Soan Papdi in Brave New World

In both Huxley's Brave New World and Island, the use of psychedelic drugs are integral parts of the World State and Pala. In the World State, soma is the main drug that is used, and it is primarily used to forget about any unpleasant feeling that one may have. This can be seen when Bernard and Lenina are conversing, and Bernard begins to open up about his rebellious feeling of the society. Lenina, on the other hand, feels very uncomfortable with the discussion and at the end, offers Bernard some soma, telling him, "why don't you take soma when you have those dreadful ideas of yours. You'd forget all about them" (Huxley 92). The excessive use of soma in the World State is a sign of peoples' lack of genuine happiness and instability with the World State. On the other hand, moksha-medicine is the drug used on the island, Pala. Unlike soma, moksha-medicine is not a way for one to forget about the suffering that one is facing, but rather to get a better understanding of those sufferings and the world around to be able to accept those sufferings and move past them to find genuine happiness. This concept can be seen through a conversation between Dr. RObert and Will Farnaby, when Dr. Robert says that moksha-medicine reveals to you about "this strange world you've got to live in, learn in, suffer in, and finally die in" (Huxley 170). This use of moksha-medicine reflects the deep understanding, stability, and genuine happiness that the people on Pala have. 

The food item that I brought in was Soan Papdi. Soan Papdi is a very popular Indian sweet, and it is supposed to represent soma. This Indian sweet can be described as being very sweet. This relates to the function of soma based on the fact that it helps you forget about the problems that you face in the world, and it helps you live in a "sweet" made-up fantasy. Although, Soan Papdi does not cause any hallucinations or other drug-like effects that soma does, it creates an ephemeral happiness similar to soma. While eating the Soan Papdi, it may be very delicious and sweet, but right after it is finished, the sweetness is gone. The function of soma is very similar. It is a way to escape your problems, but this escape is also a temporary fix to the problem. Once you are back from your soma "holiday" the unhappiness that you have had return and are never solved. The temporary "sweetness" of soma was represented through the Indian sweet, Soan Papdi. 

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Prose Close Reading Chart #1

Prose Close Reading Passage Essay #1

"But it's horrible," said Lenina, shrinking back from the window. She was appalled by the rushing emptiness of the night, by the black foam-flecked water heaving beneath them, by the pale face of the moon, so haggard and distracted among the hastening clouds. "Let's turn on the radio. Quick!" She reached for the dialling knob on the dash-board and turned it at random.

"… skies are blue inside of you," sang sixteen tremoloing falsettos, "the weather's always …"

Then a hiccough and silence. Bernard had switched off the current.

"I want to look at the sea in peace," he said. "One can't even look with that beastly noise going on."

"But it's lovely. And I don't want to look."

"But I do," he insisted. "It makes me feel as though …" he hesitated, searching for words with which to express himself, "as though I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body. Doesn't it make you feel like that, Lenina?"

But Lenina was crying. "It's horrible, it's horrible," she kept repeating. "And how can you talk like that about not wanting to be a part of the social body? After all, every one works for every one else. We can't do without any one. Even Epsilons …"

"Yes, I know," said Bernard derisively. "'Even Epsilons are useful'! So am I. And I damned well wish I weren't!"

Lenina was shocked by his blasphemy. "Bernard!" She protested in a voice of amazed distress. "How can you?"

In a different key, "How can I?" he repeated meditatively. "No, the real problem is: How is it that I can't, or rather–because, after all, I know quite well why I can't–what would it be like if I could, if I were free–not enslaved by my conditioning."

"But, Bernard, you're saying the most awful things."

"Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?"

"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."

He laughed, "Yes, 'Everybody's happy nowadays.' We begin giving the children that at five. But wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else's way."

"I don't know what you mean," she repeated. Then, turning to him, "Oh, do let's go back, Bernard," she besought; "I do so hate it here."

"Don't you like being with me?"

"But of course, Bernard. It's this horrible place."

"I thought we'd be more … more together here–with nothing but the sea and moon. More together than in that crowd, or even in my rooms. Don't you understand that?"

"I don't understand anything," she said with decision, determined to preserve her incomprehension intact. "Nothing. Least of all," she continued in another tone "why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You'd forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you'd be jolly. So jolly," she repeated and smiled, for all the puzzled anxiety in her eyes, with what was meant to be an inviting and voluptuous cajolery.

He looked at her in silence, his face unresponsive and very grave–looked at her intently. After a few seconds Lenina's eyes flinched away; she uttered a nervous little laugh, tried to think of something to say and couldn't. The silence prolonged itself.

Prose Close Reading Chart #2

Prose Close Reading Passage Essay #2

Poetry Close Reading Chart #1

Poetry Close Reading Essay #1

Utopia

Island where all becomes clear.
Solid ground beneath your feet.

The only roads are those that offer access.

Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.

The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here
with branches disentangled since time immermorial.

The Tree of Understanding, dazzling staight and simple.
sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.

The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista:
the Valley of Obviously.

If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.

Echoes stir unsummoned
and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.

On the right a cave where Meaning lies.

On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction.
Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.

Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley.
Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.

For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,
and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches
turn without exception to the sea.

As if all you can do here is leave
and plunge, never to return, into the depths.

Into unfathomable life.

Wislawa Szymborska 

Poetry Close Reading Chart #2

Poetry Close Reading Essay #2

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
    Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,
    Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise?
    Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jeweled skies,
    Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast though not dragged Diana from her car?
    And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
    Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
    The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

Prose Multiple Choice Question - Brave New World

Poetry Multiple Choice Questions - "Sonnet - To Science" by Edgar Allen Poe

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