Brave New World Drugs and Alcohol Quotes Page 1

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How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)

Quote #1

"There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol."

[…]

"There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality."

[…]

"But they used to take morphia and cocaine." (3.210-4)

Mustapha seems to suggest that some failing on the part of religion to comfort people led to the abuse of drugs and alcohol – but the same is true of conditioning and conformity in his own society.

Quote #2

"Two thousand pharmacologists and bio-chemists were subsidized in A.F. 178."

"He does look glum," said the Assistant Predestinator, pointing at Bernard Marx.

"Six years later it was being produced commercially. The perfect drug."

[…]

"Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant."

"Glum, Marx, glum." The clap on the shoulder made him start, look up. It was that brute Henry Foster. "What you need is a gramme of soma."

"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."

"Ford, I should like to kill him!" But all he did was to say, "No, thank you," and fend off the proffered tube of tablets.

"Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology."

"Take it," insisted Henry Foster, "take it."

"Stability was practically assured." (3.218-26)

Look at the structuring here – Huxley interweaves Mustapha's description of soma with Bernard's refusal to take it. The ideology of the system is contrasted with the reality of its effects.

Quote #3

"And do remember that a gramme is better than a damn." They went out, laughing. (3.232)

This hypnopaedic saying suggests what John will later confirm: soma replaces all real human emotion.

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