Thursday, July 19, 2012
A Dependence on Soma
In chapter 7 of Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, Bernard and Lenina observe a religious ceremony that the savages host. During the ceremony the savages start to whip a boy for a religious meaning, it was a graphic scene and blood started to show. As this was happening Lenina started to become very emotional in which she says "Oh, I wish I had my soma." (116) From this I think we can conclude that the Brave New World society seems to have a dependence on soma, their soma seems to bring them happiness and they're able to forget their problems. Now lets relate soma to our society, but what would our soma be? If we were denied our soma what would happen? Would our society crumble or would we be able to adapt? I think our society's soma could be technology, we're dependent on it for almost everything and if it was taken away from us I doubt we would be able to adapt to the change.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
At the place that we are in time, technology does seem to be a soma, but technology always gets better, so our somas are not completely dependent on technology. Everybody's soma could be different. Some have somas like reading, shopping, cooking, etc. Now, if anybody were to be denied their soma, it could have different outcomes. It would all depend on how much people rely on their somas.
ReplyDelete