"Brave New World": Happiness as a Pointless Endeavor in the Novel

Happiness is pointless in the absence of individuality. In what part of our world do people share personalities, thoughts, and are in complete synergy with one another? The answer is nowhere. And it’s because of this that we are all our own unique collages in the largest compendium imaginable. “Brave New World,” a novel written by satiric author Aldous Huxley, explores the benefits of a society free of pesky ideas such as individuality, and is a cynical foreboding of what may become of our world, centuries from now. In Brave New World, happiness is artificial. In this essay we’ll look at the importance of setting oneself apart, why artificial happiness is nothing but a pointless endeavor, and how art is very important for happiness. 

Happiness in Brave New World

Individuality does not exist in Brave New World. According to the passage, “Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. Millions of identical twins. The principle of mass production at last applied to biology.” This shows that millions of people can be cloned. It means that very little sets everyone apart. Another piece of evidence, “They were predestined to emigrate to the tropics, to be miners and acetate silk spinners and steel workers.” This proves that people are essentially forced to live a certain way, taking all free thought away from them. They have no choice of who they can or can’t be, even if it doesn’t line up with their wants or needs.

When you are happy in the world of “Brave New World,” its presence is but temporary. With each injection of soma, your pain goes dormant, but never leaves. The point of soma in this universe is to hide from its harsh realities. In the text, it says, “The remedy was to make the holiday continuous. Greedily she clamoured for ever larger, ever more frequent doses. Dr. Shaw at first demurred; then let her have what she wanted. She took as much as twenty grammes a day.” This proves that some people look to soma for a way to escape their lives. It gives them the illusion of happiness they crave. According to the passage, “Punctured, utterly deflated, he dropped into a chair and, covering his face with his hands, began to weep. A few minutes later, however, he thought better of it and took four tablets of soma.” This shows that people like to cope with the harsh realities of their society through soma. It’s akin to forced addiction, through religion.

Art has always been about expression. If there is no art, there is no creativity. For instance, “it talked to him, talked wonderfully and only half-understandably, a terrible beautiful magic, about Linda; about Linda lying there snoring, with the empty cup on the floor beside the bed; about Linda and Popé, Linda and Popé.” This demonstrates how art, such as Shakespeare, can birth real human emotion, something seen as taboo to most. Shakespeare helps John understand how he feels about Linda in this quote. In the text, it says, “Besides, can you make words really piercing — you know, like the very hardest X-rays — when you're writing about that sort of thing? Can you say something about nothing? That's what it finally boils down to.” This shows that Helmholtz yearns for creative freedom, to write something that pierces the reader, like we have today. Despite this, he can’t show his creativity and how much he cares about the world around him.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the World State society is truly despicable because it lacks individuality, sees it as taboo, forces people into deep hole which can only be escaped through soma, and replaces creativity with complacency. The World State is not a group built on happiness. It’s a group built on lies, manipulation, and misinformation. This novel is a warning, a sign of what might become of our world, given certain circumstances. Let’s never let it actually happen.