Sarah Klopfer, Literary Luminary
In a world controlled by an all-powerful government, its citizens have lost their freedom, but instead are given pleasures. The society in Brave New World is one where happiness is chosen over knowledge, providing the reader with the prevalent theme of the incompadibility of happiness and knowledge. In other words, ignorance is bliss. Soma Is a drug everyone in this world uses frequently to create delusions of happiness.
"the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was! "
How is imagery and diction used in this quote from Brave New World to support the theme mentioned above and how is soma used as a symbol for the corruption of society?
"the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was! "
How is imagery and diction used in this quote from Brave New World to support the theme mentioned above and how is soma used as a symbol for the corruption of society?
(no grade) Great question!
ReplyDelete(no grade) bretty gud Sarah 10/10
ReplyDelete(no grade) BTW I feel that Brave New World is a reaction, not just to utopian literature, but also to the culture of the 20's, during the jazz era. Before the Great Depression, the US was in a boom and the world was coming out of the Victorian Era. The book takes concerns such as drug use, mass consumption, and promiscuity to satirical extremes to demonstrate what the world would be like should the trend continue. To me, soma is a catch-all drug that is just another part of the general corruption of society, along with societal concerns about monogamy, thoughtful literature being banned, and the removal of parents from society.
DeleteThat's a very true point about the time period. It's easy to forget sometimes that the book was written in 1932 due to its relevance to modern day. Perhaps the auther saw a rapidly developing world all around him. The world may have been changing in a way he did not favor so the book may have been a metaphor for the world he sees. In the 20s, youth started taking over and parents became less crucial to teenagers' lives because freedom was a major aspect of the 20s. This was also written during the prohibition so author may have used soma to symbolized alcohol. Also a new form of music, jazz, had taken place, becoming a major form of expression for youth. That was likely inspiration for the artistic freedom aspect of his novel.
DeleteI believe that imagery is used in this by the way things like Soma is presented. With a drug that the people use to create delusions of happiness like anything that is happy would be part of imagery. Soma is a symbol of corruption of society by the way it gives the person using it a different sense of life. The things that person sees is not reality, but it is used to recreate delusions of happiness. People being shown illusions of what they wish life could have been.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree to your response but would like to add the point about how society is become dependent on soma. Soma is corruption because it is a a new delusion of happiness replacing old true forms of happiness such as art, true love, family and individual passions and hobbies. I agree with your views on the imagery. I think the vocab used in this quote, the descriptive words are so positive they push the tone to the edge of sarcasm without out it not sounding sarcastic at all. What the author used is a hyperbolized vocabular to get the point across.
Delete(No grade) Interesting perspective on the post-apocolyptic world. I would enjoy reading extra information about the events in the Brave New World! :)
ReplyDelete(No Grade) whoa you have pierced the vail of perception and exposed the truth
ReplyDelete(No Grade) What a very eloquently presented question, it's also going towards a more philosophical idea of what "soma" is. This question is very thought provoking and would be interesting to go more in depth on.
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