Essay: Brave New World political elements

In “Brave New World”, the population is brainwashed to love happiness, consumption, and promiscuity. Those who aren’t happy resort to taking soma to feel better. They are prisoners of confinement due to the conditioning. They have a lack of freedom because the government controls the mind of each individual by giving them a daily soma ration. Technology and soma is used to keep the people happy with their lives. Technology desensitizes them from being an individual and having other desires. The soma keeps the people from rebelling and being unhappy. During this era, freedom of speech is established to allow people to speak on things that comply with the beliefs of those in authority. If one was to speak offensively to a person in authority they could receive punishment and be sent to an island. People who don’t follow the rules are reported. Bernard and Helmholtz find themselves in trouble because of their uniqueness. These political elements effect not only those who are complacent with the rules, but those who are not.
The caste system is a tool used to control the citizens. Humans are conditioned based on their predetermined role. Mr. Foster says, “The lower the caste, the shorter the oxygen.” Conditioning establishes the mentality and features of people to a certain status. The lower caste is described as short and ugly. Meanwhile, the upper caste is tall and strong. The upper caste refrains from having any involvement with the lower caste because they don’t want to ruin their image. Class is controlled by the government for stability. They take away the right of individuality from their citizens. The socioeconomic element effected the citizens’ identity.
The leaders believe religion isn’t needed because of their advance technology. They believe comfort is given in a bottle and morality is taught through conditioning, so there is no need for God. The Native American tribe believes in the soul and unity of spirits through nature. John tries to get in touch with his spiritual life by harming himself. I believe he suffered in the lighthouse to keep his humanity. The spiritual elements allowed John to achieve freedom.
Political elements are the effect of an authority’s belief and the effects it has on other series of ones life. The lack of freedom the citizens have affected every other area of their personal lives. They weren’t allowed to be individuals. They were promiscuous. They were silenced. This is because they were kept in the dark. The socioeconomic elements is what affected their identity and individuality. They all were put into different categories. This affected those that didn’t fit in, resulting in them being sent to an island. It also led to the upper caste ostracizing the lower caste. The spiritual elements allowed the citizens to act animalistic and be complacent. They had no desire to become individuals because of the lack of God. The lack of spirituality kept the state perfect and stabilized.
Brave New World is set in an era that revolves around science and machines. Children are conditioned to lack emotion and individuality. Bernard Marx is an alpha, who doesn’t fit in. He and Lenina Crowne are granted permission to visit savage reservation, where Director lost his wife. There, Bernard meets Director’s wife and son and uses them to his advantage, after being threatened to be sent away. Upon their arrival, the Director is embarrassed and resigns. However Linda, the wife, gets ill and eventually dies. Meanwhile, John, the son, goes crazy and runs away to a lighthouse where he ends up killing himself.
Bernard refused to take soma when he was offered it by Henry. He even refused to take it when he was in a bad mood. However, when he finally takes soma his control and freedom is gone. Bernard was disgusted by the men objectifying Lenina. He was even upset when she went out with Henry. Despite all the control he had when he wasn’t on soma, it went out the window when he consumed it after the helicopter ride. This political element shows that Bernard was affected by soma, although he disagreed with the values of the state.
Another issue for Bernard was that he was a short alpha. This affected his identity because he had physical characteristics of a low caste. This contributed to his rebellious personality. This allowed him to act more like an adult than a child. However, this was not good because he was later threatened to be sent to another island. This socioeconomic element hindered and punished those who were different from the others.
The moral elements led to Bernard’s downfall. Although Barnard didn’t fit in, he worsened his state a lot by himself. He looked for things to validate himself and make him feel important. These traits create distances between him and society. He used John to get popular. He is a hypocrite because he measured up to the issues within that society.