George Santayana once said, Ideal society is a drama enacted exclusively in the imagination. In life, there is no such thing as a complete utopia, although that is what many people try to achieve. Aldous Huxleys Brave New World is an attempt at a utopian society. In this brave new world, mothers and fathers and family are non-existent. Besides being non-existent, when words of that sort are mentioned, ears are covered and faces of disgust are made. In a report to the Controller, Bernard wrote,This is partly due, no doubt to the fact that he heard them talked about by the woman Linda, his m-----(106). Words of the sort cannot even be written. Art, history, and the ability to have emotions are shunned. This utopia is shown as a perfect world in which everyone is happy. If this was true, the people would not need to take soma, an equivalent along the lines of a cross between one of todays designer drugs and Prozac. The Director, who goes nameless for most of the story, is less important than the controller is, and he also knows less. This is shown by his shock when the Controller dares to speak about two of the forbidden topics, history and biological parents. It is believed that topics of this nature will cause this utopia to deteriorate. Once the utopia deteriorates, people are not happy all the time. Even by its own criteria though, Brave New World is not a society where everyone is in fact happy. There are asylums in Iceland for Alpha misfits. Even in this so-called utopia, no one is perfect. Lenina has lupus and Bernard is emotionally unstable, due to a mistake in the bottling-plant. If a person is to run out of soma, they feel sick. It may seem to be a utopia, but in essence, brave new world is far from it.Well-being is not and can not be, genetically pre-programmed, but that is what the soma is for. When one of the inhabitants experiences unpleasant thoughts or emotions, which supposedly do not exist anyway, th...
