Society; a Recurring Paradox
...depressants. The answers to “depression” in both societies lie in medications, which anesthetize one’s reception to pain instead of ever really dealing with the problem. This shallow policy in numbing the mind allows for the society to continue making the same mistakes with new drugs since the real problem has never been solved, only solving the demand for newer more effective drugs. Soma also generates feelings of lust and desire for sex. In BNW, “everyone belongs to everyone else,”– meaning everyone has sex with everyone else. This is very similar to the drug called ecstasy, which kills of nerve receptors in the brain promoting the feeling of getting “high” and promiscuity. There is no such thing as “dating”; it’s even deemed to be oddity and bad if one has sex with the same person for too long. “Then with a sudden change of tone, `but seriously' she said ` I really do think you ought to be careful. It's such a horribly bad form to go on and on with one man." (41) This is not so different from the modern America of today, where approximately half of America's population is or has been divorced. It is not unnatural for both societies to have numerous sex partners. Along with the positive mental side effects, soma also maintains the body keeping it “young.” “Magnesium salts” are another means of containing youth in BNW. This also encourages promiscuity for a wide range of different age groups for an extended period of time. There are many diverse ranged couples today, which are labeled to be “scandalous” simply because a man/woman is twice the age of his/her lover. Although 60% of America is obese and overweight, many choose a shallow alternative solution to improving one’s image, like liposuction and gastric bypasses, instead of dealing with the true problem of overeating. Similarly to the modern world, there are many more expensive treatments upon which to slow the process of aging: moisturizer, face wash, facials and even plastic surgery. In both societies beauty is retained. The novel describes a society in which "fetuses are raised in glass jars and are chemically manipulated to produce humans of distinct classes and abilities. People are little more than products.” This system, know as Bokanovsky's Process, doesn't seem too far from today's reality; the reproductive technologies that are currently available are already threatening our own evolution and human procreation. Science has practically taken over God's role in our lives. Many of the God-less scientific availabilities today share the same immoral and undignified qualities of the Utopia's advances; such as bottled embryos, surrogate wombs, cloning, genetic screening and genetic manipulation, artificial organs, and computer chip implants for human brains. In the brave new world everyone is separated into classes. The classes are alpha, beta, delta, epsilon, and gamma. Contrary to the modern world, there is the elite class, who roll in money, the upper and lower middle class, the majority of the tax paying populatio...