Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
How does BNW portray a dystopia? Specifically, address the following 5 issues:
Introduction: Introduce the topic of your paper (a quick summary is that BNW illustrates how a utopia scheme creates a dystopia) and give a brief overview of your paper.
[5-10% OF YOUR PAPER]
1) Utopian ideas are expressed in slogans like “A world with war,” “A world without poverty,” etc. Think of 3 slogans of this type that the creators of the World State might have used to present their vision of utopia, + which help to explain why the World State is organized and operates the way it does. These slogans should be expressed positively, so claiming “A world without families” or “A world without individual thought” would not work-these slogans would not be attractive to most people.
Identify 3 slogans that might have been used and use them to organize your discussion of the World State’s utopian vision. Provide examples from the novel of how each slogan would explain how/why the World State operates the way that it does.
[ABOUT 25% OF YOUR PAPER]
2) Show how the novel demonstrates these consequences of attempts to create a utopian society, using examples & evidence from the book: 1) regimentation of society; 2) dehumanization; 3) misuse of technology; 4) state terror; 5) tragedy of the individual; 6) a new class of rulers; 7) use of propaganda to manipulate population; & 8) dystopia is necessarily totalitarian. For more explanation, see Barilleaux, “The Map of Dystopia”. You should have a separate paragraph for each of the 8 features.
[ABOUT 50% OF YOUR PAPER]
3) WIs the dystopia of Brave New World a hard or soft one? (See Barilleaux, “The Map of Dystopia,”) PICK ONE (hard or soft) and use examples/evidence from the book to support your position.
[ABOUT 10% OF YOUR PAPER]
5) Which aspect of Huxley’s dystopia is the worst? Why? Explain.
“What is the Worst Thing” as your conclusion, be sure to have a separate concluding paragraph.
