Literature Guides
Brave New World – Quotations and Analysis
“Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No wonder those poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy.”
This quotation is from Chapter 3. It is Mustapha Mond as he explains how life before the World State consisted of things which distracted people from being happy. Things such as family and love are now considered foreign and dangerous ideas which get in the way of the superficial happiness under the World State.
“Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for everyone else. We can’t do without any one…”
This is from Chapter 5 where Lenina remembers a hypnopaedic message from her childhood. The message demonstrates the programming that people receive under the World State. It also demonstrates the hypocrisy of the World State in which the genetically determined caste system pre-arranges who works and how they are to work. Some people are bred to be virtual slaves and indoctrinated to accept their status.
“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.”
From Chapter 17, this quotation for Mustapha as he explains the benefits and value of soma sums up much of the novel. According to Mustapha, a drug induced haze or stupor is always preferable to the reality of life. Given that everyone is provided with a secure and stable place in life, any worry or concern should be simply drowned out with soma. This is so effective, according to the leader of the New State, that it takes the place of religion and faith. We can have faith in God without the worrisome struggles of faith. Faith in the effects of the drug have replaced everything.
