Even advanced students benefit from preparation before engaging with a complex text. These Brave New World pre-reading activities and introduction lessons get students thinking before they enter Huxley’s disturbing dystopia. Activities address themes on happiness, freedom, suffering, consumerism, and what it means to live a meaningful life.
Brave New World Pre-Reading Activities: Menu
- Welcome to Brave New World (slideshow and notes)
- Create a Utopia
- Anticipation Guide and Class Discussion
- Think about Genre: Speculative Fiction
- Real Utopias Past and Present
- An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction
- Huxley’s Real World (historical context)
- Symbolism Practice (short story edition)
- Designer Babies
- Are You Being Controlled? (survey)
- Classical Conditioning Experiment
- Key Excerpts Preview (allusions)
1. Welcome to Brave New World — Slideshow and Notes
This 30-slide presentation previews Brave New World background information, central theme subjects, and unit goals. A free PDF notes handout helps students focus their attention, summarize key information, and reflect on speculative fiction as a genre. This is the first lesson of the unit and sets up everything that follows.
For the free PDF slideshow and notes handout, see the Brave New World Introduction PowerPoint page. The customizable PPTX file is available in the Brave New World Lesson Plans and Materials.
2. Create a Utopia
This Brave New World pre-reading activity asks students to imagine their version of the most perfect human society. For thousands of years philosophers, social scientists, and leaders have pondered how to make a perfect society. Here students conduct a thought experiment of their own.
Into
What are the biggest problems that you see in society today? Include the local and the global.
Through
World leaders have given you absolute authority in designing and implementing a new human existence. You will determine the form of the most ideal society possible. Students complete the Create a Utopia handout and share their proposals with the class.
Beyond
- Which proposal would you want to try? Explain.
- Which plan is the most feasible? Explain.
- Choose one of the plans and speculate on how it could go horribly wrong.
- Is it possible that humans can find the recipe for a perfect society?
Helpful clips:
“Utopias Becoming Dystopias” (3 minutes) from Shmoop
“The History of Utopian Thinking” (13 minutes) by Danilo Palazzo
3. Anticipation Guide and Class Discussion
The anticipation guide raises Brave New World pre-reading questions without giving away the plot. Students reflect on ten statements to consider their own views before Huxley challenges them. This activity plants seeds that pay off throughout the unit — students who commit to positions before reading arrive at discussions with something real to reconsider.
Theme subjects covered: happiness, thought control, suffering, science and technology, solitude, truth, freedom, consumerism, romance, equality.
For the free PDF and full lesson plan, see the Brave New World Anticipation Guide page.
4. Think about Genre: Speculative Fiction
Brave New World fits within the genre of speculative fiction — fiction that imagines what life would be like under extraordinary circumstances. Before students read Huxley, have them analyze another example of speculative fiction in the form of a short story.
Into
What do you think life on Earth will look like in the year 2540? What will humans be like? How will society be different?
Through
Students select and read a speculative fiction short story, complete the analysis worksheet, and share their example with the class.
Reading suggestions:
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson — A town follows a grisly and mysterious tradition.
- “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury — What happens when kids can have anything they want?
- “2 B R 0 2 B” by Kurt Vonnegut — What would happen if people could live for centuries? (The zero is pronounced “naught.”)
- “Just Do It” by Heather Lindsley — How far will advertisers go to make a dollar? (LANGUAGE ADVISORY)
- “Examination Day” by Henry Slesar — The government takes an extreme role in making sure that everyone is intelligent.
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin — Could you walk away from a perfect life?
- “The Perfect Match” by Ken Liu — Will big data lead to unlimited surveillance and control? Is it already too late?
- “Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor — Rogue robots in the developing world, with a musical twist. (CONTENT ADVISORY)
- “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss — Are you human or robot? Only your Teddy bear knows for sure.
Beyond
- Which speculative premise is the most likely in your opinion?
- Which speculation is the most interesting to think about?
5. Real Utopias Past and Present
In researching real-life attempts at utopia, students explore diverse views on the meaning of perfection. As the novel illustrates, one person’s utopia is another person’s nightmare. Approach this Brave New World pre-reading activity as an abbreviated research project.
Community examples:
- Hancock Shaker Village (1783)
- Ephrata Cloister (1732)
- Brook Farm (1841)
- The Oneida Community (1848)
- Arcosanti (1970)
- The Harmony Society (1805)
- New Harmony (1825)
- The San Francisco Diggers (1966)
- Drop City (1965)
- The Amana Colonies (1856)
- Brasilia (1956)
- Equality Colony (1902)
- Pyramidin (1927)
- Auroville (1968)
- Kibbutzim (1909)
- Rajneeshpuram (1981)
- The Communist Manifesto (1848)
- The People’s Republic of China (1949)
- The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (1973)
- Ecovillages (1991)
6. An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction
Prepare students for Brave New World by discussing dystopia examples from popular culture. Start by sharing one of your favorites and ask students to share one dystopian example they know by explaining its premise, plot, mood, theme subjects, and central theme.
Connected text: “Someone Might Be Watching — An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction” by Shelby Ostergaard (3 pages)
Content advisory: some recommended clips contain blood and violence.
7. Huxley’s Real World — Historical Context
After visiting America in the 1920s, Huxley observed that Americans spent their energy “in places of public amusement, in dancing and motoring… Nowhere, perhaps, is there so little conversation… It is all movement and noise, like the water gurgling out of a bath — down the waste.” His observations on societal developments — particularly in psychology, genetics, industry, and government — drove him to write Brave New World in 1931.
The historical context section of the introduction slideshow covers seven areas in depth: developments in psychology, technology and industry, genetics and eugenics, entertainment and media, social change, government and world order, and the shattered optimism of the Great Depression. Use these as discussion anchors before or during the reading.
Helpful video: American Experience — “The Eugenics Crusade” (PBS)
8. Symbolism Practice — Short Story Edition
Since Huxley relies heavily on symbols to develop his themes, it pays to review symbolism analysis before students start the novel.
Symbols students will encounter in Brave New World: bottles, conveyors and wheels, the complete works of Shakespeare, soma, the abandoned lighthouse, the smokestack, Mond’s copy of the Bible, zippers, islands.
The lesson includes a worksheet that guides students in analyzing symbolism in a short story. If students need additional support, start with visual symbols before moving into literary ones.
Reading suggestions:
- “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier (5 pages) — easy
- “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe (4 pages) — easy
- “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett (7 pages) — moderate
- “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (12 pages) — challenging
9. Designer Babies
From artificial insemination to the editing of specific genes, reproductive science has come a long way. What might this mean for the future of humanity? This Brave New World pre-reading activity asks students to discuss the ethical implications of genetically modified humans. Read an article on the subject as a class before holding an informal debate.
- How far is too far? What are the ethical concerns?
- What are the benefits?
- What are the risks for society?
10. Are You Being Controlled? — Survey
Now imagine that the walls, bars, and fences of a prison are in your own mind — and someone else built them. This Brave New World activity confronts students with the reality of psychological manipulation before they see it dramatized in the novel.
Into
What are some of the ways that one person can control another? A prisoner’s movement is controlled through walls, bars, and fences. What about subtler forms of control?
Through
- Complete the first page of the survey.
- View a video clip on brain hacking.
- Read “Our Brains Are No Match for Our Technology” (3 pages) by Tristan Harris. What are Harris’ central ideas? How does he develop them?
- Complete the second page of the survey and reflect on your answers.
Beyond
Will you change your relationship with technology based on this information? Why or why not?
Additional articles:
- “Have You Talked with Your Kids About Pledging Allegiance?” (3 pages) from Psychology Today
- “Mind Control: It’s Happening to You Right Now” (6 pages) by Jeremy Lent
- “Surviving the Sneaky Psychology of Supermarkets” (3 pages) from National Geographic
- “The Psychology Behind Retail Marketing” (2 pages) by Katie Kochelek
- “Video Game Addiction is Now Being Recognized — What Happens Next?” (9 pages) from MIT Technology Review
11. Classical Conditioning Experiment
Before students read Brave New World and observe the methods of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, study the psychology behind classical conditioning. The worksheet explains the basics of Pavlov’s work and leads students through a simple experiment involving heart rate manipulation. Students who understand conditioning before reading will recognize it operating on every page of the novel.
12. Key Excerpts Preview — Allusions
“Just to give you a general idea,” he would explain to them. For of course some sort of general idea they must have, if they were to do their work intelligently–though as little of one, if they were to be good and happy members of society, as possible. For particulars, as every one knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but fretsawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.
“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.’…
Have students consider key excerpts without context before reading Brave New World. They might make inferences about character, anticipate plot events, identify theme subjects, or recognize elements of Huxley’s style. It does not matter if the guesses are off track. The goal is to prepare students to read closely, think critically, and discuss literary elements.
If the unit delves deeply into Huxley’s allusions, include excerpts that clearly reference the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. Prime students to watch for these connections before the reading begins.
Starting Brave New World Right
These 12 Brave New World pre-reading activities and introduction lessons are designed to be mixed and matched. Not every class needs all twelve — pick the activities that fit your students, your schedule, and your unit goals. The anticipation guide and the introduction slideshow are the two that do the most work for the widest range of classes. Everything else builds on that foundation. The complete lesson plans, student handouts, and customizable materials are available in the Brave New World Lesson Plans and Materials.
More Brave New World teaching posts:
- Brave New World Introduction PowerPoint
- Brave New World Anticipation Guide
- Brave New World Discussion Questions
- Brave New World Reading Questions
- Brave New World Essay Prompts
- Brave New World Project Ideas
- Brave New World Unit Plan
- Brave New World Teaching Resources — Full Catalog
M. Towle is a veteran Language Arts and Social Studies teacher with fourteen years of classroom experience in urban schools in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. M. Towle holds an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is the founder of TeachNovels.com.