In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley introduces various questions about the nature of our existence. He presents a society in which people are taught that the main goal in life is happiness. In order to achieve this happiness, the members of this society have given up several of the values which our culture holds dear. This essay will attempt to explore the intrinsic importance of these values as they relate to life and the importance of these values in the World State. The Goal of Life In order to judge the importance of these values in enriching our lives, we must first define what makes a life enriched. Mustapha Mond, a Controller in Brave New World, would argue that happiness is the most important aspect of life and that the best life has the greatest amount of happiness. This is similar to the philosopher Epicurus’ belief that man should maximize pleasure and minimize pain in order to live a ‘blessed life’; happiness being used interchangeably with pleasure in this text (360). However, there is some …show more content…
The ‘happiness’ of Brave New World is akin to physical pleasure as evidenced by the existence of ‘the feelies’ and the rampant use of soma. In contention to this definition of happiness, Epicurus explicitly states, “So when we say that pleasure is the goal we do not mean the pleasures of the profligate or the pleasures of consumption… , but rather the lack of pain in the body and disturbance in the soul”(362). By saying this, Epicurus dismisses the idea that man should thoughtlessly surrender to primal desire and instead argues that we should focus on pleasing the soul through “sober calculation which serves out the reasons for every choice and avoidance and drive out the opinions which are the source of the greatest turmoil for men’s souls” (362). He argues this because, in his and our cultures, giving in to one’s primal desires will