Everything Is Good in Moderation

In Aldous Huxley’s 1931 novel, Brave New World, satire is achieved through symbolism and biblical references. Sarcasm also plays a major role in this novel’s satire. Brave New World contains examples of self-gratification and self-sacrifice that occur in the New World society. Huxley’s novel describes a society in which people have pills to wash their problems away, Henry Ford is their god, and humans are created in a lab rather than naturally. The savage part of the story is filled with self-flagellation. These two societies are plotted as polar opposites. Throughout his novel, Huxley plots the pursuit of self-gratification against the pursuit of self-sacrifice using satire to ultimately suggest that moderation is the key to a successful society.
In the Brave New World society, Soma is commonly used to demonstrate self-gratification. Because characters in the novel are often faced with problem, soma is ingested to instantly make any difficulties, big or small, disappear. This drug is the answer to unhappiness. Soma is also included in the religious ceremonies to prove the point that everything in the new society is ridiculous. Typically, drugs do not go hand and hand with religion. Another thing that is not associated with religion is an orgy. Huxley places two opposites of religion, drugs and sex, in the religious ceremonies that are held in the Brave New World society because he wants the reader to know how disturbing this society actually is. When Huxley describes the orgies at the ceremonies, the reader should realize that this is an awful thought. This thought should push a reader in the opposite direction and to the Savage Reservation. Soma, sex, and drugs are all examples of self-gratification because happiness is achieved simply and frequently with no troubles whatsoever. Another example of self-gratification would be Mustafa Mond. He makes the decisions for the community which results in no questions for the people. The people do not have to make