Brave New World
... is a representation of the complete dependency on the World State in that if men had actual human thoughts and actions, they would realize the situation they are in is far from that which should induce perpetual happiness. All human tragic situations are gone and if there is something that invokes a "bad" emotion, then they are conditioned to take soma. Soma is "the perfect drug Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinate...All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects." (54). This is an example of the attitude of having achieved perfection. They have the perfect drug, but the happiness induced by it is an artificial happiness. The happiness is purely hallucinogenic and is not a happiness that will last. . A utopian happiness should be eternal. Not only that, but even if it induced absolutely no happiness and was just a placebo, it would have the same effects. They have been preprogrammed to believe that soma cures all their problems. For example this statement made in the beginning of the novel and repeated throughout. "One cubic centimeter [of soma] cures ten gloomy sentiments."(54.) Here the preprogrammed reaction to any gloomy situation is depicted. Any gloomy sentiment that may have existed would be gone after taking a cubic centimeter of soma whether it actually did anything or not. God and any forms of religion have been removed from all aspects of life. Even in the most common aspects of life where "Oh my God!" Might be said, it is replaced with "Oh Ford!"(28). In this way, organized religion is removed, but also God in the most basic non-practicing aspects of life has been replaced with the name of Henry Ford. The controllers of utopian life believe that "God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness."(240). This statement is ironic because they talk about choices, but in reality people make choices based on the preprogrammed suggestions in their head. The suggestions don't mention God or religion in any form. In this way, yet another human aspect is removed from the society. Religion has always been a part of human society in one-way or another. It is the choice of the person to choose their religion and/or to believe in it. This would require independent thinking and making free choices. We have already seen that "It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own."(243). This would make people different and unique. Those aspects are not part of the society. Everybody is conditioned according to his or her predetermined class. All people within that class receive the same conditioning and are programmed to think exactly alike. Even those conditioned as alphas, who have free will and thought to some degree, are conditioned all in the same manner. The removal of the family also is a dystopian aspect. Not only is the family removed from upbringing, but also it is removed from birth and in that, life itself. It is just another example of a human emotion removed by the society and its technological progress. The programmed opinion on family life can be seen in this quote: "Our Freud had been the first to reveal the appalling dangers of family life. The world was full of fathers...was therefore full of misery; full of mothers--- therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; full of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts...full of madness and suicide." (38) This shows the attitude of family life as something that is the complete antithesis to happiness and therefore to their "utopian" world. Family life is treated as the cause of all things that they perceive to be evil. Obviously, this is untrue, but it is just another example of the complete inability to argue with it because they have no knowledge of anything independent of the Party and they are programmed from birth not to seek it. The over-emphasizing of sex is also a flaw in the utopian society in Brave New World. Monogamy is completely eliminated from the relationship and therefore, love is gone. Without love, you can't truly be happy, unless you are conditioned to be happy without love, and to consider infinite one night stands to be perfectly healthy and normal. They all are conditioned to be happy without love and know nothing else. It has eliminated the only true source of happiness in the world, which is love. Without love, sex is just a fleeting pleasure, much like the one from taking soma. In Brave New World the dystopian aspects of the society become very clear with the introduction of the Savage. He experiences both the savage and uncivilized world where people are actually born and all aspects of humanity still exist, and also the civilized world in which people are born in test tubes and created to be. The direct contrast between these worlds can be seen in this quote: " ‘We prefer to ...