Happiness, Suffering, and Truth in Aldous Huxley's, Brave New World

There is a popular saying thrown around quite often as a wise piece of advice; "you never know what you have until it's gone." This saying contrasts times of plenty with times of suffering, comparing the feelings of contentment felt when one has something with the loss and sorrow felt when it is taken away. It implies that one can never really truly appreciate something's worth unless one has had had to endure without it. In order to fully enjoy something, one has to appreciate its worth. In order to do so, one must have endured without it. The same can be applied to emotions and knowledge. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Huxley develops the theme that one experiences true happiness and enlightenment only if one also experiences the truth, and the suffering that accompanies it; conversely one who is ignorant and never experiences suffering will never know true happiness and enlightenment. One who is ignorant of truth and suffering may experience happiness, but it will be a shell of what it could be. At its essence it may be happiness, however it will not be happiness in the true sense of the word. One must first suffer to be truly happy. This can be seen through Epsilons, Mustapha Mond and the World State as a whole, Helmholtz, and John. "I suppose Epsilons don't really mind being Epsilons," she said aloud. "Of course they don't. How can they? They don't know what it's like being anything else. We'd mind, of course. But then we've been differently conditioned" (pg 64). In this scene, Henry and Lenina are flying in a helicopter on their “date”. They are flying over the crematorium, talking about how Epsilons are indispensable, and how they do not mind being what they are, because they have never known any different due to their conditioning. The Epsilons are content in their social niche, because they are made for it. They are bred too stupid to have ambition, and conditioned to not want any of the higher jobs. They only ever experience the things that