Brave New World Seminar Reflection

2/26/16
ALMA WOLF

Reaction:
During the seminar, Sareth discussed the many parallels that she saw between our world and
BNW. These included objectification of women, drugs, and how we almost have our own caste
system. Soma completely disagreed, saying that our world was very different from BNW,
especially because we are given so much freedom and free thought, and we can change levels
in our caste system. I strongly agree with both of these statements. I think that Sareths
connections between our world and BNW are very true, and I had thought about those parallels
while reading. I definitely agree that we have our own unofficial caste system, because of the
way that there are different jobs with different pay grades and types of work. However, I also
think that Soma is correct; our societies are very different because we can pull ourselves up by
our bootstraps and change caste levels, although it may take multiple generations to do so.
These two comments have definitely made me think, especially because while reading, I
thought a lot about dystopias and our world. Hearing this discussion about the similarities and
differences between our world was an interesting addition to my thoughts.
Self-Evaluation:
I felt like our seminar went very well; we discussed a multitude of topics and even connected our
discussion to socialization. Personally, I felt like my seminar performance today was improved
significantly since our last seminar. I felt that I used a lot of evidence and relevant quotes from
the book to back up my opinions and enhance our conversation. I did not regularly encourage
others to participate, but most of the participants in our seminar were frequently contributing so I
did not feel the need to bring them into the conversation. One specific way that I feel I have
grown since the last seminar was in my speaking. In the last seminar, I felt like I struggled to
find the words to say what I wanted to convey, and I ended up rambling and having no meaning.
In this seminar, I felt like I conveyed my thoughts well and what I said was meaningful.

Key Take-Away:
Although this is only a small part of what we learned through reading this book, I think that my
key take away from BNW is the awareness of dystopian reality. While reading about the
dystopia that exists in BNW and learning about dystopias and their characteristics in class, I
have thought about our society and if maybe, we are a dystopia. I do not have a way of
knowing if this is true, but I think I have gained a better awareness of reality and the structure of
our society. I believe that I will be thinking about the parallels between our societies for a long
time.