The Influences of Drug Use in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

Government control is enforced through the use of soma, a hallucinogen that is known to sedate and distract individuals from realizing their enslavement, and this drug is exploited as a way to escape reality. However, this abuse ultimately leads to mental corruption. The majority of society consumes this substance to combat pain, worry, and tension. This narcotic is used in everyday life and “served with coffee” (Huxley 75) to help fill people’s days with mindless acts. Soma gives a feeling of euphoria, often times withdrawing the feelings of depression and illness. “Soma, the perfect pharmaceutical, soothes pain” (McQuail) leaving individuals in a state of pleasure and nirvana. Within the corrupt society, a few characters refuse consumption of the hallucinogen. These individuals are regarded as

The future of the world is a place of thriving commerce and stability. Safety and happiness are at an all-time high, and no one suffers from depression or any other mental disorders. There are no more wars, as peace and harmony spread to almost every corner of the world. There is no sickness, and people are predestined to be happy and content in their social class. But if anything wrong accidentally occurs, there is a simple solution to the problem, which is soma. The use of soma totally shapes and controls the utopian society described in Huxley's novel Brave New World as well as symbolize Huxley's society as a whole. This pleasure drug is the answer to all of

In the Brave New World, they used soma to free their minds and to stay happy in that utopia. If too much was taken, it would put you into a coma and it would kill you eventually, even if you didn’t overdose it still kills you. They controllers and the other leaders would have people take soma if they started having feelings

The World State forbids the citizens from experiencing any negative emotion, for fear of losing control. Soma, Latin for sleep, renders its users to a coma-like blissful state, which Congdon describes, borrowing the statement from Huxley himself, that soma allows the citizens to,“periodically escape from the pressure of routine and worldly cares”(Congdon). Citizens are conditioned to use the drug at the slightest challenge to the cultural norms, preventing any thoughts of rebellion or contempt against the government.

It is important to note that the citizens in Huxley’s novel are always happy. While happiness in its purest form is greatly treasured in our modern society, happiness in World Society existed in the form of a drug by the name of ‘Soma.’ In their society, the commonly used, “euphoric narcotic pleasantly hallucinant” drug symbolizes a state of happiness that is rarely attainable in the contemporary era” (37). However, it is significant because it symbolizes the powerful impact that science and technology have on society. In situations of unease and apprehension, and also in individuals are not only encouraged to, but conditioned to take doses of Soma, which brings them back into a state of high which ensures absolutely little to no acts of rebellion. Furthermore, Soma is commonplace that it is “served with the coffee” (50). This come to illustrate the immense amount of influence that scientific innovation and government regulations have on individuals to the point where it becomes integrated into their everyday lives. While the usage of drugs is greatly ridiculed in the modern world, it is encouraged in World Society, and this comes to demonstrate how great emphasis on scientific innovations can be destructive, stripping away natural human

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the drug soma is used extensively. Characters such as Lenina, Bernard, Henry and Linda take the drug soma in order to escape reality and this makes them emotionless. Soma users also use the drug in order to fit in with society and simply relax whenever they are slightly emotional.

Today, one 's perceptions of happiness are more often than not associated with material achievements, advancements, or perhaps, love. In Brave New World, however, happiness is based upon the pursuit of stability and emotional equilibrium Aldous Huxley 's dystopian novel, Brave New World serves as a warning of the ominous. Set in London, the totalitarian regime instills the motto of "stability, community, [and] identity"(Huxley.1.1) in its citizens. Huxley 's dystopia attempts to find the greatest amount of happiness for the largest sum of people. The simple, less complex characters of the novel seek to achieve happiness through means of scientific conditioning, thus, leaving one

To the government and citizens of the Brave New World (BNW), the Savage Reservation represents the history of the world as it was before the Nine Year’s War. Most of the citizens, and of course the World Controllers, are aware of the events of this war; they know about the anthrax bombs, the British Museum massacres, as well as the fact that almost everything that appeared before A.F. 150 was banned in this New World. For this reason, the Reservation is seen as a wasteland of unethical virtues, an unwanted lifestyle, and a place of death and disease. This is because they’re brainwashed to believe that,

“Whenever anyone felt depressed or below par, he would swallow a tablet or two of a chemical compound called soma.” Through Chapters Revisited, it is understood that in Brave New World, society is put under the theme of the controller by enabling him to hold the key to their happiness and comfort ability through soma. The people of this society became so accustomed to this routine that they became reliant on soma, leaving them exposed to manipulation. “…Why don’t you take soma when you have those dreadful ideas of yours? You’d forget all about them (92).” Huxley uses satire of soma to show how society is inclining closer and closer to the reality of soma because of how easily prescription drugs are given out as well as consumed for any minor issue. Douglas Van Praet writes an article concerning how marketers manipulate you without your knowing. “The only way to overcome these unconscious influences is to better understand the process of decision making by becoming aware of the environmental cues that can trigger these learned behaviors.” By reviewing the satires Huxley has portrayed, it leaves readers with a new understanding of the need to be aware of the influences put on society in everyday life. Brave New World pitches the idea of what conveniences are worth the price of printing society in a place

In Brave New World, the soma that people take can quickly become addicting. When Lenina and Bernard see Linda and John at the Savage Reservation, Linda tells Lenina, “What I had to suffer - and not a gramme of soma to be had” (Huxley 120). The people in Brave New World are happy when they have soma. Soma does not have the awful side effects that alcohol has. When John, the Savage, starts to throw people’s soma distribution’s out the window “…the khaki mob was silent, petrified, at the spectacle of this wanton sacrilege, with amazement and horror” (Huxley 213).

Soma is used so frequently that it is just another normal item used by consumers. Some people even use it religiously. The controller states, “Christianity without tears-that’s what soma is.”(Huxley 238). Comparing it to a religion not only signifies its relevance in society, but also its strength. Religion brings hope and courage to someone and eliminates worry. This is exactly what soma is, except it is not actually a religion. It is just a drug that takes someone out of the realities

Linda, a citizen in Brave New World, dies from taking too much soma. After not having a fix for a while, Linda returns to soma in higher dosages until her mind and body are unable to function. “Her mouth fell open: she made a desperate effort to fill her lungs with air … Her hands went to her throat, then clawed at the air - the air she could no longer breathe, the air that, for her, had ceased to exist” (Huxley 205). Dying by an overdose of soma in Huxley’s society is better than living because of the distortion in perceptions that the drug creates. Even the doctors of Huxley’s society are addicted to soma and believed that "every soma-holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity"(Huxley 154). So to them, dying from a drug overdose is better than living the reality of their lives.

In chapter three Huxley has Bernard presented with soma while in surrounding lines he has Mustapha Mond, a world leader, talk about drugs like cocaine, morphine, and enormous amounts of alcohol all of which can have lethal, controlling effects on users. This shows the reader that soma decimates part of one’s being, while also conveying the absolute power that controllers have over their citizens through drugs. In chapter 5 part I Lenina and Henry’s doses of “soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds” (77). This split from reality is what Huxley wants to convey to the reader that science, drugs, and technologies if we are not careful will cause us to lose ourselves and blind us from the rest of the world and ourselves. In the end of the novel Linda is killed due to her taking obscene amounts of soma and John thus throws the soma rations out of the window because he knew the soma to be “poison to the soul as well as body” and he said that he wanted to “bring [them] freedom” (211).

Soma is the best weapon the government in "Brave New World" can use to control their citizens and maintain their ideal society. Soma creates a clam feeling while also distracting citizens. The distraction the drug provides is it's most powerful side effect, because while taking soma the citizens do not realize that that there is actually something very wrong in their world. Using soma to keep it's citizens content is the only way the citizens of the World State, in Brave New World continue to be enslaved.

Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, portrays a World State that has made consumption one of its centerpieces. Economic stability is essential to the effectiveness of the World State. They are brainwashed by advertisements and organizations that make them feel as though they are free. The people within the World State continuously consume because of the conditioning they obtained when they were younger. They are educated that when an object or good is in need of fixing, they must get rid of it. By not possessing the latest and greatest good, the people within the World State are looked less upon and is in the lower class. In this new society, emotions, religion, and culture are forfeited for social stability. The reason for which