Friday, April 11, 2014

BNW-Blog #2

Justin Enriquez
Mr. Fernando
British Lit./Comp
6 May 2014
Molly to Soma
         Religion in our school is very important as each day, class, and end of day revolves around it. However, some may view it as a form of propaganda utilized to control certain people, like Jim Jones and what he did with the "People's Temple”. In Brave New World, soma is used in controlling the population that is proving to be more effective than the outcomes religious groups may strive to attain.
         Apart from keeping all the people in restraint from creating conflict soma is used to dumb down the thoughts of all the classes within the castes. Moreover, Soma also provides a feeling of joy, much like drugs present today (ecstasy), however being the way this world in Huxley's novel is set up, far more advanced, this variation of X bears no side effects upon the user. In essence, Soma is the flawless drug for a flawless society.
Soma is ingested by all as a way to function throughout the day and deal with the "utopian" lifestyle. For example, Benito is portrayed as always having a joyful nature of being, proving he didn’t need soma to fix him. This can be observed in, “have got through life without ever touching soma” (Huxley, 65). Alongside Benito’s personality, soma never seems to phase him as the drug keeps him content with his robotic-like life, an additional clue that soma is utilized to control feelings of discontent in which lies the potential to arise in the lower castes thus creating conflict within a utopia resulting in a dystopia.


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