A Brave New World Quote Analysis

How does one achieve happiness? Money? Love? Being oneself? Brave New World consists of only 3 different ways to achieve happiness. Each character of the brave new world will have his or her different opinion of the right way to achieve happiness. In his novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explains many people achieve happiness through the World State’s motto – “community, identity, stability”, soma, and conditioning.
The first way Aldous Huxley shows the art of happiness is through the World State’s motto, “community, identity, and stability”. Being oneself is the best person one can be. Bernard says “I’d rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly” (Huxley 89). Bernard gets mocked for being short but he does not want be anybody else, he wants to be himself. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we were all the same? Lenina says “everybody belongs to everyone else” (Huxley 26). This is a powerful quote by Lenina and describes the World State society accurately how the D.H.C

conditions their people to be equal to each other within each caste. Additionally, The D.H.C promotes the motto “community, identity, and stability” to show happiness is a very limited source in this society, and there are only a few ways one is able to achieve happiness.
The second way Aldous Huxley describes happiness is through the powerful drug “soma”.

Mustafa Mond says “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinated” (Huxley 53). Mond makes a statement and says people take soma to escape their mind and have happy hallucinations. Mustafa Mond says “soma is Christianity without tears”. Mond is convincing John that soma solves unpleasant emotions and avoids inefficiency and conflict. The most important thing for people is to eliminate all negative emotions and feelings. Lenina feels “A gramme is always better than a damn . . . A gramme in time saves nine . . . One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments . . . Everybody’s happy nowadays . . . Every one works for every one else . . . When the individual feels, the community reels . . . Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today . . . Progress is lovely” (Huxley 89). Lenina is saying soma is better than anything, and a gramme a day produces happiness to

all.
The third way Aldous Huxley describes happiness is through conditioning and hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia is conditioning through sleep teaching, the most powerful conditioning in the Brave New World. Mustafa Mond says “people are better off being happy than knowing the truth” (Huxley 190). In the Brave New World, people are conditioned to not know the truth, to think alike, and be mindless. Conditioning isn’t the best way to create a society. John says “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin” (Huxley 215). This is the most powerful quote in the novel. John says no to conditioning and says yes to God, freedom, and comfort. He doesn’t want to be like everyone else, he wants to be an extraordinary person.
Is being identical, abusing soma, and conditioning through sleep teaching a beneficial way to achieve happiness? Conditioning a society to be happy instead of knowing the truth is an unhealthy way of creating a society. There are plenty of other alternatives to achieve happiness instead of taking drugs or being brainwashed. What Aldous Huxley proposes in Brave New World is something no American would believe is the right way to achieve happiness. Happiness is the most important aspect of life, and taking drugs and brainwashing is a traumatic experience and may lead to unhappiness.