How Did Huxley Use Depression In Brave New World

One thing that hasn’t changed since Aldous Huxley’s time is depression . People like Aldous Huxley already proved depression is a serious problem. Almost 100 years ago, Aldous Huxley showed his concern in his ironically titled novel “Brave New World” ; Huxley Aldous created a popular drug “soma”, a perfect drug used to relax people’s brain, to show that depression will never be eliminated but spread without any concerns or notices. According to NIMH(National Institutes of health), "Depression (major depressive disorder or clinical depression) is a common but serious mood disorder. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating.”(Depression, 2016). But with the use of soma,

In chapter 3, line 232 of his 1994 novel, for instance, Huxley describes the benefits of soma .He said that "do remember that a gramme is better than a damn."(Huxley, 1994). Soma was used when people feel depressed. Word “damn”showed that in Brave New World, people take soma to make pain go away and avoid any negative emotions.In this way, Huxley is showing the reader the world of depression that he obviously had reasons to believe might come true.Huxley also makes it perfectly clear that this phenomenon of depression is something that we should be genuinely concerned about. Huxley shows us this in the talk of Lenina. When Lenina was on the date with Bernard, she was unhappy with Bernard's view on freedom and happiness; she said"why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours.You'd forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you'd be jolly.So jolly "(Huxley, 1994). Through Lenina 's talk, therefore, Huxley suggests that depression would produce "dreadful ideas" and make people miserable; thus, the increase of depression, implied by the use of soma, might lead our world into a gloomy future.So was Huxley right to be concerned, or is this

It might be hard to believe but depression is a leading cause of death in America. It causes suicide in adult and adolescent. Suicidology.org showed that "depression is present in at least 50 percent of all suicides."(Org, 2014). WebMD also revealed that" In 2014, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. That year, there were nearly 43,000 suicides, and 1.3 million adults attempted suicide, according to the CDC. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in people from age 10 to age 34". One can easily conclude that depression is a killer among adults and teens. People who commit suicide often suffer from depression . But, as mentioned above, depression not only causes s suicide in adults but young people, too. Based on the Healthy Children Organization and Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, they found that 9 in 10 teens who take their own lives were previously diagnosed with a psychiatric or mental health condition or disorder—more than half of them with a mood disorder such as depression or anxiety(Depression, 2016). This showed that depression plays a role in the suicide of children. Children are the future of humankind,therefore, Huxley is right to concern about depression because it might destroy the human