Implications of Soma

The implication of soma has made it impossible for people to be faced with adversity. Soma, being as heavily sedative as it is, makes it near to impossible for people to think for themselves. Soma provides the brain-dead mob with an escape route for any unpleasant feelings, leaving them feeling as if they were happy, when really it is just blurring of the truth. For example, after the death of his heavily sedated mother, John, “The Savage,” is disgusted with the citizens of the World States dependency on Soma. As John finds the line of people waiting for their share of Soma, he says, “‘Listen, I beg you,’ cried the Savage earnestly. ‘Lend me your ears…’ […] ‘Don’t take that horrible stuff. It’s poison, it’s poison.’ (185). Since John was never influenced by the World States conditioning, he is able to see the destruction being done. John makes an attempt at emphasizing the issue at hand, but the citizens are blinded by their addiction. Since the implication of soma has gotten rid of any truth in the World State, adversity and struggle are no longer found. Therefore, we can make the connection that no one in the World State is truly happy, when really they are too sedated to think any differently. As the novel progresses, John meets with Mustapha Mond to speak about John’s recent outburst. Mond, being a World Controller, has strong views in that social stability is all that matters and John on the other hand, sees the world much as we do today. Within Mustapha and John’s conversation, Mustapha states that, “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to you to your enemies, to make you patient and long suffering.” (209-210). As we look at this quotation, we can confirm that in the eyes of the World controller, the truth does not matter. The goal for the World controllers is to achieve complete