Social Control Mechanisms in Brave New World in Reference to 1984.
The Populations in Huxley's brave new world and Orwell's 1984 have been suppressed and controlled completely. They have been sustained by totally different means. Orwell's world in 1984 is controlled by thought control and by language. Huxley's world is controlled by genetic modification and their drive for individual pleasure. The population in 1984 is manipulated by the means of thought control, the thought police, newspeak, and double think. In Huxley's brave new world, the population is controlled from birth by their genetic coding; they are controlled by, their pursuit for pleasure, and by a drug called soma.
The population in brave new world is mainly controlled by their pursuit for pleasure; this is chiefly achieved by a drug called soma. Soma is a "euphoric, narcotic, a holiday from reality." Soma is a perfect pleasure drug. Event though if does make you high it's more so a tranquillizer. This is shown by how it numbs rather than heightens your mind and your sensibilities. The effects discussed are shown when Bernard and his companion, Lenina, arrive at the savage reservation, Lenina grows tired of the warden's speech, and so she swallows a half gramme of soma. "With the result of it she could now sit, serenely not listening, thinking of nothing at all." (pg 86) This response shows us that the soma user's sensibilities are numbed rather than heightened like a tranquilizer. Soma only gives a rise to shallow, unempathetic and a monotonous wellbeing. For some people soma is no more than a cheap thrill, like Bernard Marx, and it definitely doesn't make him happy with his situation in life. Some people are destroyed by Soma, for example John the Savage commits suicide almost immediately after taking soma. Even with theses effects, one can apparently drift off to a pleasant sleep with soma. For example Bernard Marx takes four tablets of soma to allow him to sleep on his long plane trip to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico.