Identity In Brave New World

As William Shakespeare says, “We know what we are, but not what we may be” (BrainyQuote). Often times in society, people allow material possessions inhibit their ability to become what they are capable of being; accepting who they are currently. Illegal and legal substances such as drugs cause people to lack free thinking and cause addictive behaviors that can lead people to not seek opportunities to succeed. The influence of others pushes people to take part in the use of things like drugs in order to appear normal in society. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the government pushes the drug Soma as a replacement of religion and brainwashing tool inhibiting people’s ability to think freely and lack individuality, as a way to maintain supremacy and power over the people.
To begin, Huxley emphasizes that individual identity is linked with religion, and that the pushed replacement of …show more content…
Huxley’s exaggerated version of those who have blindly followed the government exemplifies how easy it is for one to lose their individuality to the government. Huxley uses Soma to prohibit people’s thoughts to show that things enforced by the government or enforced by social norms can cause one to follow the pack and fail to form resistance when necessary. He hopes that the reader may see the importance of stopping oneself from becoming so naive to government power that they no longer rebel against it. This message is relevant in today’s societies where government controls social media and is now brainwashing the public through that. Instead of Soma creating a world where everything appears wonderful, social media does that. From the novel Brave New World, all readers can take away the importance of having a personality as opposed to becoming a brainwashed clone of the