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BRAVE NEW WORLD Anticipation Guide

    This Brave New World anticipation guide gets students questioning and expressing their own views on happiness, freedom of thought, suffering, consumerism, and equality before they open the novel. Encouraging students to commit to positions before reading always increases engagement with the text, and Huxley gives them a lot to reconsider.

    Print or download the free PDF below. Scroll further for the correlating lesson plan.

    Brave New World Anticipation Guide PDF

    Anticipation guide for Brave New World discussion and analysis.
    Anticipation guide for Brave New World discussion and analysis.

    FREE: Brave New World Anticipation Guide PDF

    PURCHASE: Brave New World Lesson Plans and Materials

    Brave New World Anticipation Guide: Theme Subjects

    In creating this guide, the goal was to compose statements that introduce as many of the novel’s key themes as possible and approach them from an angle that will elicit genuine responses from teenagers. Huxley covers a lot of ground in Brave New World. He essentially tackles the meaning of life. The most important themes focus on progress, freedom, individuality, and purpose.

    Individuals should focus on their own happiness. Achieving happiness and enjoying the gift of life is the central goal of living.

    This statement gets students considering life’s purpose before they encounter Huxley’s answer. Hopefully many will argue that there is more to life than having fun — because the World State agrees with them wholeheartedly, and its version of happiness is the problem.

    I worry about my freedom of thought. Governments, corporations, and institutions might be succeeding in their attempts to control my mind.

    Most people believe their minds are free to think without unwelcome influence. Huxley argues against this position, and there are many psychological studies to support his view. One lesson from the unit explores the issue of corporate brain hacking through technology and social media.

    Human society will eventually progress to a point where suffering is a thing of the past.

    The World State claims that suffering is a thing of the past. By 632 AF, humanity is beyond all that. Clues from the narrative suggest that suffering has merely taken a more obscure form. The characters of John and Helmholtz both believe that suffering serves a critical purpose — and both pay dearly for holding that view.

    Advancements in science and technology will solve all our problems.

    This is worth considering seriously given what pollution, climate change, and artificial intelligence are raising as questions right now. Will progress ultimately destroy the Earth or provide our salvation? Huxley wrote Brave New World during the Great Depression, which followed a period of profound optimism in Western society. People were largely optimistic about progress in government, psychology, industry, and genetics. Despite coming from a family of scientists, Huxley had his doubts.

    I occasionally seek solitude. Isolation can be positive.

    Helmholtz, John, and even Mustapha Mond value isolation as a means of finding purpose and individuality. Many teenagers loathe isolation, so this statement reliably produces interesting conversations — and sets up one of the novel’s most important arguments.

    I would rather know the truth than remain ignorant — even if knowing the truth might make me miserable.

    This statement introduces a question students will wrestle with at the novel’s conclusion. Would they choose to be an oblivious and happy member of the World State society, or would they trade those comforts as Helmholtz does? Helmholtz determines to find truth even if it means suffering for it. John makes the same choice with more violent consequences.

    It is acceptable to trade some freedom for happiness and safety.

    The social contract requires that we sacrifice some freedoms for the benefit of all — we are not free to steal, murder, or yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. How far is too far when it comes to trading freedom for security and comfort? This statement is the novel’s central question, and students who commit to a position here will have something real to measure against when they reach Chapter 17.

    I love buying stuff, experiences, and/or services. I enjoy trying out new products, judging them, and discussing them with others. In short, being a consumer is a significant part of my life.

    “It is a material world, and I am a material girl.” The fun of shopping, choosing, acquiring, and collecting is seductive and even addictive. Consumer culture has obvious detriments, but what are the subtler ones? Does consumerism pacify, influence, or control the populace in ways that are hard to see from the inside?

    Dating and romance should not be taken too seriously. Dating and romance should be fun and carefree.

    This statement always creates lively controversy. Even students who believe romance should be considered lightly take their views on the subject very seriously — which is itself worth pointing out to the class.

    Equality will ultimately increase. People will be more equal in the future.

    Many believe that a perfect society would include equality of opportunity and/or outcome. Is our society moving toward greater equality or profound inequality? Students may be surprised that the World State’s supposed utopia relies on a strictly controlled and clearly unjust caste hierarchy. Everyone is equal. Some are just born as Alphas.

    Lesson Plan: Using the Brave New World Anticipation Guide

    Here is the lesson plan that frames the Brave New World anticipation guide activity.

    Key standard: SL1 Comprehension and Collaboration (discussion)
    SL.11-12.1 “Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.”

    Into

    Broadly speaking, Brave New World is about the meaning of life. Open with an easy question: “What is the meaning of life for human beings?”

    Through

    Move from the warm-up question on the meaning of life to the specific theme subjects found in Brave New World. Students think about each statement on the anticipation guide and agree, disagree, or qualify (to make a response less absolute by adding reservations or conditions).

    Group time:

    • Complete the Brave New World Anticipation Guide individually.
    • Share and discuss responses in small groups.
    • Choose one discussion to share with the class.

    Discussion topics: happiness, thought control, suffering, science and technology, solitude, truth, freedom, consumerism, romance, equality

    Connected text: “Someone Might Be Watching — An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction” (3 pages) by Shelby Ostergaard

    Beyond

    • Based on today’s discussion, make some wild guesses about how the narrative of Brave New World might unfold. Imagine possible scenarios.
    • Which of the discussion prompts is most interesting to you? Explain.
    • Which theme subject will you address in your final task for the unit? Why did you select it?

    Starting Brave New World with an Anticipation Guide

    Anticipation guides work because they create a stake. Students who have committed to a position in writing before reading arrive at the text with something to confirm, complicate, or reconsider. For Brave New World specifically, where Huxley’s arguments are built to unsettle comfortable assumptions, that prior commitment is exactly what makes the discussions land. The ten statements above were chosen to plant as many of those seeds as possible before the novel does its work.

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