Vengeance is Ours

Please read Jared Diamond's article, Vengeance is Ours, by Monday January 11th.

Brave New World Chapter 18

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 17. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. Where does John go to be alone?

2. What does John do when he is whittling his bow-stave? How does he react?

3. Who comes to see John? Why?

4. Who is Darwin Bonaparte?

5. To what extent is John's experience with the visitors similar to that of John Merrick when the nightwatchman brings his friends from the pub?

Brave New World Chapter 17

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 17. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. How does the controller feel about God? Why does he believe that the World State can be "independent of God" (p. 233)?

2. How does the controller feel about philosophy?

3. What does the controller mean when he says, "Christianity without tears-that's what soma is." (p. 238)?

4. What does John mean when he says, "Nothing costs enough here." (p. 239)?

5. Why does John claim the right to be unhappy?

Brave New World Chapter 16

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 16. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. What shocks John about Mustapha Mond, Resident World Controller for Western Europe?

2. Mond says, "Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people to be attracted by old things". (p.219) Was there a hypnopedic saying repeated by characters throughout the book that reinforce this idea?

3. What does Mond mean when he says that, "You can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want" (p. 220). Why does John respond to the media provided by stating, "But they don't mean anything." (221)?

4. How do you think John would respond to Flava of Love, The Bachelor, ESPN or reality shows like Survivor? What would Mond think of these shows?

5. What was the Cyprus experiment?

6. Why does Mond believe that "science must be treated as a possible enemy" (p. 225)?

7. What shift did mass production produce?

8. What is their punishment?

Brave New World Chapter 15

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 15. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. What does John mean when he says, "Like maggots they had swarmed defilingly over the mystery of Linda's death. (p. 209)"?

2. Why does John believe that "Linda had been a slave." (p. 210)?

3. What does John do to bring the Delta's freedom? Who joins him?

4. At the end of the chapter, who is taken away by he police?

Brave New World Chapter 14

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 14. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. What is happening to Linda?

2. What does John mean when he says, "when she told him those stories about the Other place, outside the Reservation: that beautiful, beautiful Other place" (p. 201)?

3. Who are the "filthy little brats" (p. 202) who anger John so much?

4. Please explain why "run along now and have your cup of caffeine solution" is problematic? I'm serious - I don't see the problem.

5. Why don't people in the hospital understand John when he says, "Oh, God, God, God" (p. 207)?

Brave New World Chapter 13

Please use these questions as a guide as you read Chapter 13. If you wish to answer them for extra credit, please post o your blog by January 4.

1. What does Lenina mean when she says, "For Ford's sake John, talk sense. I can't understand a word you say. First it is vacuum cleaners; then its knots. You're driving me crazy." (p. 191)?

2. How does John react when Lenina makes advances towards him?