Brave New World Quotations Worksheet

Brave New World Quotations Worksheet

1.  "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 un-escapable social destiny."  -Director of Hatcheries(16)

A.  Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote.

B.  Where do you see this in society today?

2.  He laughed, "Yes, 'Everybody's happy nowadays.' We begin giving children that at five. But wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else's way."  -Bernard Marx (91)

A. Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote

B.  In what ways is there pressure to conform in your life?

3.  "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." ­Mustapha Mond (220)

A.  Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote.

B.  What does happiness mean to you?

 4.  "The optimum population," said Mustapha Mond, "is modeled on the iceberg-eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."  ­Mustapha Mond (223)

A.  Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote.

 B.  Is our society modeled on this theory? Why or why not?

5.  "Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut." -Mustapha Mond (234)

 A.  Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote. 

 B.  Do you agree or disagree with the Mustapha Mond?

 6.  "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
-Mustapha Mond and John the Savage (240)

A.  Paraphrase and explain the significance of this quote.

B.  What is a negative experience you have had that has been important in your development?