SPHS - Ryan Ramchandar
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
In the novel Brave New World they try to achieve immediate gratification, which can be seen in our society as well. Pain and stress is seen as bad and must not be experienced in the novel. A drug called soma is used as a "happy drug". They take this whenever they feel bad emotions or feelings. Benito Marx says, "you do look glum, what you need a gramme of soma!" and then says, "On cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy..." (54). In many ways this can be seen in our society as well. Prozac or Zoloft is like the soma of BNW to our society. However, our antidepressant drugs have side effects such as insomia and restlessness. This rises many questions. If Prozac were to become without side effects how would this effect us? Would we all use it? And if not, why shouldn't we use it if it makes us happy? Soma is used to create stability in BNW, however soma in our society would cause chaos. Freedom is apart of life. To be happy all the time is not life, therefore we are not free.