Task 1 I have chosen to read the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. It is a dystopian book about humanity in a future where there is no longer suffering. No one is born from parents anymore; instead, people are cultivated in large Breeding centres, from different castes deciding which tasks they’re going to do in life. The perfect drugs, called soma, are being every week to keep everyone happy, the economy is controlled to perfection, and promiscuity is considered a virtue.
Aldous Huxley’s text, Brave New World, will leave you questioning your perspective on life and it’s choices. Within the novel, curious readers can see that government control over all in an attempt to create a utopia, can sometimes have a counter effect, creating a dystopia. Wielding it’s tool of conformity, The World State has forced its ideology into the minds of its people at a young age, in hopes of avoiding rebellion. In many ways this is how our society functions in the real world. The genre of Huxley's text may be fiction, but the society fabricated in Brave New World may not be so fictional after all.
Ideally, the world would be more humane like the romantics of the 18th century envisioned. Transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau foreshadowed the philosophy of future hippies; living “organically” on Walden Pond provided him a place where “I can have a better opportunity to play life,” and not “when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Moretta 37). The emergence of the counterculture encompassed these dreams and ethics of the literature and poets of the period into their new wave. Charles Poore, reporter of New York Times in the 1960s details how dystopian novels such as Huxley’ Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 proved wildly popular, in their own fashion. Huxley depicts the ideal hippie oasis society with an inclusion a drug culture that opens a wedge of ultimate consciousness” (Cottrell 238).
In our world, we often find ourselves surrendering our individuality, emotions, and natural instincts in the pursuit of societal control. This sacrifice of personal freedom and conformity to societal norms creates concerns and reminds us of the potential risks involved. " Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley sheds light on this issue, exploring the problems of a society built upon suppression and censorship. Throughout we can assess the accuracy and relevance of his points in relation to our present-day society. Censorship's influence is noticeable in our society today, although it may not appear exactly as depicted in "Brave New World.
Since the beginning of human civilization, a form of government has been enacted to ensure a nation’s continuity; however, these institutions often become exceedingly powerful over their people. In Brave New World, the author, Aldous Huxley creates a theme expressing the significant danger that resides in the existence of extreme, administrative control over a populace, as leaders will retain their power continuously and unregulated. At the time when the this narrative was devised, the rise of communism and dictatorships were a threat to human rights. Through the creation of the dystopian society indicated in the novel, people are able to realize the effects of these types of governments. The thematic political issues are developed by utilizing
What soma does is this, you can swallow some and it puts you into this sleep like state where you are happy and it is like you are dreaming. The people use it whenever they are not happy, this is usually when one is
Brave New World.print), is a quote that allows yet another carefree, ignorant attitude of the society to remain, encouraging everyone to have as much fun as possible without the mention of consequences; rules of the World State are strict, and they take away the excitement in people’s lives, but the strict rules leads to another source of fun-soma. Soma is a hallucinogen described as the ideal drug with the benefits of calming, surrealistic and a ten hour high with no side effects(Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.print). The people of the World State have been encouraged and conditioned to love it. “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, Aldous.
The people are being denied personal freedom and true happiness in their lives. By avoiding the underlying truth in their lives with the consumption of Soma. The citizens can 't gain any scientific or realistic truth, and the “Brave New World” society destroys all truths such as friendship and love. The truth related to human relationships and emotions such as love, sadness, compassion, and sympathy are some of those truths. Normally, people feel these emotions, and it is what identifies us as humans.
Soma is a drug that everyone uses in the novel. The drug is known to calm people and also get them high but negative side effects do not occur
As children we were taught to treat others as you wished to be treated. We were taught to love and value one another, we were taught morals. However, as time passed, a growing hatred consumed us. We as a nation lost our empathy amongst each other, and began to dehumanize our own neighbors. We lost sight of our love, our unity, and our morals.
This got me thinking, what is my version of Soma? What are typical types of “Soma” used today? I use talking to my friends and family and running to escape my negative emotions. Others may use drugs, music, or athletics to help them. But does today’s society completely rely on these escape routes in the way the characters of Brave New World did?
In the world state, everyone takes soma to remain satisfied on a superficial level such that they could be enslaved by its effects. As it is an artificial replacement for happiness, the citizens of the controlled society are conditioned to believe that this shallow replacement is what happiness is limited to. Thus, they are enslaved by its effects. To begin with, soma does not allow anyone to resolve their conflicts and issues. The citizens are conditioned to rely on soma as an escape from their conflicts “‘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.’”
In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World, he clarifies how the government and advances in technology can easily control a society. The World State is a prime example of how societal advancements can be misused for the sake of control and pacification of individuals. Control is a main theme in Brave New World since it capitalizes on the idea of falsified happiness. Mollification strengthens Huxley’s satirical views on the needs for social order and stability. In the first line of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are taught the three pillars on which the novels world is allegedly built upon, “Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 7).
The division that occurs between savage and civilized societies is rooted in factors that society views as normal, but when the savages and civilized society mix, it can lead to corrupt morality, negative perception of human beings, and the death of the savage. A savage society is stereotyped as people who are usually violent, without manners, and animalistic. Civilized society is usually associated with law and order, while savage society is associated with chaos and impulsive decision-making. Examples of these are observed in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mary Shelley have written stories that discuss how the savage society dies out
Soma is a drug to make the people forget what’s really going on. In our world soma is a symbol for media. Media has more power over the modern people then soma does to the people from the novel. Media has the power to control what we see, what we hear, and even how we think. They expose pointless news and celebrity drama to distract the us and make us ignorant from what really happens in the world.
