In the novel The Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the residents of the World State no longer live in the human condition. The negative emotions of fear and embarrassment have been suppressed by their lifelong conditioning and the perfect drug, soma. This could at first seem appealing, however in reality, it can have serious drawbacks. All of the residents of the World State believe they are happy, however, they have never experienced anything of a negative nature happen to them so they can compare.The importance of our negative emotions cannot be overlooked; these emotions, especially fear and embarrassment, help us to learn from our or others experiences, provide a counterbalance to the happiness in our lives, and bring us together as people.
In regards to learning from experiences, fear is the most helpful out of all of our emotions, however, embarrassment can also help drastically. Bernard Marx, an Alpha from London, lacked the requisite fear on his trip to the Savage Reservation. While the warden of the reservation
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Sadly, most people in The Brave New World lack the idea of embarrassment, and when one interacts with the other, it can be painful. When riding on a crowded elevator, Bernard Marx ran into Lenina Crowne, who wished to go for date said “That is, … if you still want to have me.” If Lenina had a proper sense of embarrassment, this wholly improper conversation would have been held elsewhere, aving Bernard from the trouble of this socially awkward situation. A sense of embarrassment, by making itself a way to harm us, brings us together in our wish to avoid it. This togetherness has helped everyone come through potentially socially crippling situations unharmed many times in our lives. Nonetheless, we cannot always avoid these negative