The Theme Of Happiness In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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It seems the goal of most individuals in life is to find purpose, overcome obstacles, and be as happy as possible each and every day. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley introduces a new theory on happiness: that happiness cannot exist while human minds are subjected to the truth. Similar to the phrase ignorance is bliss, the main theme throughout the novel is that happiness and truth cannot coexist properly in a society. While happiness is the ultimate goal of the utopian society depicted in Brave New World, it does not come without a price: denial of realities, and the freedom to make individual choices. However, most people living in the society have no choice whether they wish to be happy or not. The main theme throughout Brave New World …show more content…

Whether it is due to conditioning, or the firm belief that happiness can only be found by avoiding the truth, characters in the novel do everything they can to avoid despondent situations. For example, when Lenina and Bernard are visiting the reservation, and Lenina becomes frightened of the unfamiliar and seemingly barbarous sights and rituals in the village, “she felt in her pocket for her some-only to discover that, by some unprecedented oversight” she did not have the bottle and “was left to face the horrors of Malpais unaided” (Huxley 74). Soma is a drug used in the novel as a repercussion free way to escape reality, or deal with it easier. Soma is used to “calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering” (Huxley 162). Characters in the novel often take soma holidays where they are away from reality for multiple days at a time: “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” (Huxley 162). Soma’s are used when denial of, or protection from, the truth by The Controllers is ineffective or

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