the Sun, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible, Moby Dick, and Wuthering Heights. Huxley is a bit subtler in Brave New World.
Students collaborate in collecting evidence and analyzing their respective symbols. Giving students access to a searchable copy of Brave New World expedites the hunt. Students can enter key words into the Google Chrome “FIND” feature
(The second column scaffolds the activity by supplying “known associates” for each of the hunted symbols.)
Now that we are experts on Brave New World, it is time to put Huxley’s themes under the figurative microscope. Huxley essentially questions the meaning of human existence; unsurprisingly, there are many theme subjects to consider.
Key Quote for Analysis:
“Do you remember that bit in King Lear?” said the Savage at last. “‘The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us; the dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes,’ and Edmund answers–you remember, he’s wounded, he’s dying–’Thou hast spoken right; ’tis true. The wheel has come full circle; I am here.’ What about that now? Doesn’t there seem to be a God managing things, punishing, rewarding?”
“Well, does there?” questioned the Controller in his turn. “You can indulge in any number of pleasant vices with a freemartin and run no risks of having your eyes put out by your son’s mistress. ‘The wheel has come full circle; I am here.’…
The discussion between John and Controller Mond lays bare Huxley’s essential question: What is best for humanity? Both characters are free-thinkers who understand past and present societies, but they arrive at different conclusions. Who is right?
Imagine that John the Savage is alive and that Controller Mond’s experiment has attracted the attention of other World State leaders. Some leaders wonder if John, Helmholtz, and other dissenters are right. The controllers have decided to hold a debate entitled John v. Mond. The future of humanity hangs in the balance.
Start this Brave New World Lesson by asking students to identify famous examples of foil characters. Then ask students to identify the main character of Brave New World. Does the story center on Bernard or John?
Huxley performs what grandpappy called “the ol’ switcheroo.” He primes the reader to watch Bernard rise as our individualistic hero, but that does not happen. Bernard fails to transcend and John “the savage” takes Bernard’s place as the protagonist. This puts the two characters in stark contrast.
Sorting Character Statements (page 2 of the handout):
Huxley presents a variety of hypothetical individuals and their different reactions to life in the Brave New World. We have a complete outsider, perfect conformists, and insiders who fail to conform in a different ways. What is Huxley’s purpose in positioning these characters for comparison?
The complete resource for teaching Brave New World includes 14 culminating task assignments as well as the final exam maker (120 test items in total).
I hope that you have found something in this post that will help you in teaching Brave New World. For more ideas and resources, check out all of the Brave New World posts from TeachNovels.
