A Brave New World Chapter 4

Part 1.

1. What puzzles Lenina about Bernard Marx's behavior?

- He acts awkward when Lenina asks him to have sex with her; he wants to talk about it in private. However, Lenina doesn't see it as something that needs to be discussed in private because it was just sex, and in this book sex is nothing to be hidden.

2. Please provide examples of Lenina using what she learned from hypnopaedia.

-I don't really see any direct references to hypnopaedia, but maybe the references that she is making to Bernard about sex could be learned from hypnopaedia. They could be brainwashed to think that sex is something that can be publicly discussed without any embarrassment. Also, at the end of the chapter she says something about how horrible the color khaki is, which is something that was obviously learned through hypnopaedia.

3. Where are Lenina and Henry going?

-They ride in Henry's helicopter, where they end up at Stoke Poges, to play obstacle golf.

Part 2.

1. What makes Bernard Marx distressed? Why?

-He feels that he has many enemies that he doesn't want to see, and they are making him feel guilty and alone. Everyone was making him suffer, even Lenina. He wants to ask her to have him, but he was too afraid that she would deny him. He also hates dealing with members of the lower castes, because it makes him feel bad that their physical appearance is not any better than his own.

2. Where does Helmholtz Watson work? What is his job?

- He works on one of the top eighteen floors of the College of Emotional Engineering. He is a lecturer and an emotional engineer. "He wrote for the Hourly Radio, composed feely scenarios, and had the happiest knack for slogans and hypnopaedic rhymes."

3. What does Bernard have in common with Helmholtz Watson?

-Both of them have physical "defects" which are isolating them from the other men in their caste. They are both extremely small compared to the average man, which effects them mentally because they feel like they are enemies with everyone.

4. What is troubling Helmholtz?

-He feels that he has some things to say, but he can't figure out how to say them. He also feels that his phrases that he creates aren't good enough.