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Happiness In Brave New World

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Happiness comes in many forms and every person in this world has the chance to feel it. According to Martin E.P. Seligman and Ed Royzman authors of “Happiness: The Three Traditional Theories”, happiness is acquired when a person utilizes all three traditional theories; Hedonism Theory, Desire Theory, and Objective List Theory. The Hedonism Theory believes happiness is acquired when a person maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain (Seligman and Royzman). The Desire Theory believes that happiness is achieved when a person gets what he or she wants. The Objective List Theory believes happiness is reached when a person achieves certain things of worthwhile pursuits" (Seligman and Royzman). However, in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, …show more content…

In Brave New World, the people do not understand the feeling of genuine connection and are only focused on the pleasures in life. According to Seligman and Royzman, if a person experiences “truly valuable” things like a relationship, then he or she will experience authentic happiness (Seligman and Royzman). In the World State, soma blinds the individuals with pleasure and does not allow the citizens to face reality in which they live in. An example of this is the relationship between John and Lenina; Lenina is addicted to the drug soma, which inhibits her ability to have a real relationship with John (Huxley). This shows that soma prevents Lenina to experience true love and only lust. Professor Shimon Bernstein’s from the University of California stated that “close relationships are indeed related to happiness, although the extent of the association depends more on the quality than the quantity of relationships” (Bernstein). This shows that John and Lenina will never experience true happiness until they have a genuine relationship with one …show more content…

Seligman and Royzman believe that a person should be able to feel different emotions such as pain. People need to experience pain in order to appreciate the genuine happy things in life. The World State believes the citizens must only feel pleasure in order to have stability in the utopian society (Huxley). A character that is affected by this lack freedom of emotion is Lenina. Lenina is addicted in taking soma in order to not face reality and feel constant pleasure. This shown when she goes to the reservation and takes the drug to forget about what she saw there (Huxley, 131). She is conditioned to not want to experience the freedom of different emotions which makes her lack in authentic happiness. The citizens in the World State do not have the freedom to feel all emotions which blocks their ability to feel true

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In a place where marriage or even monogamy isn't a thing anymore, it shows a huge gap between Lenina and John's views and cultures. John is focusing more on deep human relationships which bring happiness and valuable human experiences and Lenina focuses on immediate gratification and physical satisfaction through meaningless sex. This shows how the Brave New World society has taken away one of the most basic human rights, being allowed to feel how you and form relationships with others. The culture gap is shown again later in Chapter 13, when John says, "The murkiest den, the most opportune place, the strongest suggestion…shall never melt mine honour into

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Following the framing of the constitution and the conclusion of the constitutional convention, political debate quickly developed as the ratification process began. As state representatives returned to their states, the press had already began shaping public opinion with the dispersion of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and Anti-Federalists such as George Mason, Thomas Paine and George Clinton wrote with the intention of influencing the opinions of the American populace and the state legislatures charged with ratifying the constitution. These factions created the first instance of political parties, and the compromise between the two during the debate of ratification had a great influence on the American constitution. A primary

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In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the citizens of the World State are kept artificially happy by the government. In this society, there are no social problems or even worries about the future as everybody is perpetually elated. Every human is predestined from decantation and perfectly fitted and incorporated into society. Everyone knows their place and is content with their status in life. The blows of people’s daily problems, occurrences, and discomforts are cushioned with the drug soma.

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In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses soma to serve the purpose of presenting the theme of the pursuit of happiness through drugs. The purpose that soma serves in the novel is that it is a drug that is described and illustrated as the “perfect drug” with no negative effects. The characters in the novel start using it as an escape for unhappiness or dissatisfaction and the happiness that is reached with the drug eventually becomes a trap and it has an addiction effect which leads to people constantly using the drug to reach happiness. Huxley illustrates soma as the “perfect drug” in Brave New World.

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While she obviously is not free as her entire life is dictated by Mustapha Mond and other higher-authorities, she perceives herself to be free. That feeling of freedom and happiness is innocent and real and there is no denying her happiness. However, Lenina’s idea of happiness is not satisfactory to everybody such as her short-lived romantic “partner” John. John was raised in a Savage Reservation and grew up reading from his “ancient” copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. John learned everything he knows about human nature from this book and that created his own definition of happiness.

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In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World the use of a soma, shapes a fully controlled utopian society. Soma controls the World State and the citizens of World State. It causes them to be promiscuous and believe that they have true freedom, even though they are slaves to their own minds. Soma is the “perfect drug” (Huxley), created to create the perfect, controlled society. The drug is distributed by the government and given to all the citizens of World State.

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Not many achieve happiness in their lifetime. Either they do not live long enough to witness it or they are not prepared for what their happiness is. Happiness is very subjective. Each person’s version of happiness is different. This version of happiness is universal.

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The Price of Perfection Happiness is a cheap luxury. In today's society, it is foolish how such a cheap emotion is viewed as expensive by those blind to its cost. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, real freedom is sold for fake happiness through the suppression of one’s emotional, cognitive, and expressive rights. As a result, they cease to be human, affirming that those who suppress inborn human rights are not free.

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Truth and happiness are two things people desire, and in the novel, an impressive view of this dystopia’s two issues is described. In this society, people are created through cloning. The “World State” controls every aspect of the citizens lives to eliminate unhappiness. Happiness and truth are contradictory and incompatible, and this is another theme that is discussed in “Brave New World” (Huxley 131). In the world regulated by the government, its citizens have lost their freedom; instead, they are presented with pleasure and happiness in exchange.

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Throughout the novel, hypnopaedia and the use of soma are shown to be the main components to the society’s lack of individual identity. Soma, a drug sponsored by the government, is used by the citizens of the World State in order to suppress any emotions which make them feel somewhat uncomfortable. The use of soma leads to a society which lacks any understanding of real emotion, an important piece to the formation of an identity. While soma by itself is destructive, the effects of hypnopaedia are comparable to a “...liquid sealing wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is one scarlet blob” (Huxley 28). Hypnopaedia is a process which is used throughout childhood to result in adults that have the exact views the World Controllers want the citizens of particular castes to have.

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Happiness cannot be attained simply by just gaining one item, such as a Barbie doll; happiness is an accumulation of the way one regards one’s self and the world around them. That does not mean that one’s life has to be perfect to be happy, it just means that they can look through the imperfections and still feel content about their life. Outlooks on more emotional factors, such as dealing with conflict, can contribute to the achievement of happiness, as well as more materialistic factors such as finance, and occupation. Ultimately, happiness is achieved by a person’s ability to make the best in their situations, even when there are flaws.

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The pursuit of happiness is perhaps Man’s longest and most desired journey in life. Many philosophers throughout the ages have nonetheless defined happiness in different ways than one another. Some have argued that happiness can be found by pursuing one’s desired goals, others have said that happiness is a mere ideological concept that can only be achieved when one’s state of mind is rightly structured. In spite of disagreements between philosophers, many have focused on the concept of external goods, where some view it essential to happiness and others did not. No one can deny the pleasure that can be acquired from receiving a multi-million dollar check, nor can anyone deny the joy in owning an expensive luxurious car.

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People miss the fact that happiness comes from within. In an attempt to find joy – we must also be cautious about over excessive desire to acquire material objects and wealth. There is a delicate balance that must be reached between the pursuit of happiness, satisfaction, and contentment. While there are many conditions that fulfill ones emotional wellbeing, happiness and how we acquired it, depends upon the

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Overall, one could say that the modern definition of happiness is attainable precisely because of it subjectivity, that is tends to be dependent on material items and that there is not correct way of finding happiness because happiness is relative to each individual’s

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A collection of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches had attempted to define happiness and analyze its connections. Researchers have found that about 50% of people happiness depends on our genes, based on studies of identical twins, whose happiness was 50% correlated even when growing up in different houses. About 10% to 15% is a result of various measurable life circumstances variables, such as socioeconomic status, marital status, health, income, and others. The remaining 40% is a combination of intentional factors and the results of actions that individuals deliberately engage in to become happier. Studies have also found that most of us are born with a fixed “set point” of happiness that we fall in throughout our lives.

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