In the novel brave new world by aldous huxley the government tries to prevent its people from speaking freely and thinking by giving them soma, a legal drug that is available for them every day. We’ll deal with the subtopics of legal and illegal drugs, the consequences for society, the opinion of society, what you have to pay for drugs, the impact on your mental und physical situation, and also what the government thinks of taking drugs. While discussing these topics we compare brave new world to the world we experience today. First of all, you have to say that everyone can become a victim of drugs, whether they are legal or illegal.

Even the author aldous huxley who wrote brave new world wasn’t able to resist drugs. In the 1950s huxley became popular for his interest in mind expanding drugs like mescaline and lsd, which he seemed to take often over a period of ten years. Sybille dedford says, he searched for a drug that allowed him an escape of himself and that it would be physically and social harmless, if it would be taken with care. Thus you can see that huxley exactly knew what he was talking about when he described the experiences the people of brave new world have taking soma. In brave new world only the two legal drugs soma and alcohol exist, though alcohol can only be found in the reservation. In contrast to the book we find lots of legal drugs in our present world, although we often do not really know that they are drugs at all, such as nicotine e.g. In cigarettes or water pipes , alcohol, medicine, caffeine, and huffing substances e.g.

In comparison to our world you won’t find any illegal drugs in the new world of huxley because all the drugs they take are ordered by the government. In our world, however, there are many, many drugs that are illegal and if you get caught taking them or selling them you will be punished. For example there is speed, lsd, spice, cocaine, heroine, crack, liquid ecstasy, cannabis and crystal meth, just to name a few. They are all very dangerous drugs and extremely addictive! another difference between the two worlds is the attitude society has towards drugs in the new world and in ours.

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Society in brave new world is used to taking soma by their first hypnopaedia lessons, where they are instructed what is necessary for the stability of their system. The upper classes can mainly choose on their own how much and how often they need to take soma to flee to the world they would like to be in. In society’s opinion soma is something that belongs to everyone, and a world without it is unimaginable. The ones who want to live without it have to accept a life as an outsider of society.

In today’s society, legal drugs are mainly used to calm down, like cigarettes, or just by habit. You also take medicine or drugs in case of illness, and some people take anabolic substances to achieve better results in their athletic activities. Most illegal drugs are taken just to become high or to feed the dependence you’ve created. Society in our world is used to seeing people take legal drugs like cigarettes or alcohol because they are allowed to be taken in public places. Illegal drugs, on the other hand, make you an outsider of society except to drug junkies, who will see you as their best friend. The people in the new world get soma for free because it is, as already mentioned, all ordered and offered by the government. In comparison to that you have to pay for drugs in our world, and most of them have expensive prices that are only affordable to people with enough money.

This has the consequence that many people have to commit crimes and go into prostitution to buy the drugs they depend on. Although everything for the people in brave new world is great and everyone is happy and uninhibited if they get their lovely soma, they are also often dependent on the drug. Brave new world’s government supports soma to ensure passiveness of its people and thereby the stability of their created world. Alcohol, on the contrary, seems like an illegal drug in the new world because you become an outsider by drinking it, though it is not forbidden by the government. In our world legal drugs are tolerated by the government, but they are age restricted. All in all you might say both worlds wouldn’t work without drugs, which more and more people need to calm down with the help of drugs. It wouldn’t be right to condemn brave new world only because they have soma, because we also have drugs.

You can condemn the government, however, because it uses the drugs to control its people and to take away the free will that is natural for a human being. It isn’t right to let them live in a soma induced world that doesn’t exist and that won’t ever exist. Furthermore, a well working system needs the opinion of the people to act as a human an attribute that is totally missing in huxley’s created world.