Brave New World Drugs and Alcohol Quotes

How we cite our 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 alcoholbut 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 hereHuxley 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.