Caitlin Beltran

Di Somma

ERWC, Period 5

26 May 2017

Title

The society described in Brave New World seems ridiculous when seen only at the

surface. But is it really? There are a lot of factors in their society that can easily be reflected to

our own. Huxleys fears did come true, as we are becoming a trivial culture and are drowned in a

sea of irrelevance. I agree that Huxleys fears about what our society would become did come

true.

Like Huxley predicted, our culture has become trivial. We are obsessed with dumb things

like drugs and sex as they are in Brave New World. It is described in the book how LInda,

...tool a last sip, set the cup down on the floor beside the bed, turned over on her side,

hiccoughed once or twice and went to sleep (31). Linda is described taking Soma countless

times in the book, along with a lot of the other characters, in our society there are endless people

who struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Also, we must notice that the recreational use

of marijuana is being legalized throughout the nation slowly but surely. The people in Brave

New World take Soma more than just routinely. Two women are speaking of Bernard when they

say, Dont think of him, I cant help it, Take Soma then (188). They see this drug as a

stress reliever for everything which cannot be healthy. This can easily be compared to or culture

because when we are upset or stressed we tend to have a drink with a friend or hit the bar. Our

culture is becoming way too used to resorting to drugs and alcohol when they have an emotional
problem. The utopian culture described in the story is also obsessed with sex. Theyre at a public

even when the cheerleaders start singing, Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make

them One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release (84). This seems ridiculous

to me but their culture is very okay with it. There is no doubt in my mind we could be heading

towards this in our culture because we love sex. I think sex has lost its meaning for the majority

of the members of our culture. The loss of value can be seen because, ...people still went on

talking about truth and beauty as though they were the sovereign goods (228). One of the

outliers speaks of this. It can definitely be seen in our culture that certain things have lost their

value too. For example, truth, innocence, sex. Through these things it is certainly seen that our

culture is in fact becoming trivial.

Along with becoming trivial, people are now concerned about highly irrelevant things.

When speaking of his own society, Bernard says, But I dont want comfort, I want God. I want

poetry. I want real danger. I want freedom. I want goodness. I want sin (240). Hes frustrated

because everyone around him seems to be concerned with irrelevant things. In our society we

truly are drowned in a sea of irrelevance because the majority is us are concerned about our

appearance or the responses we get on social media instead of the kind of people we truly are.

The utopian society in Brave New World has chosen, ...machinery, medicine, and happiness

(234). They really do have machinery and medicine to solve all their problems. This reflects on

our society completely. Because of machinery, we have almost everything at the tip of our

fingers. Because of medicine, we can change our appearances and our lives can be prolonged.

The people in their society use, Gonadal hormones, transfusion of young blood, magnesium

salts (54) to maintain a young complexion. In their society as well as ours, there are endless
things you can do to get rid of wrinkles or even change your body type completely through

wrinkle creams and plastic surgery. In the book we are also given, ... a brief description of the

modern fertilizing process (5). Their society completely designs their babies. This is reflective

of our society because nowadays, people can create the genetic makeup of their kids through

science. They focus on the looks they will have and their athletic abilities. These things should

be irrelevant when trying to have a child of your own.

Both societies are too wrapped up around dumb and irrelevant things. We are too

concerned with looks and the opinions other people have of us and t is getting worse as time goes

on. Things in our society are losing their value as we are concerned with other things Therefore,

I do believe Huxleys fears have come true.