Is Complete Happiness Possible?

             Is complete happiness possible? Discuss with reference to the literary work(s) you have studied.
             Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' talks about a utopian world, where he presents us with the technology of the future making everyone be happy. It is an upside down, inside out world, where people do not know whether they are happy or not, and what makes them happy or angry. But, is 'Brave New World' a false symbol about universal happiness? Is it better to live free and to be able to control one's surroundings while suffering diseases than to live the utopian life of always being happy?
             In 'Brave New World', happiness comes mainly from consumerism, 'the feelies', expensive games such as Obstacle Golf and Centrifugal Bumble Puppy, and most effective of all, soma, from which brave new worlders will get instant gratification and the cure to feeling blue. The World State is a utopia adapted only to consumption: "Ending is better than mending."
             Aldous Huxley suggests that universal happiness in the World State is the abolition of the most valued posessions of today's culture: family, mother, father, love. On the contrary, happiness is technology, promiscuous sex and is drug-delivered.
             Soma provides an "imbecile happiness"; soma-vacations provide the people in the world state with the freedom they lack in their daily lives. People go to soma when they have negative thoughts or when they feel angry or depressed. This 'Brave New World' society feels comfortable taking soma, as faith and spiritual life does not exist. Soma induces happiness and tranquility and therefore equals instant gratification. And if something negative occurs, soma is there to take action and to fix everything, as Mustapha Mond says, soma is "Christianity without tears."
             Not only does society live by soma to be happy, but they are conditioned to be happy and not to quest...

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Is Complete Happiness Possible?. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 19:18, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/79305.html