Soma - "A gramme in time saves nine!" (Chapter 5, Part 1/ Pages 72-78)

"They were inside, here and now - safely inside with the fine weather, the perennially blue sky."

~ Brave New World, page 77

Okay, this whole soma thing is really frustrating me. First I had to reread the chapter; I couldn't even tell what was happening. I get that it is a drug used to lift one's spirits (and is probably abused as an anti-depressant), but I was really unsure of the extent to which it did this. People casually take it on a day-to-day basis in small doses, but they also go on soma-holidays with it? Does that mean it's a hallucinogen and they are imagining their whole holiday, or are they just so drugged that everything seems perfect as they continue their lives? But even more importantly, the government is encouraging the people to take it all. At first I thought that would be destructive to  the government (the drugs might affect their work performance), but then I realized that it might be the only way to get through the day. The government has not only conditioned them to think that they are always happy, but now they also supply drugs for them to always have an escape if they are feeling bad, thus having total and complete control over them.

The Social Hierarchy/Epithets (Chapter 4, Part 1/ Pages 57-63)

"The liftman was a simian creature, dressed in the black tunic of an Epsilon-Minus Semi-Moron."

~ Brave New World, page 58

There is indisputably a social-class hierarchy in Brave New World, and the amount of prejudice and discrimination based on that seems as if it would be contradictory to the society's goals and ideals. The community is supposed to be based on every member giving what they can to every other member, but what is really happening is the working class (Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons) giving to the intelligent class (Alphas and Betas) without any compensation. However, socially the two separate classes give to each other. The discrimination even goes as far as degrading epithets like the "black Semi-Morons" (Epsilons). This is used as a way to describe skill or achievement (or lack of in the Epsilon case). Other epithets found in literature are Homer's "Swift-footed Achilles" or "Wide-ruling Agamemnon." These prejudices are so integrated into the minds of the citizens that even Lenina, an especially kind person who will oppose her peers to defend an outcast, says repeatedly, "What a hideous color khaki [representing Deltas] is," and, "I'm glad I'm not a Gamma." It is clear that the society does not value every person as its leaders claim it does.

                                                               









<--- Swift-footed Achilles