A Brave New World by Aldoux Huxley - 548 Words

Imagine that by taking one magic pill, you could be at the top of your world. With one pill, you could find complete happiness and unmatched physical fulfillment. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses the drug Soma, to give the characters all of the benefits of fulfillment, both physically and spiritually, yet ironically, as the drug plays out its role, the â€Å"fulfillment† leaves its consumer empty. The drug, Soma, is used almost a comically large amount, as the characters take a gramme anytime they feel like an uncomfortable situation is approaching. In Chapter 3, Henry Foster forcefully pressures Bernard Marx into taking Soma, â€Å"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects† (Huxley 54). Preceding this, it was agreed by a few of the characters that Marx was looking glum. It was being explained to him how this perfect drug was engineered and it was described as euphoric, narcotic, and pleasantly hallucinant. â€Å"Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology† (Huxley 54). Soma gives you the joy that you would experience through Christianity, or possibly by being drunk, though it only lasts while you are high. Once they come down from the effects of drug, they don’t have any of the symptoms of a hangover, but they return back to the sad, controlled lifestyle that makes t hem want to take Soma in the first place. If the characters are not on Soma, they are just as brainless, if not more