“Giving kids clothes and food is one thing but it is much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important, and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.” - Dolores Huerta

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Brave New World - Chapter 2 & 3

Chapter 2
  • Ironic and juxtaposition: "They were in a large bare room, very bright and sunny.." > depicts the unnaturalness of the situation, and how things are meant to seem "bright" and wonderful
  • Pathos: emotion sought from readers as they discover how children are taught to hate things (shocks and other various forms of association with a negative response) >> "The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance."
  • Diction: "sharp spasmodic yelps.." > makes the babies sound almost unhuman, sort of describing them as things, or even as animals
  • Allusion: B.F Skinner - operant conditioning; ability to modify a behavior (interest) by its consequences > children won't enjoy books or nature because of the negative consequence
  • Flashback: The Director keeps mentioning the past, past failed experiments with hypnopadia, past parent-child relationships, etc.
  • Restatement: importance of social class standing instilled in children > "Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children, And Episilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read and write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
  • Metonymy: "My Ford" replacement of  "My Lord" >> religion replaced > "Oh, Ford!"
Chapter 3
  • Juxtaposition (all of chapter 3): multiple conversations; Fanny and Lenina, Bernard and the other two men, and the Controller with students
  • Allusion: Psychological theories of Sigmund Freud > the unconscious mind and how it affects the outer
  • Symbolism: Soma > the happiness drug, keeping the people submissive and essentially "content and happy" under their unchangeable circumstances; to take "a vacation"

Vocabulary:
  • aseptically:  Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms;   Lacking animation or emotion:
  • posthumous: occurring or continuing after ones death
  • indissolubly: incapable of being undone, or unbroken
  • viviparous: bringing forth live young that have developed inside the body of the parent.
  • maudlin: self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness.
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