good luck with your inner bully anita;) you have helped me lots and you are also an inspirational and compassionate friend. for the summer work for english 4 honors, i took notes mostly in the the book b/c i had my own copy of Brave New World. i didn’t answer the questions in a paragraph format (minimum of 4-6 sent.) like it said to, but i answered them quite simply with a few sentences. i find that i enjoy science and math more esp. pre-calc. i still remember most parts of the plot, i took a sparknotes quiz and received a 20/25. I don’t understand the reason John Savage hangs himself at the end of the story but i think it’s b/c of his disillusionment with the brave new world and the death of linda. i also wonder who henry foster is and his part in the story.
i wonder what caste lenina is and who she really loves. she seems happy to be part of society, but also has some debates esp. when she wants to see a savage reservation in new mexico. i think john savage is the director’s and linda’s son. i’m not sure who mustapha mond is as well, to me he seems to be the director, but maybe not. in the book, it explains how genetics are able to slow the aging process and keep people young and vibrant, but they only live till sixty. i don’t like the idea of predestination when they destine who will fit into which caste and there is a society without books. the soma drug reminds me of the drug abuse of modern society since people don’t want to deal with pain at times. i think it is cool that people can stay young until they reach sixty when they die b/c their cells are being restricted from their normal function. it is possible to slow the process of apoptosis (cell death) by inhibiting the enzymes that keep cutting dna telomerase strands short and causes aging, but since we are working against the normal process of our bodies we inhibit the functions of our body and don’t live as long. the questions for the summer reading require evidence from the text, so i just answered the main parts of the question and underlined the text in the book. i hope the teacher doesn’t collect the questions b/c then she will have to collect the book as well and it might be confusing for her/him. i like the scientific aspect of the book better than the literary aspects so my inner bully has been annoying me by saying “the teacher will fail you in her class b/c you didn’t pay attention to the literary themes, you paid attention to the sciences in this book.” while it’s true that i focused more on the scientific aspects than the literary aspects such as the theme, characters, pov and whatever else i’m more of a scientist than a literary person. i read books and write poetry for the overall theme and meaning not its parts, to me if i focus on the parts such as the grammar and everything else, it ruins the book’s main imagery and message. that is the thing i don’t like about english class, the teachers tend to dissect the book into so many parts and literary terms, that the book looses its meaning in a wider scope. dave says he doesn’t like to take notes when reading a novel b/c it takes away from his enjoyment of the novel’s true meaning and i think i understand what he means. dakota decided not to answer the questions at all, but read the book and take notes in it, that way he doesn’t have to be distracted by the questions and can get the whole meaning of the book. the questions are supposed to help us prepare to write an essay comparing a literary article to the book and take a test on it. the questions and test are counted as a project/essay grade in the 1st marking period. a lot of the questions correspond to the theme, conflict, character development and POV and they seem a bit repetitive.

here are the questions:

Using evidence from the text, explain the novel’s title.
How or when was the theme introduced into the novel? Identify two other details that helped shape the theme.
What is the overall theme of the novel. Cite evidence.
Using text, explain the conflict between the main character and someone else in the book.
What evidence from the text shows the character is working on a solution to the conflict.
If you could give any character advice who would it be and why?
Select a character from the novel that makes a change and explain the change citing text.
Choose three traits (from beginning, middle, end) to describe central character using textual support for each trait.
Explain the novel’s POV and cite from text.
How does the narrator’s POV explain how the events in the story progress, how would the story be different if the POV changed?