Emotional Roller-coaster (Brave New World-12)

"It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes--make them lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign Good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge. Which was, the Controller reflected, quite possibly true." (Brave New World, page 177)


From the very beginning of this book I had always thought that the people of this different society were almost like robots. They are trained from the very beginning of their life to act and behave a certain way. They didn't seem like individuals because they are all prompted to behave similarly. However, throughout the last few chapters and especially in chapter 12, I have noticed something contrary to my initial thinking. All of these people have emotions. Most of the people deal with their emotions by drowning their sorrows or other feelings in soma.  I guess this is why I never really noticed the emotional state of these beings in previous chapters. They all just sort of deal with their emotions by drugging themselves. However, in this chapter, it became extremely evident that these people are actual people and not just some trained robot. For example, Bernard is "pale, distraught, abject and agitated" and he weeps when his attempt at a party fails miserably. Lenina is an emotional wreck when she is going through the possibilities of whether John may like her or not. Bernard feels jealous of Helmholtz's feeling of happiness and achievement. All of these little emotions further prove how human these people are. They are trained to believe certain things and act a particular way, but in the end they are individuals. They are able to think for themselves. The mind is a powerful thing. I think that if these people were to really use their brains and follow their emotions instead of what they have been trained to believe, their society would be completely different.