SCIENCE AND HORROR FICTION

Novel and film comparison

Brave New World, Equilibrium, and The Island

COMMON CORE STANDARDS/CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS:

·  Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account

·  Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g. where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed)

·  Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g. the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact

·  Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, poem, (or theme), evaluating how each version interprets the source text (or theme)

DIRECTIONS:

As you watch the film Equilibrium and the film The Island, note in writing, and on a separate sheet of paper, how the ideas and their presentation compare to the ideas in the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World, based on the following guidelines. In your responses, note specifically how each concept listed below applies to each selection, using examples from all three to support your answers. If a concept does not apply to a selection, explain why. Remember that your responses must address all three selections.

·  The organization of the new world in each selection (please note that even though the new world is artificial in The Island, indicate the living conditions of the citizens in the “new world.”)

·  The reason(s) they have created this new type of society in each selection (What explanation does each governing body give for the changes and what are the real reasons the leaders have implemented these new conditions)

·  The beliefs and behaviors of most of the population in each, including why they believe in these ideas, their child-like innocence (in Brave New World and The Island), and how this narrow view of the world can and does harm them in all three

·  Reasons why these various approaches cannot/ do not work in all three selections

·  The characters who discover the truth/flaws and how each one fights against the system

·  Which characters are more successful in their rebellions and why

·  Which selection(s) have a more positive and effective ending and why