Usage of Drugs and Their Consequences in the Brave New World
Brendan Frayre
Ms. Stringer
English 10
December 4, 2012 Huxley writes about the usage of drugs to say that drugs should not be used to cope with your emotions, and they come with consequences. The people in the BNW society use soma to cope with their problems. In the book it states, “…felt in her pocket for her soma… Lenina was left to face the horrors of Malpais.” (Huxley 111) The people in the Brave New World society take soma whenever they get a bad feeling like its nothing instead of learning to put up with them. When they do this they are not experiencing all aspects in life such as the hardship life brings. They also don’t know the consequences that taking drugs like soma gives you. This is evident when the book says, ‘”But aren’t you shortening her life by giving her so much?”… “In one sense, yes,” Dr. Shaw admitted.’ (Huxley 154) The people in the Brave New World society, take soma, which is encouraged by the government, to get away from the reality of life and feel happy and/or relaxed. Doing this, by taking soma so often every day, the people in the Brave New World society are actually substantially shortening their lives. Thus, Huxley is trying to say that the usage of drugs will cause you to not experience all of life and can bring death to its users.
Huxley also writes about the decrease in individuality that people are becoming less independent and that being different from everyone else is a good thing. The government uses hypnopaedia to condition all of the children in each caste. For example, “’Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adults mind too – all his life long.” (Huxley 28) The people in each caste system are conditioned to like and dislike the same things as their peers. Due to this the people in the Brave New World society aren’t able to develop their own feelings about things as an individual. The government also makes the lower
Ms. Stringer
English 10
December 4, 2012 Huxley writes about the usage of drugs to say that drugs should not be used to cope with your emotions, and they come with consequences. The people in the BNW society use soma to cope with their problems. In the book it states, “…felt in her pocket for her soma… Lenina was left to face the horrors of Malpais.” (Huxley 111) The people in the Brave New World society take soma whenever they get a bad feeling like its nothing instead of learning to put up with them. When they do this they are not experiencing all aspects in life such as the hardship life brings. They also don’t know the consequences that taking drugs like soma gives you. This is evident when the book says, ‘”But aren’t you shortening her life by giving her so much?”… “In one sense, yes,” Dr. Shaw admitted.’ (Huxley 154) The people in the Brave New World society, take soma, which is encouraged by the government, to get away from the reality of life and feel happy and/or relaxed. Doing this, by taking soma so often every day, the people in the Brave New World society are actually substantially shortening their lives. Thus, Huxley is trying to say that the usage of drugs will cause you to not experience all of life and can bring death to its users.
Huxley also writes about the decrease in individuality that people are becoming less independent and that being different from everyone else is a good thing. The government uses hypnopaedia to condition all of the children in each caste. For example, “’Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adults mind too – all his life long.” (Huxley 28) The people in each caste system are conditioned to like and dislike the same things as their peers. Due to this the people in the Brave New World society aren’t able to develop their own feelings about things as an individual. The government also makes the lower