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Kylee says - Scroll down to see my full entry. :-)

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Kylee says - Scroll down to see my full entry. :-)

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I agree with your statement. The suppression of the emotions in "Brave New World", is not only holding them back emotionally, but holding back their strides in technology and other things. Emotion ignites passion, which drives people to do things.

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I completely agree with your statement. People grow tired or usually get too addicted to drugs that it kills them; whether that be emotionally or physically. Which is what happens to Bernard, soma kills him emotionally. It is only a matter of time before the lower classes feel this too.

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I totally agree with your thoughts on how people cannot truly learn and grow without a full range of emotions. By suppressing those emotions one ends up completely numb. I also agree that people cannot appreciate the positive without being able to experience negative.

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Wow Andrew, what a way to express my thoughts also. A lobotomized person is not a complete human. They have no way to feel and compare experiences we encounter on a daily basis.

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Yes, sadness is a part of the human condition. The Greeks historically used tragedy performed on stage to allow members of their society to experience catharsis. I believe the Greeks understood a full range of feeling emotions is necessary to experience the human condition. Without all of ones emotions, how can one be human?  Society becomes full of empty members, "There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality", with nothing to look forward to.  People use drugs such as Soma to numb themselves or alter the way they feel. It becomes detrimental to their development as members of society, and individually because they feel no real happiness, only drug-induced happiness. Society cannot flourish because members cannot learn and develop character through making poor choices and the consequences of those choices.

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I love your insight on the strength sadness gives people. The community is stuck in limbo, regressing despite reaching stability since the emotions everyone feels are stunted. They do not have the will to try harder nor the will to slack off. Everyone is "happy" but how happy could they possibly be not knowing anguish nor growing from it?

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I agree with what you've said about knowing comfort. How would you know what's good if you don't now the bad? They are conditioned to believe sadness is bad, but they do not understand why or how these emotions are beneficially to them as people.

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Sadness is absolutely a necessary human condition. It not only brings gratefulness for happiness and good things that happen to people, but it also brings wisdom, knowledge, and strength. With sadness, people learn to appreciate, not only the major happy events in their lives, but also the little day-to-day things. Sadness builds up strength by getting through the hard times, by persevering, even when you just want to crawl into a hole and ignore the world, but you get up and face the day. It gives you the knowledge and wisdom to help get other people what you have been through. Without negative emotions, a society could never understand what happiness, anger, nervousness, calmness, or any emotion is fully. Through these drugs, they would be stuck in the same emotion all the time. They would not have as much knowledge, just knowledge from books. They would have no way of feeling; they would just be bland, just as they are in Brave New World. With this blandness, would most likely come emptiness or a sense of incompleteness. People would eventually search for anything that made them feel something, such as soma. The society’s response to anyone feeling anything beside this blandness was "What you need is a gramme of soma".

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Yes sadness is a part of the human condition. Without all of ones emotions how can one be a human. Socety becomes empty, "There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality."
Delete repeated word people use drugs such as soma to remove or alter the way they feel it is not only detrimental to themselves, but also to those around them. When we are reduced to a society of numb members then there is no way for the society to grow through learning consequences of ones actions. People do not feel true happiness because it is created by a drug.

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Sadness is not an emotion that can be easily taken away from humans. We are all born with a sense of sadness and because of this it is a necessary part of the human condition. Sadness spans across and intermingles with other emotions to create unique reactions to wildly different situations. Taking away negative emotions, through the conditioning or other means such as soma when such feelings arise, may only work for a time. Like any other drug, I expect a tolerance is going to build up at some point. The people in the society are going to be taking more and more until eventually a change will need to be made in the society. As for now, the community that rids itself of these negative emotions will remain in poor taste. However well it may work, the repetitive behavior only enhances the conditioning done while young and leaves the more intelligent and less easily swayed, Bernard for example, miserable in their lives.

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I think your view on this is super interesting. Sadness and really any other negative (yet absolutely crucial human emotion) are regarded and medically treated as little more than bothersome headaches.

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It's no wonder that Bernard is the most "human" character in the book. It's difficult to imagine the majority of the other characters as actual people when they are so mentally suppressed.

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I adamantly believe that sadness is in fact an emotion necessary for a healthy lifestyle. How can someone know what happiness is when they have never experienced sadness? How can someone know when they are comfortable if they have never been uncomfortable? We are what we are as a species due to our abnormally large and complex brains. We experience a much wider range of emotions than any other creature on Earth. Why squander that which makes us unique? The discouragement and suppression of emotion is no less barbaric and crippling than a lobotomy.

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Sadness is a necessary part of the human condition because it allows

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I agree with your commentary about how a life without obstacles would be incredibly dull. The citizens of "Brave New World" aren't challenged with anything so they have no way to learn or expand from their experiences. Without problems, the only thing they can pursue entertainment and hedonism, which is ultimately unfulfilling.

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Taryn, I like your commentary on how superficial entertainment is not a characteristic of prosperity. It is interesting to note the parallels of escapism in "Brave New World" and the world we live in today. In the modern world we have our own "somas" as well as superficial entertainment. These things are incredibly easy to come by, and like you said, they inhibit true human expression. These things can range anywhere from illicit drugs, to things such as television or social media. Soma being ingrained in the daily lives of the citizens of "Brave New World" is incredibly similar to technology in our modern day lives. We rely heavily on technology for both practical use and entertainment so much that it seems like a necessity.

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Sadness is one of the most essential parts of the human condition. By experiencing sadness and overcoming it, people are able to gain new insights toward their lives and toward other people's lives as well. An individual values happiness more after overcoming sadness because they understand that it can be fleeting at times. Sadness is also transformative because it allows the development of empathy for other's who may have gone through similar circumstances. Although all of this is true in our lives, things are not so similar in "Brave New World". Essentially all happiness in the Brave New World comes from drugs or artificial entertainment. The lack of sadness, or really any true emotion at all, allows the society to experience social stability at a large scale. Since the citizens are not able to feel sad, they lack empathy and have nothing to compare their current feelings to. The stable emotional state they experience because of contentment with their occupations does not allow them to appreciate true happiness, bliss, disappointment or any of the other necessary emotions humans experience. When Lenina becomes stuck on the reservation without her soma, she is "left to face the horrors of Malpais unaided". She becomes distressed and uncomfortable. Rather than experiencing the reservation as it is, she wants to turn to drugs to prevent her from experiencing something unpleasant. The citizens in "Brave New World" rely on soma seems to be the only thing to bring an emotional change to their mundane and monotonous lives.

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I completely agree with you in the sense that the characters in the novel were never able to achieve true happiness. Sadness and happiness are two fundamental parts of life, with one helping us feel the other with more intensity. While many of us would jump at the chance to forgo sadness altogether, doing so would substantially curtail true pleasant emotions, emotions which make life worth living.

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Your perspective about -technology and soma working in tandem is very interesting, and I can agree that it solves the issues it was intended to in the novel. However, if I'm being completely honest, the society created in "Brave New World" does not appeal to me in the slightest. In my lifetime, my personal defeats have helped me visualize my goals and happiness with much more fervor. In order to "eradicate" sadness, society must replace the void with means of artifical happiness, which rarely bring true satisfaction

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Sadness is absolutely necessary to the human experience. As much as humans hate to admit it, sadness and unhappiness help us feel emotions like joy or giddiness with much more clarity. Humans are unlike any other living creatures in the sense that we can feel a wide range of profuse emotions. Drugs, such as soma, harshly limit the range of emotions humans feel. Many turn to drugs, as displayed in "Brave New World" to escape feeling negative emotions entirely, which is a pursuit that creates addiction- an experience far more unpleasant than unhappiness. In Part II, the concept of choosing unpleasant emotions or a life of constant desire for chemical alteration presents a "pick your poison" kind of scenario, with the latter destroying the human brain's capabilities of truly experiencing life. A society that relies on neurochemical alteration as a means to escape negative emotions is a society that will be devoid of empathy, compassion, and true prosperity (constant superficial entertainment and social stratification are NOT characteristics of prosperity). In fact, soma was so deeply ingrained in daily life, people reassured themselves by saying "there is always soma, delicious soma." As a result, the "utopian" society lacked any forms of true human expression. True human expression creates beauty- art, music, writings, and other expressions of emotions and ideas- which is why the society described in the novel had such a paucity of those things. Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, states in his philosophy that components such as drugs and alcohol are used as coping mechanisms in which humans perpetuate their own mental weakness. He futher elaborates that by choosing to be inebriated, human beings rob themselves of living life to the fullest- a concept I fundamentally agree with.

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Sadness, though usually necessary for a balanced, healthy human condition is not needed in this book. This is because the society itself becomes a filler for the gap sadness leaves in the human psyche. The entirety of the society was designed so that every citizen could achieve their own happiness with their own role in society. When this system fails such as in Bernard's case soma can patch up any emotion disruptions that the technology rich society cannot. However, the society seems very dull to me because there is no conflict that would normally be brought on by the various negative emotions that are being blocked. Even in young children the only "insurmountable obstacle" to them is having to "wait nearly four weeks before a girl" he wanted would let him "have her" (Huxley 45). Therefore the society must spend a much longer time and many more resources entertaining themselves through means such as electromagnetic golf and what they call a feely. In conclusion, for our current society functioning without sadness in the human condition might very well be impossible; however, in Huxley's society sadness is supplemented by society, entertainment, and soma.

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Although I agree with your assessment overall, I think even without sadness it is possible for the citizens to achieve true joy. Their "artificial happiness" as you called it is the only happiness they have ever known and thus, is the fullest happiness they can achieve, making it truest happiness that a citizen of the society can obtain.

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I like how you described the people of the New World thinking of sadness as "a burden that needs medication to solve." They are given the medication from a young age, so they don't even realize they are addicted. They do not even understand the concept of addiction. Taking soma for them is tantamount to a person with diabetes having to take insulin or an asthmatic using an inhaler because their lives literally depend on it and taking it is second nature to them. Just like people know to eat when they are hungry, the people of the New World know to take soma when they are feeling negative emotions. It is a part of their conditioning which allows them to be immune to sadness and in turn be immune to other feelings you mentioned such as joy or anger.

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I really like your idea about how sadness helps us cope with hardships. I also agree that feeling sadness eventually brings about mental healing needed to put those hardships behind us and move forward. It is such an inevitable thing for bad things to happen in our world, but almost all of that was eliminated in Brave New World. The only difficult situation left to deal with was death. However, it was made insignificant through the elimination of relationships and strong emotions. It reminds me of the scene where John has just lost his mother and he is grieving while people around him happily receive their soma rations. As he observes the situation, he becomes angry that people in the New World have become "less than human monsters". This line has confirmed for me that sadness is a necessary part of the human condition, but once you reach the "less than human" state the people in Brave New World reached, it isn't necessary anymore.

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Sadness is a necessary part of human condition because it helps us understand other emotions, such as joy or anger. While the emotion of sadness may seem useless and unwanted at times, without it we would be missing a large part of ourselves and would not be able to perceive things that go on in our world accurately. Sadness helps us move on from the events that caused us to feel the emotion, sometimes for the better or worse. From sadness you can learn lessons and eventually cope with things, allowing you to be happy once again, no matter how long it may take to reach that point. If you were to take a drug to eliminate this sadness, such as soma does in "Brave New World," it would hamper the ability to process other emotions through sadness and to keep a healthy mental state. However, when taking a drug like this, in return the user might have this false sense of happiness, which in reality is only an illusion made to avoid the problems at hand. Unfortunately, many people, such as those in the book, are drawn to this illusion of happiness and become addicts to these drugs. Almost all the people in "Brave New World" are indeed addicted to this drug as they had been taught to constantly take it whenever they feel the slightest negative feeling. It's to the point that the people even become excited over the drug, standing in lines to get their "soma ration." Due to their heavy use of the drug, they no longer truly understand the concept of sadness but rather think it's a burden that needs medication to solve, such as Lenina who at one point was measuring out her soma like medicine, saying that "one gramme... would not be enough," and that her experience had been "more than a one-gramme affliction." Many of Lenina's fellow members of society think just as she does, so in turn they take soma, allowing them to ignore the true conditions of the world they live in.

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I agree with your analysis about how the conditioning prevents people from curiosity or thoughts of what real happiness is. I agree that while the majority of the society is kept content through mindless work, conditioning, and soma, all systems have flukes, such as Bernard who despite conditioning feels negative emotions. In addition to his depression, Bernard also feels isolated from his peers because of his unorthodox emotional tendencies. This is apparent when Bernard and his coworkers are participating in "Orgy Porgy" and Bernard is forced to fake happy feelings throughout the entire thing.

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Sadness is a necessary part of the human condition because other emotions, such as joy, cannot be experienced without it. The people living in the Brave New World may never be sad, but they are never truly happy either. They are unaware of this artificial happiness because their conditioning keeps them from ever being curious about what true happiness is. In addition to this, a society can never fully eliminate negative emotions. Characters such as Bernard make this clear. He has been subject to conditioning just as everyone else has, yet he feels severe depression when he is rejected again by the other citizens after John refuses to make an appearance at the party. Though he desperately tries to get rid of his feelings by taking soma, he soon wakes to find himself "back among the miseries of space and time". Soma is a drug that only suppresses negative feelings, but that makes it all the more valuable in Brave New World. It keeps the citizens content with their ignorance of their lack of emotion, and it also prevents citizens with more emotional tendencies, like Bernard, from causing any conflict.

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I agree with your analysis about the lack of empathy present in Brave New World's society. This is represented well when John reads Romeo and Juliet to Helmholtz. He "broke out in an explosion of uncontrollable guffawing" because he was unable to make the connection to tragedy and passion. It is also realized at this moment by Helmholtz that trying to find a subject to write about that would evoke emotion in the citizens would be difficult because they have never been exposed to matters depicted in Romeo and Juliet, such as relationships, family, or loss.

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Sadness is a necessary part of the human condition because while it is unpleasant,  it allows us to appreciate the good in life. When negative emotions are eliminated from a society, it affects a multitude of things. Foremost, when negative feelings are eliminated through the use of drugs, a person is unable to feel empathy because he or she is not able to comprehend feelings of loss, heartbreak, anxiety, etc. The elimination of these feelings is critical to the society in Brave New World because it allows for complete emotional detachment from things that would normally elicit feelings of sadness, such as death. It is important to quell these feelings so that the society can continue to run smoothly without conflict. The adverse effects of soma are apparent when John is visiting his mother at the hospital soon before she dies. John is consumed with thoughts of "death, with his grief, and his remorse." In the midst of his mother's death a man announces that it is time for soma distribution. While the Bokanovsky Groups' attention was previously focused on John and his unusual behavior, all is forgotten when this announcement is made and they "forgot all about the Savage. Their attention was now focused on the black cash-box..." It is in this scene where a sharp contrast can be seen between John, who feels negative emotions, and the citizens of the New World who do not feel much of anything and are easily distracted and mesmerized by the arrival of the soma. While people are eagerly stepping in line to get their ration of the drug, others around them, including John's mother, are on their deathbeds (although they are probably either unaware or do not care that they are dying.) This scene illustrates how desensitized a society becomes when negative feelings are eliminated.

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Be sure to read & follow the directions you see on the G.C. page for this assignment.