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Substance Abuse In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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As a teenager, it is likely to find oneself wanting an escape from school, family, or other stresses in life. In Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, he predicts that everyone in the future society abuses a drug called soma starting from a very young age. Soma creates happy emotions and a calm sense no matter what the situation. Turning to drugs at one point or another during adolescence is not uncommon in today’s society, whether it is a regular habit, or just trying it simply out of curiosity. Although, it seems that one is not very concerned with how it affects growth and brain development at the time of using. How does drug abuse affect a teenager’s future and physical development? According to neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, the brain is …show more content…

A large variety of factors are in contribution to why juveniles commit crimes such as home life, stress, mental health, and financial problems. Drugs may play a part in these unlawful actions. “Delinquency and substance abuse have long been linked and this is particularly relevant for adolescents. Delinquency in juveniles is characterized by antisocial and problem behaviors of a criminal nature.” (Consequences of Adolescent Substance Abuse). It seems drug users are more likely to participate in unlawful activity than non-drug users are. Huxley demonstrates giving drugs to citizens of his society to make sure they do not commit crimes. “‘...why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours.’” (Huxley 92). Some become completely reliant on soma to get them through the day. This does relate to how people in our society rely on drugs due to addiction. It creates a feeling of being dependent, and addicts can not see themselves going even hours without it. Huxley’s characters were utterly bewildered when they would hear about someone not needing soma to go on with their life. “People said of him that he could have got through life without ever touching soma.” (Huxley

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“And do remember that a gramme is better than damn.” In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, drug use is regarded as part of daily life and often glorified by the characters. While the characters in Huxley’s novel have no problem using drugs to replace their emotions, prescription opioid abuse has become a major concern in the United States. Prescribing guidelines for these drugs need to be stricter in order to prevent prescription drug abuse from growing.

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Following the European Age of Discovery and Exploration in the 15th century, the world began to get partitioned off under the control of the European superpowers: the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the English, and the French. Through papal decrees and wars, the shifting colony boundaries were chiefly determined by whichever proved to be the most powerful and influential empire. By the time Aldous Huxley began to rise to fame in the 1930s, the world ideology of the advanced Western white man had been in place for centuries. In a time of growing unrest, Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, functions as a criticism of the growing secular sentiments within the Western civilizations’ beliefs of the innate superiority of the cultures, government

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According to the article ¨Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction¨, ¨Drugs interfere with the way neurons send, receive, and process signals via neurotransmitters¨ The article also says, Although these drugs mimic the brain's own chemicals... they lead to abnormal messages being sent through the network.¨ This quote supports the fact that drugs such as soma, can affect someone's behavior. In the novel, when the people took soma, they thought they didn't have any responsibility, they would do some horrible things, such as cause fires, steal things, and hack. As a result, it is evident that drugs can change someone's

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"In the end John was forced to give in. Linda got her soma. Thenceforward she remained in her little room on the thirty-seventh floor of Bernard 's apartment house, in bed, with the radio and television always on, and the patchouli tap just dripping, and the soma tablets within reach of her hand - there she remained; and yet wasn 't there at all, was all the time away, infinitely far away, on holiday;....... only much more so, incomparably more, and without end" (Huxley 155) “More than twenty three million people over the age of twelve are addicted to alcohol and other drugs, affecting millions more people….. spouses, children, family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues at work”(NCADD). Alcohol and drug dependence plays a huge role on

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Would the society one day present you with a fancy commercial narcotic that would put an end to all your bad days? Huxley believed so especially with society's growing need for instant gratification seen more and more recently through the use of advertisement. Today it is also seen that the addiction of drugs has gone up amongst people all around the world. Recreational drugs are seen being used to achieve an instant height of emotions and feeling as if all your problems are taken away from you that moment. Seem familiar to Lenina’s need for soma to escape her problems “It’s awful.

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She took as much as twenty grammes a day” (Huxley 143). The truth is that not everybody is happy, but in order to control the masses and escape this hard truth, drugs are distributed and consumed. The fact that drugs are a distraction is not a secret, so instead of solving the issues at hand it is much easier to provide distractions so people will not come to a realization and revolt or cave under the

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