Happiness In Brave New World Persuasive Essay

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In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, John the Savage claims the right to be unhappy. Brave New World’s community is centered around the happiness of the society, which was created by sacrificing things that make us human, such as emotions, choices and the ability to appreciate and understand high art and science. John chose the right to be unhappy because he wanted all of those things. He did not want to be “happy”, meaning he did not want to be controlled by conditioning and the use of Soma in the World State. These things that the World State bans all conflict with the happiness of the whole community, therefore the community is happy, but not very human. The right to be unhappy is fundamentally important as humans because it allows for art, …show more content…

Conditioning them to have a lack of emotions begins at a very young age. They are not born through two humans, but through a lab and in result, do not have a mother and father who teach them love and other emotions. In the World State, children are not raised by parents so they do not receive affection or understand the meaning of family. The World State makes sure that no one has strong emotions towards anyone else, usually family or significant others, so that their number one priority will be their work in the community. Since they do not have emotions or a true family, they are not really human. Like family, the World State removes the importance of significant others. At the beginning of the novel, Lenina is scolded for staying with Henry for too long, because in the World State, relationships are not long or meaningful, they are short and casual. They cannot feel passion or actual intimacy with one another therefore they lack those strong emotions. Without emotions, they cannot be human. To achieve their goal of making the whole community happy, they use Soma, a drug which makes them easier to control. Soma is taken by people in the community to remove negative emotions to ensure happiness. Therefore, emotions and unhappiness go hand in hand and make people fundamentally

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