Role of drugs in society All throughout mankind, drugs have played various roles within society due to their positive and negative impacts. Evidently, groups like the Ancient Greeks and other religious groups used drugs for religious and spiritual reasons. Drugs like marijuana and other psychedelic drugs were widely used in the 1960s and 70s by the flower power hippy movement. Drugs are used in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World differently than modern and historic time, according to Mustapha Mond (controller), who states that Soma is “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant”. Ultimately, Drugs in society help eliminate negative emotions, assist with legal control, and impact one's identity. To begin, drugs are used in Huxley’s Brave New World to eliminate negative emotions and keep the society happy. In today’s society, there are already drugs in society like Prozac and antidepressants that help brighten ones mood. These drugs in today's …show more content…
society are similar to the drug “Soma” in Huxley's Brave New World as they comparably help regulate mood. In the novel, Henry Ford insists Bernard Marx to take Soma to cure his gloomy sentiments, “And do remember that a gramme is better than a damn. They went out, laughing” (Huxley 55). In this quote, it reveals that Soma is used to avoid anger and make people happy. Similarly, Lenina wishes she had Soma when she had seen Palowhtiwa get whipped and all the bloodstains in the centre of the square, “A gramme is better than a damn” (Huxley 116). This exhibits that Soma puts an individual in a state of unfeeling unconsciousness. In general, a drug like Soma maximizes happiness and feeling good in Huxley’s society. According to Huxley, in order to keep the society from falling apart, he reduces negative emotions and feelings. This is accomplished through the population receiving a gramme of Soma. Additionally, Soma is provided by the government to maintain legal control in the society. In today’s society, certain individuals are on medication that keeps them focused and happy. People with ADHD are unable to control their impulses and have trouble focusing. They are prescribed to take medication like adderall to stay focused. Likewise, some individuals abuse marijuana or cocaine to feel happy even though it lasts for a short period of time. In the novel, theres a context that explains how if by any chance a unfortunate cleft of time yawns into the substance of distraction, there is always soma, ““ if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma…”” (Huxley 55-56). In this quote, it presents that Soma is an effective drug as it controls people and has the power to distract them. Soma keeps the society from knowing that there’s something wrong with the World State. In the novel, Mustapha Mond explains to John how there’s always Soma when something miserable has happened and you need something to change your mood, “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering...” (Huxley 237-238). In this quote, Soma is used as a testament to the controllers previous failures and to fix them he medicates the society to be happy. Overall, through the use of Soma, legal control is enabled and keeps the society distracted from realizing reality. Furthermore, Soma can impact one's identity and change the way the person acts around its surroundings.
Throughout history, drugs have been impacting individuals as they change and act differently around their surroundings. Drugs can intensify behaviour and make an individual act violently or plainly a different person. In the novel we see two different occasions where Soma negatively changes a person's identity. The first one occurs when, Bernard was acting dreary and didn't want to talk to Lenina's friends. The quote is, “He remained obstinately gloomy the whole afternoon; wouldn’t talk to Lenina’s friends (of whom they met dozens in the ice-cream soma bar between the wrestling bouts); and in spite of his misery absolutely refused to take the half-gramme raspberry sundae which she pressed upon him.” (Huxley 89). In this quote, Bernard explains how Soma can take away the little identity in one's self. Lenina already has no identity as she continues to press Bernard to take Soma but he denies and says, I'd rather be
myself.” The second instance occurs when, Bernard asked Helmholtz for their friendship back. Their friendship was previously broken due to Bernard becoming jealous of the closeness between John and Helmholtz; This jealousy lead to Bernard using Soma more frequently and getting mad at Helmholtz. The quote is, “Touched, Bernard felt himself at the same time humiliated by this magnanimity-a magnanimity the more extraordinary and therefore the more humiliating in that it owed nothing to soma and everything to Helmholtz’s character.” (Huxley 180). In this quote, we see that Bernards identity has changed since he met John back at the reservation. Soma has destroyed the little amount of individuality left in Bernard after the arrival of John and it shows when he becomes jealous. All in all, drugs like Soma can severely change ones identity to the point where they none at all. Ultimately, Huxley uses the drug “Soma” to remove pain and suffering, have legal contol over the citizens to keep them distracted and change ones identity. Drugs affects emotion in a negative manner as it prevents an individual from feeling natural feeling such as anger and misery. In this novel, we see that characters like Bernard uses Soma to avoid anger and be happy. In addition, drugs help maintain legal control in the novel and the real world. Soma is used to keep the civilization distracted from what the World State really is. Finally, drugs impact ones identity by changing ones personality completely or just simply destroying it. In Brave New World, Soma significantly impacted Bernard’s individuality in a way which he had none at all because he became jealous of John’s and Helmholtz friendship. Overall, humans should be more aware of the effects of these drugs as it can blind them from reality.
Both Lenina and Linda use soma to escape from the realities of the world. Soma is a symbol for instant pleasure, and to avoid unpleasant situations. Lenina’s use of soma suggests that she is trying to suppress feelings of embarrassment, depression, and later her infatuation with John. Resembling words that of a drug addict, Lenina says “I wish I had my soma”, so that she could escape from her melancholic problems (Huxley 104). Similarly, after accusing the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, and having him publicly deny her, the emotional toll on Linda was so great, that she felt the need to consume soma to escape. Dr. Shaw “let her have what she wanted”; she “took as much as twe...
As analyzed by social critic Neil Postman, Huxley's vision of the future, portrayed in the novel Brave New World, holds far more relevance to present day society than that of Orwell's classic 1984. Huxley's vision was simple: it was a vision of a trivial society, drowned in a sea of pleasure and ignorant of knowledge and pain, slightly resembling the world of today. In society today, knowledge is no longer appreciated as it has been in past cultures, in turn causing a deficiency in intelligence and will to learn. Also, as envisioned by Huxley, mind altering substances are becoming of greater availability and distribution as technology advances. These drugs allow society to escape from the problems of life instead of dealing with reality. With divorce rates higher than ever in the past few decades, it has become evident that lust has ruined the society's sexual covenants. People are indulging in their sexual motives; lust runs rampant, thus strong, long-lasting relationships are becoming a rarity.
In a perfect society, humans do not need to resort to drugs to keep society in balance. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, society is based on keeping everyone happy- and if for some reason someone becomes unhappy then there is always soma- the “perfect” drug. Humans are conditioned from the very start to be happy while performing their specific tasks. “We also predestine and condition. We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries.” (Page 13) Brave New World’s society is built on keeping everyone happy and keeping everyone working in balance with civilization. However, without soma, Brave New World’s society wouldn’t function properly. The soma helps to keep the society moving, always working to keep production moving, just like Ford’s assembly line. However, is there something wrong with depending on a drug to keep a society working?
Brave New World, a novel written by Aldous Huxley, can be compared and contrasted with an episode of The Twilight Zone, a fantasy, science-fiction television series, called “Number 12 Looks Just Like You.” Brave New World is a highly regarded and renowned work of literature as The Twilight Zone is considered one of the greatest television series of all time. Brave New World and The Twilight Zone’s episode “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” can be compared and contrasted on the basis of science, youth, and the government.
Science and Technology have a strong influence on the daily lives of the citizens of the world. The first influence is through the use of drugs and in particular, soma. Soma is a drug that is used in the world by everyone to create false happiness. When John, Bernard and Helmholtz meet Mustafa Mond, the leader of the world state, Mond explains the beneficial effects of simply consuming one drug on a daily basis. “Now, you swallow two or three half-gram tablets, and there you are.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel.
In Aldous Huxley's novel, "Brave New World" he introduces a character named, Bernard Marx an alpha part of the upper higher class who does not quite fit in. Bernard is cursed by the surrounding rumors of something going wrong during his conditioning that he becomes bitter and isolates himself from those around him in the World State. Huxley's character experiences both alienation and enrichment to being exiled from a society that heavily relies on technology and forms of entertainment with little to no morals.
There were quite a few changes made from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World to turn it into a “made for TV” movie. The first major change most people noticed was Bernard Marx’s attitude. In the book he was very shy and timid toward the opposite sex, he was also very cynical about their utopian lifestyle. In the movie Bernard was a regular Casanova. He had no shyness towards anyone. A second major deviation the movie made form the book was when Bernard exposed the existing director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Bernard himself was moved up to this position. In the book the author doesn’t even mention who takes over the position. The biggest change between the two was Lenina, Bernard’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and has the baby. The screenwriters must have made this up because the author doesn’t even mention it. The differences between the book and the movie both helped it and hurt it.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
The characters in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World represent certain political and social ideas. Huxley used what he saw in the world in which he lived to form his book. From what he saw, he imagined that life was heading in a direction of a utopian government control. Huxley did not imagine this as a good thing. He uses the characters of Brave New World to express his view of utopia being impossible and detrimental. One such character he uses to represent the idealogy behind this is Bernard Marx.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
In most countries in our world, society has experienced technological advances to the point of being able to accomplish what Huxley envisioned. In contrast to Huxley’s vision, the moral standards of most nations allow all humans to enjoy basic human rights that embrace family, personal relationships, and individualism. Today’s society is able to comprehend how with the technological advances Huxley’s world could be a reality, but with the privilege of a democratic society, civilization would not allow the medical intervention for reproduction, the conditioning for happiness and consumerism. Work Cited "Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : Barron's Notes" Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Barron's Notes. N.p., n.d. Web.
Many individuals wonder about whether using artificial pathways to happiness, through drugs, yields more positive or negative results for society. People enjoy the fact that they can easily escape from their stress by using these drugs. However, these drugs also can lead to terrible consequences, such as becoming more oblivious to reality or overdosing. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley criticizes society’s reliance on drugs to provide citizens with artificial happiness. By writing about soma, a made-up drug that the government distributes in order to ensure that their citizens remain happy, Huxley implies that the allowance of similar drugs can lead individuals to become dependent on them and fine with their lack of freedom,
According to events from the past, history today has repeated itself due to the sustained and increasingly high levels of drug and alcohol use as well as the popularity of casual sex displayed on media platforms. Huxley’s idea of the “utopian” society is manufactured, just as it is being artificially created today; in the modern world, euphemisms are frequently used to cover up the real truths. Similarly, the “brave new world” hid
Even though the novel, Brave New World was written quite some time ago, Huxley still makes points that are relevant today. By using satire, he warns us on issues such as science, technology and religion. We should slow down our uses of science and technology, especially when using them for abusive purposes. We also need to be careful about letting the government get too involved in aspects of our everyday lives. If we start letting simple freedoms go, we could lose some major ones.