Brave New World Soma

Brave New World, known to be one of Aldous Huxley's works, is a dystopian novel that's focused around a dull, futuristic society. The novel enhances genetically engineered people and subliminal messages set into people to divide people into different castes. In this world, the castes are divided into Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, where the lower castes are modified to be more deformed and less intelligent. In this sense, the people are normalized into believing that things are fine the way they are and that this is how they can be happy. As abnormal the New World is compared to our modern day society, many of its concepts is reflected upon our own due to normalization and how people overlook it. One particular topic the novel …show more content…
They are reduced to a state of zombification in which they cannot process any negative emotion, even when the situation they are in calls for it. This correlates with a common real world opinion of antidepressants, that people take them to run away from their emotions for a sort of mental high. However, without any other ways to cope, the people are set to believe that the lack of sensitivity is what's best for them. In one scene, the main characters, Bernard and Lenina, are at the Reservation, which is a degraded civilization compared to the New World. In the text it states, ''Lenina was still sobbing... 'Too awful! That blood!'. She shuddered. 'Oh, I wish I had my soma.' ''(116). In context, Lenina is in distress after witnessing a ritual and finds herself unable to do anything about it other than use soma, which she doesn't have any of. This event from the book reflects how the characters are so dependent on soma and immediately move to avoid any sort of emotion. With so, it goes back to how our world is filled with people being mistreated and falling into being overly dependent on their …show more content…
But situations like this end up making things worse for them as they'll become too dependent on something that might not actually be helping them and avoid trying other ways to cope. Other than using the drug, people can try go to therapy, seek a psychiatrist, have group talks, or find things that they can look forward to. However, likewise in Brave New World, people become overly dependent on the drug and avoid those methods. Additionally, with the insensitivity to feelings, even friends and families claim that the drug makes the person seem different instead of them resorting to their usual self or feeling