8-10 Study Questions

1)What is strange about "Bye Baby Bunting Soon You'll Need Decanting"?  What is the allusion?  (124)

It is an allusion to a popular English language nursery rhyme. Originally it was not about test-tube babies, instead it was about a father going out hunting to gather rabbit skins to wrap the baby in.

2) Why does Linda hit John?  What does she blame him for?  Is this right?  Is it understandable why she resents him?

Linda hits John because he is the reason she is stuck living with the savages. It’s not right to hit your child and hate them for being alive. I understand why she would resent them, though. Because she had a child, she would never fit in back at the city.

3) What is your opinion of Pope?  Why?  Anything ironic about his name?

I don’t like him very much. He seems very sleazy and untrustworthy because his objective in life is to get Linda drunk. It was nice of him to bring the William Shakespeare book to John, though. The Pope is considered a holy man which is very unlike this Pope.

4) How did Linda teach John to read?  What becomes John's bible?  Is there anything ironic about this?

She would write phrases on the wall using a piece of charcoal. His bible became The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Just like Shakespeare, there are many different ways to interpret the bible, and I don’t think everyone understands either work completely.

5) "Nay, but to live/ in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,/ stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love/ over the nasty sty".  What is significant about this quote?  (131)

It was a Hamlet allusion. It talked to him about Linda. It gave him a reason to hate Pope more.

6) Why does John try to kill Pope?  What is Pope's reaction?  How does Shakespeare influence these thought?

John tries to kill Pope because he sees him getting down with his mom, but Pope just laugh at him. Shakespeare influences his thoughts by making what Pope and Linda were doing gross.

7)  "He had discovered Time and Death and God" (136).  What is significant about this quote?

In this place, people will not realize that time is passing and the world will be the same, but the people will be different.

In this book, there is a long amount of adolescence and then a sudden death.

There is no god because god is a tie and there is a philosophical connection with life.

8)  How are John and Bernard alike?

They’re both loners.

9)  "I did something that none of the others did.  I stood against a rock in the middle of the day, in summer, with my arms out, like Jesus on the Cross."  "What on earth for?"  "I wanted to know what it was like being crucified."  (137).  What is significant about this quote?

John went off his rocker. He wanted to experience what it was like being god.

10) At the end of chapter 8 the title of the book appears in a quote from the Tempest.  This quote will be used throughout the book, but its meaning will change with each use.  What is the meaning of the quote here?  (137)

The meaning of the title of the story Brave New World is revealed through Bernard’s invitation for John to join him in his civilized world. John quotes Shakespeare’s The Tempest comparing Bernard’s world to a “brave new world.” John thinks this is his chance to fit into a society and belong since the Indian world will not accept him for who he is. 

11) List the allusions to Romeo and Juliet in chapter 9.  What ideas do they reinforce?

“Her eyes, her hair………..The cygnet’s down is harsh…” (Page 144)

“On the white………..Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.” (Page 144)

“Dare to profane with his unworthiest hand…” (Page 144)

12)  Why is the Social Predestination Room compared with a Hive in chapter 10?

It is very loud and crowded and it is a reoccurring comparison between the city and nature. It shows that everybody relies on each other.

13)  How does Bernard turn the "Public example" on Tomakin?

He turns on the public example by showing that Tomakin is a father.

14)  Is there meaning (perhaps irony and an allusion) in John falling on his knees and saying (loudly) "My Father"?  (151)

It is a biblical allusion. It’s ironic that Tomakin is a father because he is the person who may be the very most against relationships.