Societal Drug Use in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World :: essays research papers

â€Å"There is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon, returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely, from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electromagnetic Golf course to †¦" In a perfect society, humans do not need to resort to drugs to keep society in balance. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, society is based on keeping everyone happy- and if for some reason someone becomes unhappy then there is always soma- the â€Å"perfect† drug. Humans are conditioned from the very start to be happy while performing their specific tasks. â€Å"We also predestine and condition. We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries.† (Page 13) Brave New World’s society is built on keeping everyone happy and keeping everyone working in balance with civilization. However, without soma, Brave New World’s society wouldn’t function properly. The soma helps to keep the society moving, always working to keep production moving, just like Ford’s assembly line. However, is there something wrong with depending on a drug to keep a society working? Huxley’s portrayed society does in fact work to an extent. People know what they need to do, people are happy, people have soma, and people can have pleasure whenever they like. Things get done, but those same things could get done in a different way. The introduction of the Savage starts to show a different side of the story. The Savage, not conditioned and born to an actual mother, has different ideas about society- especially soma. â€Å"Listen, I beg of you. Lend me your ears†¦ Don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison, it’s poison.† The Savage is not happy with the life that the â€Å"civilized† people live. To him it seems like a big illusion. The people are conditioned to not have emotions, but humans cannot really be humans without emotions. Humans are different from all the other creatures in this world because they do indeed have emotions. The advanced human brain has allowed people to have emotions- which affect their lives daily. â€Å"The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action† (William James) The Savage had several chances to â€Å"have† Lenina any time he wanted but he didn’t want that.