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Year 10 English
Our text material for term 1 will be the film "Gattaca". Here is a trailer for the film that elaborates on some of it's core themes. We will also answering discussion questions while watching the film. Here is the question sheet, you can download it here!
"Future Worlds"/ Unit 1:
Your first major assignment will be to write a creative ending to "Gattaca". You will have to use proper capitalization, punctuation and spelling. Here is a copy of the assignment here!
Assignment #1 "Gattaca" Writing Assignment
You will also have a spelling list that will relate directly to "Gattaca", here is the list!
Please also look at this website I've found that addresses the themes and major ideas of Gattaca. I will expect everyone to have reviewed and understood the major themes and ideas presented here.
Themes of "Gattaca" Presi Presentation
You should take note of the major themes in Gattaca. They will be part of your quiz.
What is context?
There are three types of context we have talked about in class. Here they are for review:
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Historical Context: The time period that a story in set in.
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Cutural Context: The culture within which the story takes place.
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Social Context: The society (level of society).
Plot Lines and Character "Gattaca"
From Roger Ebert.com
What is genetic engineering, after all, but preemptive plastic surgery? Make the child perfect in the test tube, and save money later. Throw in perfect health, a high IQ and a long life-span, and you have the brave new world of “Gattaca,” in which the bioformed have inherited the earth, and babies who are born naturally get to be menial laborers.
This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas. Its hero is a man who challenges the system. Vincent (Ethan Hawke) was born in the old-fashioned way, and his genetic tests show he has bad eyesight, heart problems and a life expectancy of about 30 years. He is an “In-Valid,” and works as a cleaner in a space center.
Vincent does not accept his fate. He never has. As a child, he had swimming contests with his brother Anton (Loren Dean), who has all the right scores but needs to be saved from drowning. Now Vincent dreams of becoming a crew member on an expedition to one of the moons of Saturn. Using an illegal DNA broker, he makes a deal with a man named Jerome (Jude Law), who has the right genes but was paralyzed in an accident. Jerome will provide him with blood, urine samples and an identity. In a sense, they'll both go into space. “Gattaca” is the remarkable debut of a writer-director from New Zealand, Andrew Niccol, whose film is intelligent and thrilling--a tricky combination--and also visually exciting. His most important set is a vast office where genetically superior computer programmers come to work every day, filing into their long rows of desks like the office slaves in King Vidor's “The Crowd” and Orson Welles' “The Trial.” (Why are “perfect” human societies so often depicted by ranks of automatons? Is it because human nature resides in our flaws?) Vincent, as “Jerome,” gets a job as a programmer, supplies false genetic samples and becomes a finalist for the space shot.
The tension comes in two ways. First, there's the danger that Vincent will be detected; the area is swept daily, and even an eyelash can betray him. Second, there's a murder; a director of the center, who questions the wisdom of the upcoming shot, is found dead, and a detective (Alan Arkin) starts combing the personnel for suspects. Will a computer search sooner or later put together Vincent, the former janitor, with “Jerome,” the new programmer? Vincent becomes friendly with Irene (Uma Thurman), who works in the center but has been passed over for a space shot because of low scores in some areas. They are attracted to one another, but romance in this world can be dangerous; after kissing a man, a woman is likely to have his saliva swabbed from her mouth so she can test his prospects. Other supporting characters include Gore Vidal, as a mission supervisor, and Tony Shalhoub as the broker (“You could go anywhere with this guy's helix under your arm”).
Hawke is a good choice for the lead, combining the restless dreams of a “Godchild” with the plausible exterior of a lab baby. The best scenes involve his relationship with the real Jerome, played by Law as smart, bitter, and delighted to be sticking it to the system that has grounded him. (He may be paralyzed from the waist down, but after all, as the movie observes, you don't need to walk in space.) His drama parallels Vincent's, because if either one is caught they'll both go down together.
Science fiction in the movies has recently specialized in alien invasions, but the best of the genre deals with ideas. At a time when we read about cloned sheep and tomatoes crossed with fish, the science in “Gattaca” is theoretically possible. When parents can order “perfect” babies, will they? Would you take your chances on a throw of the genetic dice, or order up the make and model you wanted? How many people are prepared to buy a car at random from the universe of all available cars? That's how many, I suspect, would opt to have natural children.
Everybody will live longer, look better and be healthier in the Gattacan world. But will it be as much fun? Will parents order children who are rebellious, ungainly, eccentric, creative, or a lot smarter than their parents are? There's a concert pianist in “Gattaca” who has 12 fingers. Don't you sometimes have the feeling you were born just in time?
Themes
http://gattacamoviereview.blogspot.com.au
Gattaca Themes
Society is venturing deeper and deeper into the development of science. Our genes are no longer only known by God, they are becoming a target into research, in which is to define how we are made. The Human Genome Project (completed in 2006) primary goals was to determine the sequence of the chemical base pairs that make up DNA and to identify the 20,000-25,000 genes of the human genome for functional reasons such as making them accessible for further biological study [1].The opinion that genes are a stamp of our stereotype is beside the point of who we are as a person. Genes hold the genetic materials that make us as a person in the sense of; family, who we are related to, our similarities and differences in traits, and most importantly of all what we look in the sense of hair colour, eye colour, sex, height etc. However do genes make us more than a human being that functions?, Do they define our personality, likes and dislikes?, If you can look at my own genes under a high power-microscope would you discover what my ambition in life is, if I have experienced love and if I have experienced hurt? Genes can tell a lot of detail about the makeup of a person, but it does not withhold information on our dreams, hopes, choices, goals, talents and desires in life, that is all part of our own persona and it shouldn’t be inherited because we are all unique.
Stereotypes are presumptions we withhold upon a person’s character [2]. The term “stereotype” derives from the Greek word stereos meaning solid, firm, and tupos (type) meaning impression [3]. Therefore stereotype is defined as a “solid impression” we place upon people without really understanding them, which is a basis of prejudice. When we are stereotypical we do not look into the persons eyes at all, we only see their appearance dimly and allocate them in a group within societies boundaries in which we think they belong. Stereotypes and first impressions can be deceitful of what kind of person someone is. For example; there is a new person in your class at school, you greet them on three brief everyday conservations yet they came off as rough, cruel, inconsiderate and harsh as a person. Let me ask you this, before you shunned and stereotyped them did you ever ask them what their goal in life was, what vocation they wanted to pursue, what background they came from? You have only judged them by their first impressions and appearance. You have not look into their soul, heard their laugh, or seen their beauty and their good. You haven’t even seen the light inside their eyes or encouraged it to grow.
In conclusion I have discussed above why a genetic stamp of our genes doesn’t accurately define who we are as an individual and furthermore I have also discussed why stereotypes are a false impression upon a person. Therefore I agree that a genetic stamp of our genes is no different to the stereotypes we place on people because they overlook who we are and do not correctly define our individuality. The only person that really defines yourself, is the one sitting here reading this quietly, because nobody knows more about you than you do.
References:
- http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml [1]
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes [2]
- Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus [3]
Posted by dee-anneat 6:41 PM
Review: ‘Gattaca’ (Variety)
SEPTEMBER 9, 1997 | 12:00AM PT
One of the first major Hollywood movies to deal with the effects of genetic engineering on human civilization, "Gattaca," New Zealander helmer Andrew Niccol's impressive feature debut, is an intelligent and timely sci-fi thriller that, with the exception of some illogical plot contrivances, is emotionally engaging almost up to the end.
Emanuel Levy
One of the first major Hollywood movies to deal with the effects of genetic engineering on human civilization, “Gattaca,” New Zealander helmer Andrew Niccol’s impressive feature debut, is an intelligent and timely sci-fi thriller that, with the exception of some illogical plot contrivances, is emotionally engaging almost up to the end. Ethan Hawke renders a terrifically sympathetic performance as a flawed Everyman, an outsider who fights a new scientific system to change his preordained fate and achieve his quest of becoming an astronaut. Lacking bankable stars and spectacular special effects, this well-produced, character-driven film should receive solid, if not sensational, response from educated viewers, with potent results overseas and in ancillary venues.
Tale is set in the “not-too-distant” future, in a tyrannical, impersonal world in which “designer people,” forged in lab tubes, strive for perfection. Central premise — that rich people are able to choose the genetic makeup of their descendants — is intriguing, cashing in on the almost universal desire for improvement and control over birth defects. Writer-director Niccol liberates the sci-fi genre from the elements that have defined it since Kubrick’s seminal “2001: A Space Odyssey”: Heavy reliance on technology, gadgets and spaceships, sophisticated special effects and mythic yarns of good versus evil a la “Star Wars.”
Conceived by love rather than in a lab, Vincent Freeman (Hawke) is an anomaly. But in the new era of genetic tinkering, he’s labeled an “In-Valid,” the stigma attached to all those imperfect creatures who are not up to genetic snuff. Indeed, Vincent’s genetic profile contains many defects: bad vision, emotional problems and a short life expectancy of 30 years.
These shortcomings limit Vincent to manual jobs and prevent him from fulfilling his lifelong dream, to become a space navigator at the Gattaca Corporation. At the same time, being human, Vincent possesses volatile and outmoded qualities that genetics can’t control: passion, hope and faith.
Beginning at childhood, the first, heavily narrated reel chronicles the differences between the young Vincent (Chad Christ) and his younger brother, Anton (William Lee Scott), a lab baby with the perfect genes for success. Whereas Anton is tall, strong and with impeccable eyesight, Vincent is weak, sickly and wears glasses.
Anton is admired and respected by his parents; Vincent is pitied and kept at home. Nonetheless, in a peculiar role reversal (based on the notion that there’s no gene for the human spirit), Vincent saves his brother from drowning, a traumatic experience that continues to haunt both siblings in the future.
Determined to revolt against his proscribed future, the mature Vincent enlists the assistance of German (Tony Shaloub), a DNA broker who sells false identities to the genetically inferior.
In scenes that recall the mesmerizing physiological transformations in “Face/Off,” German sets a bizarre partnership with Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), a superior specimen who, paralyzed in an accident, is willing to sell his genetic materials for cash.
To assume the new identity, Vincent must effectively conceal his flaws: alter his vision, enhance his height. An even greater challenge is fooling his supervisors, who regularly validate their workers’ identities with blood and urine tests. Niccol frames the plot as a suspenseful murder mystery: A week before Vincent’s flying mission, the director of the space agency is killed and every member of the program becomes a suspect.
Not neglecting the romantic angle, pic introduces a beautiful woman, Irene (Uma Thurman), a Valid citizen who has been accepted into the Gattaca training program; suffering from a heart defect, however, she’s prevented from going into space. The contrasting ways in which Vincent and Irene approach their limitations — he boldly challenges them while she passively accepts her fate — serves as another emotional hook for the audience. But ultimately, the narrative benefits the most from the complex, ambiguous, ever-changing relationship between Eugene and Vincent.
Picture creates a credible futuristic world, in which the issue of genetic control is more economic than political — the wealthy are privileged in their access to genetic engineering.
The film suffers from a final segment that’s not very convincing and contains schematic contrivances, particularly in the interactions between Vincent and the investigator. However, one is willing toignore the weaknesses of a new kind of sci-fi film that’s superlatively produced, designed and edited. Shot by Polish lenser Slawomir Idziak, the indoor scenes at the Gattaca company recall King Vidor’s “The Crowd” and other Hollywood pics about huge techno-bureaucracies.
Gattaca
Production
A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of a Jersey Films production. Produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Co-producer, Gail Nylon. Directed, written by Andrew Niccol.
Crew
Camera (color, widescreen), Slawomir Idziak; editor, Lisa Zeno Churgin; music, Michael Nyman; production design, Jan Roelfs; art direction, Sarah Knowles; set decoration, Nancy Nye; costume design, Colleen Atwood; sound (Dolby), Stephan Von Hase-Mihalik; special effects, Gary D'Amico; associate producer, Joshua Levinson; assistant director, John R. Woodward; casting, Francine Maisler. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 7, 1997. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 112 min.
With
Vincent/Jerome - Ethan Hawke
Irene - Uma Thurman
Jerome/Eugene - Jude Law
Director Joseph - Gore Vidal
Detective Hugo - Alan Arkin
Anton - Loren Dean
Marie - Jayne Brook
Antonio - Elias Koteas
Young Vincent - Chad Christ
Young Anton - William Lee Scott
German - Tony Shaloub
Caesar - Ernest Borgnine
Oral Report Assessment.
The next major assessment in Year 10 English this semester is an oral report. You can download the assessment here!
You need to select a topic for your persuasive speech that relates to Future Worlds! If you are having trouble finding a topic, here's a website to help you!
BRAVE NEW WORLD/ Synopsis and Notes
(Here is a copy of the Brave New World Group Assignment Click Here!)
Chapter 1: The novel opens in the year A.F. 632 in the social conditioning and hatchery center in London. The director and Henry Foster are conducting a tour. Babies are no longer born. They are hatched. The director explains the Bokanovskification process, which takes one embryo and splits it into multiple soon-to-be babies. The embryos are then treated based on its predetermined social caste--Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon.
Chapter 2: The Director continues his tour and brings the students to the nurseries. They observe a group of 8-month old Deltas crawling towards books and flowers. Once they reach the items, alarms sound, followed by electric shocks. The whole scene is meant to condition Deltas to hate books and nature. The lower castes are also conditioned to love transportation and elaborate sports in order to increase consumption. The Director then explains hypnopaedia, a process in which sleeping children are conditioned according to caste by the replay of messages as they sleep.
Chapter 3: The Director leads the students to a garden where hundreds of naked children engage in erotic play. Students are shocked that sexual behavior in children and adolescents used to be discouraged. His Fordship Mustapha Mond enters. The clocks strike four and the day shift ends. The remainder of the chapter involves constant scene switching among Mustapha Mond's lecture to the students, Lenina Crowne's conversation with her roommate, and Henry Foster's conversation with coworkers. Mond discusses industrialization, the world before the revolution, and the invention of soma, the perfect drug used by all citizens to escape from their troubles. Lenina's roommate advises her to be a good girl and be more promiscuous. Bernard Marx overhears Henry Foster's conversation in the men's room and is disgusted by it. Lenina tells her roommate, Fanny, that he's accepted Bernard's invitation to visit an Indian reservation.
Analysis: Brave New World, like Orwell's 1984, portrays a dystopia. In their efforts to create social and economic stability, world leaders and scientist use technology and psychology to eliminate individuality and discourage all activity that requires solitude or thought. Devices used to promote stability are sex, drugs, music, brainwashing, and class consciousness. Huxley's world combines the worst aspects of socialism--the loss of individuality--and capitalism--an unsatiated desire for consuming.
Chapter Summaries for Brave New World: 4-6
Chapter summaries for Brave New World, albeit useful, make a poor substitute for actually reading the novel.
Chapter 4: Lenina accepts Bernard's invitation to visit the Indian reservation. She then goes on a date with Henry. Bernard visits his friend Hemholtz, a physically superior Alpha plus, and the two discuss their yearning for individuality. Hemholtz desires to write something more meaningful than Hypnopaedic expressions.
Chapter 5: Henry and Lenina enjoy their date, with the help of soma. Bernard attends his mandatory community solidarity service where the twelve participants eat soma, sing hymns, and have an orgy.
Chapter 6: Lenina and Bernard go on a date. Lenina worries as Bernard hovers over rushing water and expresses how it makes him feel like an individual. They return to Bernard's and have sex, something which Bernard claims he did not want to do on their first date. Bernard gets permission to visit the reservation and finds out the Director had visited the reservation 20 years earlier with a woman, who got lost there. The Director, embarrassed by his confession, threatens to send Bernard to Iceland for anti-social behavior. Bernard and Lenina arrive at the reservation. Bernard phones Hemholtz and discovers he has been exiled to Iceland.
Analysis: For those wondering what life would be like if high school went on forever, here's the answer. The only thing that maters is what others think of you. Anyone who steps out of line is ostracized. Those who are ostracized revel in rebellion, more out of sour grapes, and whimper as soon as they are punished.
Chapter Summaries for Brave New World: 7-12
Chapter summaries for Brave New World, albeit useful, make a poor substitute for actually reading the novel.
Chapter 7: Bernard and Lenina enjoy the reservation ceremony and are surprised to find a blond haired boy (John) who speaks perfect English. They meet his mother, Linda, who had been abandoned on the reservation 20 years earlier. She carries on her conditioned customs by sleeping with all the men, something which causes her to be beaten often.
Chapter 8: John tells Bernard of his life on the reservation, of his ostracism on account of his mother's whorish ways. He learns to read and finds a copy of Shakespeare's collected works that he reads frequently. Bernard offers to bring him to London.
Chapter 9: Lenina goes on an 18-hour soma holiday as Bernard gains permission to bring Linda and John to London.
Chapter 10: The Director exiles Bernard to Iceland in front of the entire hatchery. Bernard retaliates by presenting John and Linda. John sends the crowd into hysterics by repeatedly calling the Director, father.
Chapter 11: John the Savage becomes a social icon. Bernard, his guardian, becomes popular and brags to Hemholtz about his sex life. Linda constantly takes soma. John is repulsed by Bokanovsky twins. Lenina takes John to a "feely." It repulses him. Lenina is disappointed that John will not have sex with her.
Chapter 12: Bernard schedules an important party, but John refuses to participate, humiliating Bernard. Hemholtz meets the savage and the two become instant friends. They read Shakespeare and Hemholtz laughs at Romeo and Juliet, which insults the savage.
Analysis: John fits in to neither world. He's an outcast on the reservation and wishes to be left alone in London. Bernard's dissatisfaction with his life changes as he becomes popular. After his humiliation he becomes dissatisfied again, demonstrating that John's rebellion had more to do with his insecurities than it did with his society.
Brave New World Summary: Chapters 13-18
Chapter summaries for Brave New World, albeit useful, make a poor substitute for actually reading the novel.
Chapter 13: Lenina ingests soma and visits John. John goes to one knee and expresses his love. Lenina undresses. John calls her a whore and roughs her up. She escapes to the locked bathroom. The phone rings. John answers it and leaves.
Chapter 14: John rushes to the dying ward at the hospital and asks to see his mother, a phrase which makes the nurse blush. A large group of 8-year old Bokanovsky twins enter the room for their death conditioning. John swats one of them in the head. Linda mistakes John for Popé, which angers him. Linda dies. John leaves the hospital angrily.
Chapter 15: John is infuriated by workers receiving their post work soma rations. He runs to the rationing location and throws the soma tablets out the window, calling the drugs a device for enslavement. Hemholtz and John arrive. A riot begins. Hemholtz goes to help John. Bernard fears for his life and wavers between helping and not helping the two. The riot police arrive and spray soma into the air to stop the riot.
Chapter 16: John, Bernard, and Hemholtz are taken to Mustapha Mond's office. He quotes Shakespeare and explains to John why civilization has developed the way it has. In order to create stability, feelings, relationships, passions, commitments, art, and truth must be eliminated.
Chapter 17: John and Mustapha discuss religion. Mustapha justifies its elimination.
Chapter 18: Mond wishes to continue the experiment. The other two are exiled and John takes up residence in an abandoned lighthouse where he performs his "savage" rituals. Two Deltas witness John whipping himself and the next day two reporters show up. John beats both of them. On the following day a swarm of reporters arrive. John thinks lustfully about Lenina and whips himself. A reporter hiding in the bushes records it and it is made into a "feely." Lenina arrives. John gives into temptation. He is found the next day, dead.
Here's the Audio Book of "Brave New World".
To watch the 1998 movie...go to this link!
Themes of "Brave New World"
There is a fanatastic site that deals with "Brave New World". I am listing some of the themes shown on that site. I am also giving you the link here for you to check out!
Themes
In LitCharts each theme gets its own color. Our color-coded theme boxes make it easy to track where the themes occur throughout the work.
Dystopia and Totalitarianism
Brave New World is one of the two best known dystopian novels written in the twentieth century. The other is George Orwell's 1984. Both novels envision future totalitarian societies in which individual liberty has been usurped by an all-powerful state. But the two novels show two very different methods by which the state has amassed its power. 1984 presents the rather more conventional vision of a totalitarian state, in which the government maintains power through surveillance, information control, and torture. Brave New World, in contrast, argues that the most powerful totalitarian state would be one that doesn't overwhelm and frighten its citizens, but instead manages to convince its citizens to love their slavery.
More help on this theme...
•See quotes about Dystopia and Totalitarianism
•Look for the to see analysis of this theme in: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18
Technology and Control
Science and technology are two different things. Science is the pursuit of truth and fact in the various sciences, from biology to physics. Technology refers to the tools and applications developed from science. Science is knowledge. Technology is what you can do with that knowledge.
Brave New World raises the terrifying prospect that advances in the sciences of biology and psychology could be transformed by a totalitarian government into technologies that will change the way that human beings think and act. Once this happens, the novel suggests, the totalitarian government will cease to allow the pursuit of any actual science and the truth that science reveals will be restricted and controlled, even as the technologies that allow for control will be constantly improved and perfected.
More help on this theme...
•See quotes about Technology and Control
•Look for the to see analysis of this theme in: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18
The Cost of Happiness
If you gave someone the choice between getting what they wanted and not getting what they wanted, they'd choose getting what they wanted every time. This satisfaction of desire, the person would believe, would make them happy. In order to maintain its stability, the World State in Brave New World ensures that all its citizens get exactly what they want all the time. In other words, the World State is designed to make people happy. This universal "happiness" is achieved in three ways: 1) The state uses biological science and psychological conditioning to make sure that each citizen is not only suited to its job and role but actually prefers that role to anything else, and therefore doesn't want anything he or she can't have; 2) Through the promotion of promiscuous sex as virtuous and the elimination of families or any long-term relationship of any sort, the government ensures that no one will ever face intense and unreciprocated emotional or sexual desire; 3) Whatever sadness slips through the cracks can be brushed away by using soma, a drug with no side-effects that gives the user a pleasant high and makes all worries dissolve away. All three methods are successful: in the World State, almost everybody really does seem to be happy all of the time.
But through Bernard, Helmholtz, the Savage, and even Mustapha Mond, Brave New World poses the question: at what cost does this happiness come? What gets lost when every one of an individual's desires is immediately met? The novel's answer is that the satisfaction of every desire creates a superficial and infantile happiness that creates stability by eliminating deep thought, new ideas, and strong passions. Without ideas or passions, mankind loses the possibility of the more significant fulfillments provided by the pursuit of truth in art and science, or the pursuit of love and understanding with another person. Brave New World argues that happiness and stability are fool's gold, making adults into infants who do not care about truth or progress.
More help on this theme...
•See quotes about The Cost of Happiness
•Look for the to see analysis of this theme in: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18
Industrialism and Consumption
Brave New World criticizes the industrial economic systems of the era in which it was written by imagining those systems pushed to their logical extremes. The industrial revolution that began in the second half of the 19th century and sped up through the 20th allowed for the production of massive quantities of new goods. But there's no value in producing new goods that no one wants, so the willingness of the masses to consume these new goods was crucial to economic growth and prosperity. It became an economic imperative, then, that people always want new things, because if people were satisfied with what they had they wouldn't consume enough to keep the wheels of industrial society churning along. Some people would argue that almost all of advertising is an effort to make you, the consumer, consume things you don't really need.
The World State in Brave New World has made consumption one of its centerpieces. All World State citizens are conditioned to consume. Hypnopeadic teachings condition them to throw out worn clothes instead of mending them, to prefer complicated sports with lots of mechanical parts to simple games, and to refrain from any activity like thinking or reading that doesn't involve the payment of money for goods. It is as if the citizens of the World State exist to serve their economy, rather than the other way around.
More help on this theme...
•See quotes about Industrialism and Consumption
•Look for the to see analysis of this theme in: Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 14, Chapter 17
Individuality
All of World State society can be described as an effort to eliminate the individual from society. That doesn't mean the elimination of all people; it means the conditioning of those people so that they don't really think of themselves as individuals. What makes a person an individual? Having a sense of oneself as being separate, distinct, unique. This sense includes both the joy of one's own talents and thoughts, and the sorrows of loneliness and isolation. These experiences of individuality are what are referred to as "the Human condition," and everything in the World State is designed to avoid anyone ever feeling individual in any way, either through sadness or joy. But these safeguards aren't enough for all the citizens of the World State, and they become aware of their individuality.
More help on this theme...
•See quotes about Individuality
•Look for the to see analysis of this theme in: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18
BBC Film 1968/ Brave New World
Structure Persuasive Oral Report.
Remember, to structure the basic persuasive presentation you can use an augmented persuasive essay structure. Just like "legos" each piece fits together!
Paragraph #1
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Grabber: Attention getting statement. Sometimes is a statistic or a rhetorical question.
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State your Contention: Example..."Capital Punishment should be legalized in Australia for terrorists".
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Point 1: Just mention your first reason for believing this.
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Point 2: Mention your second reason.
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Point 3: Mention your third reason.
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Link: Introduce the subject of your next paragraph.
Paragraph #2
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Topic: What's your first point...name it!
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Explain: Explain why your point supports your arguement for your contention.
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Evidence: Give evidence (stats,quotes,expert opinion, facts) to suppot your point.
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Link: Link your point back to your contention.
Paragraph #3, #4, #5 ect.
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Same structure as above.
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The number of your "body paragraphs" are simply the number of paragraphs it takes to explain your points!
Rebuttal Paragraph (Second to last paragraph) Some people say...
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Bring up an apposing arguement to your contention.
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Use evidence to argue against it.
Final Paragraph
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Re-state your contention.
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Restate your points
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Sum up you speech (Sometimes it's good to use a quote!)
Themes of Gattaca and Brave New World
Dystopia:
Gattaca:
People are engineered with no disabilities. The world is only perfect for those who are genetically gifted. For example, the world is made for Anton, who is loved and who has the expectation of greatness placed upon him because of his engineered birth. Vincent along with other “faith births” are viewed as second class citizens.
Quotes:
"I belong to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the colour of your skin. We now have discrimination down to a science.” —Vincent
"For the genetically superior, success is easier to attain but is by no mean guaranteed. After all, there is no gene for fate. And when for one reason or another, a member of the elit falls on hard times, their genetic identity becomes a valued commodity for the unscrupulous."
- Vincent
Brave New World:
Brave New World is one of the two best known dystopian novels written in the twentieth century. The other is George Orwell's 1984. Both novels envision future totalitarian societies in which individual liberty has been usurped by an all-powerful state. But the two novels show two very different methods by which the state has amassed its power. 1984 presents the rather more conventional vision of a totalitarian state, in which the government maintains power through surveillance, information control, and torture. Brave New World, in contrast, argues that the most powerful totalitarian state would be one that doesn't overwhelm and frighten its citizens, but instead manages to convince its citizens to love their slavery. In the Brave New World, there is no individuality and no independent thought.
Quotes:
"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny."
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Brave New World,Aldous Huxley
"There's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering.
In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are.
Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that's what soma is."
- Brave New World,Aldous Huxley
Technology and Control:
Gattaca:
In the sterile environment of Gattaca, life is genetically controlled through technology right from the outset so that everyone gets the “best possible start”. The sterile setting metaphorically captures an oppressive and authoritarian atmosphere than prizes genetic perfection above all else. It is a world that represses human aspiration and interaction. This becomes evident through the robotic-type characters that inhabit Gattaca. Individual characteristics such as personality, beliefs, values and a person’s moral code are irrelevant. Identity is seen in this world as being entirely defined by your status as a valid or in-valid. The new technology of genetic manipulation is used to control the population. Beyond this, nothing else is important.
Quotes:
"My father was right. It did not matter how much I lied on my resume. My real resume was in my cells. Why should anybody invest all that money to train me when there were a thousand other applicants with a far cleaner profile? Of course, it's illegal to discriminate, 'genoism' it's called. But no one takes the law seriously. If you refuse to disclose, they can always take a sample from a door handle or a handshake, even the saliva on your application form. If in doubt, a legal drug test can just as easily become an illegal peek at your future in the company.”- Vincent
“We want to give your child the best possible start. Believe me, we have enough imperfection built in already. Your child doesn't need any more additional burdens. Keep in mind, this child is still you. Simply, the best, of you. You could conceive naturally a thousand times and never get such a result.” - Geneticist
Brave New World:
Brave New World raises the terrifying prospect that advances in the sciences of biology and psychology could be transformed by a totalitarian government into technologies that will change the way that human beings think and act. Once this happens, the novel suggests, the totalitarian government will cease to allow the pursuit of any actual Individualityscience and the truth that science reveals will be restricted and controlled, even as the technologies that allow for control will be constantly improved and perfected.
Quotes:
Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State. - Thomas (The Director)
“A gramme is better than a damn.” -Lenina Crowne
Individuality:
Brave New World:
All of World State society can be described as an effort to eliminate the individual from society. That doesn't mean the elimination of all people; it means the conditioning of those people so that they don't really think of themselves as individuals. What makes a person an individual? Having a sense of oneself as being separate, distinct, unique. This sense includes both the joy of one's own talents and thoughts, and the sorrows of loneliness and isolation. These experiences of individuality are what are referred to as "the Human condition," and everything in the World State is designed to avoid anyone ever feeling individual in any way, either through sadness or joy. But these safeguards aren't enough for all the citizens of the World State, and they become aware of their individuality.
Quotes:
“The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offence is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?” - The Director
In fact', said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy.'
'All right then,' said the Savage defiantly, 'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.’
-Mound and John
Gattaca:
Gattaca is also a powerful defense of the Romantic idea of the visionary individual who, swimming against the tide - as it were -, is somehow above the law. That, together with the "no gene for the human spirit”. The world of Gattaca is one where no one is judged by the content of their character or “who they are”, they are judged purely by their genetic make up.
Quotes:
Geneticist: We want to give your child the best possible start. Believe me, we have enough imperfection built in already. Your child doesn't need any more additional burdens. Keep in mind, this child is still you. Simply, the best, of you. You could conceive naturally a thousand times and never get such a result.
. . .
Vincent's mother: What will happen to the others?
Geneticist: [smiles] These are not babies, Marie. Merely human possibilities. Smaller... than grains... of sand. [sets petri dish on the table] See?
Yes...Its Time for Thug Notes.
Brave New World: Summary and Analysis
Gattaca In Six Minutes.
Gattaca Quotes:
Take a look at This Presentation about the similarities between BNW and Gattaca!
Writing a comparative essay: Brave New World and Gattaca.
Here's the sample I gave in class:
"There are many similarities and differences between the dystopian worlds expressed in Huxley's 'Brave New World' and 'Gattaca'". (Discuss)
Step 1:
Make a mind map of siimilarities and differences of the two works. You will construct two paragraphs for each similarity and difference. You will also write an introductory paragraph and summarizing paragraph as well.
Step 2:
Think of the evidence from the texts that you can use to prove your point. Your evidence can be a quote or event from the novel that shows your knowledge of the work.
Step 3:
Construct your introductory paragraph using this structure:
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State your contention or thesis statement. This should be sythisised from the discussion question. Obviously if you agree with the contention then your thesis statement would be along the lines of...."Having read both Huxley's "Brave New World" and seen the 1997 science fiction film "Gattaca", it easy to see the many similarities and differences between their views of mankind's future.
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Next name the points of silimarity that you will be talking about. Don't go into too much detail. Just mention them as a preview.
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Write a clean sentence or two linking the end of this paragraph to the beginning of your second paragraph.
Step 4: TEEL (Similarity: The theme of technology and genetics/ "Gattaca")
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Topic of your paragraph. In this case, the common theme of genetic technology changing the future and how its shown in "Gattaca"
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Evidence: Relate a quote or event that you recall from the text that shows the theme of technology in Gattaca.
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Explain: Explain how this evidence proves your point (That "technology" was a theme in Gattaca.)
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Link: Link your point to your main contention. (This is a similar theme that can also be found in Brave New World...)
Step 5: TEEL(Similarity: The theme of technology and genetics/ "Brave New World")
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Topic of your paragraph. In this case, the common theme of genetic technology changing the future and how its shown in "Brave New World"
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Evidence: Relate a quote or event that you recall from the text that shows the theme of technology in "Brave New World".
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Explain: Explain how this evidence proves your point.
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Link: Link your point to your main contention.
You keep using the TEEL structure throughout the body of your essay. As you go through your points remenber to be straight and to the point. State your evidence and explain how it proves your contention.When contrasting two things in an essay its good to have a few "transition words" up your sleeve such as...
contrast, by the same token, conversely, instead, likewise,
on one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, rather,
similarly, yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, in contrast
When you finally finish your points, you have to conclude. Use this structure for your final paragraph.
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Re-state your contention.
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Re-state why the contention is correct. (Name your points).
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Conclude with a final statement in relation to the contention. Many times a quote or a rhetorical question can leave people thinking about your contention...which is always a good thing.