“Money doesn't buy happiness.” Throughout history, this concept has been heard time and time again and proven to be true. People may continually purchase material objects, but ultimately those objects can never satisfy a person's innate need for love and connection. When people purchase such items, they make a poor attempt to fill a missing void in their lives. In the 1920s, this ideal began to lose its meaning as society became overwhelmed by consumerism. Shopping became people's favorite pastime, and the ever-expanding consumption of goods began to set the standards of happiness. Aldous Huxley experienced the rise of the sales market and saw the negative influence it had on society when consumerism began to dominate people's lives; consequently, Huxley wrote Brave New World to describe an exaggeration of the world if society continued to participate in mass consumerism. Huxley intended his novel to be a warning to the public about the consequences of consumerism and to ensure that his imagined dystopia did not become reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn his novel, Huxley illustrated an assembly line that, instead of producing automobiles, produces human beings, making “the principle of worldwide mass production” applied to biology” (Huxley 5). Through carrying out the Bokanovsky process on assembly lines, a single egg can “become eight to ninety-six embryos” (Huxley 4). material objects such as Ford Model-T cars. The use of the Ford technique on human reproduction dehumanizes the creation of life and turns it into a mechanical process rather than the personal, intimate experience that it actually is when humans are created and begin life in a callous way, they continue to live similarly, making Brave New World society emotionally stunted. The ability to create multiples of a single genetic being through Ford's assembly line diminishes the value of life immensely. People are perceived as objects in the World State that society can use while they are alive and well functioning; however, when they are no longer used, they are thrown away and simply replaced by another engineered being. In the 1920s, Henry Ford was the major manufacturer in the automobile industry. His invention of the assembly line made it possible to produce thousands of Model-Ts. His ability to continually produce the exact same product quickly and efficiently was what inspired Huxley's version of an assembly line in Brave New World. Through his novel, Huxley described his idea that while technology and consumerism were thriving, the morality of society was declining. In the 1920s, people's priority was to buy new products and contribute to the sales market. As goods were produced frequently, people began to shop incessantly, so much so that it became society's favorite activity. Writer Sharon Beder described the growing desire to shop, as “leisure activity[y]” provided an “escape from real life” (45). As consumerism flourished, it displaced family obligations and friendships, as people chose to shop and live in their consumerist paradise, rather than spend time with family and friends. Sentimentality lost its importance in civilization and materialism took over. 1920s society was wrongly fixated on the assembly line and consumerism, alpoint that Huxley illustrated a world in which the assembly line is the source of human life and consumerism is the foundation of their civilization, to warn people of the risks of consumerism. In Brave New World, after humans are engineered through assembly lines, they undergo conditioning that transforms them into the ideal citizen of the World State. To maintain civilization in a structured way, conditioning is used to keep the public under the command of the world controllers. The children endure electric shocks to learn to “hate the country,” but also to “love all country sports” which require “the use of elaborate apparatus” which require them to consume “manufactured articles as well as transportation” (Huxley 16 ). . Conditioning is a form of manipulation to ensure that people continue to purchase goods and do not care about anything other than consumerism. The conditioning is perceived as justifiable by global controllers, as society would crumble if the cycle of purchasing goods ceased. Since consumerism is practically instilled in citizens from childhood and contributes to the stabilization of society, people do not realize the disadvantages. Therefore, the World Controllers use consumerism as a distraction for the public to ensure that people do not break away from society's norms. Instead of questioning the ethics and fairness of the world state, people are conditioned to focus on consumerism. Corporations and manufacturers have made consumerism an endless cycle. In the 1920s, companies encouraged people to purchase goods, even when they did not have sufficient funds, through credit and installment plans. The “buy now, pay later” concept has allowed people to continuously purchase items without worrying about not being able to pay the full price of the product (“A consumer economy”). With the ability to purchase numerous goods using credit and payment plans, the population continued to increase the amount of money they owed manufacturers. Eventually, people's recklessness caught up with them, as they could no longer repay their goods, and manufacturers began to demand the amount owed. Companies had allowed credit and installment plans to achieve their “goal [of] trapping consumers in the world of consumption” (Spierings and Houtum 902). Companies deceived people by glamorizing credit and payment plans to improve sales of their products. With Brave New World, Huxley described the lack of concern that manufacturers in the 1920s had for consumers and the true intentions of companies behind credit and payment plans. The use of credit and installment plans were forms of manipulation that forced the public to continue purchasing goods. Credit and installment plans were created, not to help shoppers buy more products, but to get shoppers into more debt. People unknowingly fell under the control of manufacturers, all under the false pretense that companies were offering profitable opportunities to consumers. Huxley wanted people to stop wasting their funds by purchasing unnecessary items in the belief that credit and payment plans were useful systems. The use of credit and installment plans created a parasitic cycle, as companies benefited from the nourishment of consumer purchases and consumers suffered because they ultimately ended up with financial problems. Another significant aspect of the World State that helps sustain social order is soma. Since consumerism is essential to the functioning of the World State, the World Controllers use soma to push thepublic to continually purchase goods, ensuring that civilization does not crumble. Soma induces pleasure in its users and ensures that the minds of the public do not drift away from their imagined happy world. With soma, the World Controllers are able to “render [the] population docile” and ensure people's obedience to their conditioning and the norms of society (Hickman 145). Because soma makes people more flexible and instills them “in [a] world of comfort and pleasure,” they mindlessly fulfill the stipulation of shopping because “nothing else matters” (Sawyer 82). People have no doubts about why they shop or whether they need to shop, rather their soma-induced minds make them susceptible to believing that shopping is what they need to do and is the only activity they should be doing, beyond to have sex. The World Controllers manipulate the public through soma as drugs force people to believe that purchasing goods is their purpose in life, but in reality, soma is what allows the World Controllers to control their lives. In the 1920s, advertising, like soma in the World State, drove consumerism. The use of advertising forced people to continue their consumerist lifestyle, as people were constantly exposed to promotions that convinced them to make purchases. Advertising embellished products to influence the public towards purchasing. Through product promotions, “advertisers were no longer simply responding to demand; they were creating demand” (“A Consumer Economy”). Companies used advertising to convince people to continue purchasing useless items. Huxley used soma in Brave New World to describe the effect of advertising on the public in the 1920s, as people continued to purchase goods based on the exaggerated benefits of the products portrayed by the advertising. Manufacturers glamorized their products to get people to buy them, and once people bought their merchandise, they rarely met their advertised expectations. Manufacturers cared less about the price of their product and the product's ability to meet advertised demands, as they were primarily concerned with selling their products. The advertising trial in the 1920s was simply a form of stimulation that Huxley reproduced through soma in Brave New World to show audiences that producers used advertising to manipulate audiences. Through advertising, manufacturers were able to earn significant amounts of money and contribute to the development of the sales market. He wanted people to see the truth behind the embellished claims made in advertisements and to do so he used the influence of soma in Brave New World. Soma is not the only factor driving the purchase of goods in the World State, as the mantra “end is better than mending” substantially aids the growth of consumerism (Huxley 37). Citizens of Brave New World are constantly purchasing new items as they are conditioned to "love having new clothes" (Huxley 37). They discard any item deemed old or even marginally "used" and, instead of attempting to repair it, believe that the best choice is to replace it with a new version People choose to purchase easily repairable products, simply because they believe that a slightly damaged item can no longer function properly and has lost any significant value. Purchasing new products diminishes any possibility of creativity and innovation that might arise with repairing an item and guarantees also that people do not form emotional attachments to their objects. Since old and broken objects are continually discarded, thesociety remains boring and emotionally detached. The principle of “finishing is better than fixing” further drives the consumption of products within the World State, along with the suppression of creativity and deep emotions. Like the World State, the 1920s saw endless production of goods. New products were constantly being created and released. People would buy the “brand new,” “just out” radio with the “best speakers for the clearest audio” in an attempt to have the newest and best item; however, they never actually achieved their goal as another "brand new" and "better" radio would be released the next day. The public's desire for the latest products strengthened consumerism as people continued to purchase item after item “because [it was] the constant production of new desires that define[d] and dr[ove]” consumerism (Spierings and Houtum 902) . Companies continued to create products that they thought were better than before, when in reality there were only minor improvements, in an attempt to increase sales and make more money. Huxley illustrates how unnecessary spending on unnecessary items contributed to the cycle of consumerism and encouraged companies to continue their duplicitous distribution of products. With the concept “finishing is better than mending,” Huxley shows how wasting money on constantly purchasing new items causes harm to no one but the consumers themselves. Therefore, Huxley wanted to convey the message to people in the 1920s that instead of continuing to purchase products that have slight improvements and falling for the manipulation of advertising, people should be content with the items they currently own. , conditioning and soma are used to ensure the lack of identity and individuality among the population. With conditioning, people's mindset is sculpted into that of an ideal citizen of the World State, and with soma, people reject anything that denies their indoctrinated beliefs; as a result, the public is forced not to have thoughts different from those of the World Controllers. When John, an outsider raised in the Wilderness, arrives in the World State, he rebels against the World State's social order. He desires to maintain and develop his identity and chooses not to “want comfort,” but rather desire “God,” “poetry,” “danger,” “freedom,” “goodness,” and “sin” (Huxley 182). He wants to discover more about what the world has to offer and cultivate his mind with ideas outside of those conceived by the Controllers of the World; however, according to the social standards of the World State, by pursuing his aspirations, he “claims the right to be unhappy” (Huxley 182). The loss of the fundamental traits that develop people's identity is believed to be an imperative aspect of maintaining happiness in the World State. The World Controllers' idea of ​​happiness is only achievable if people lose their opinions, their morals and, essentially, their identity. With the growth of consumerism in the 1920s, people lost their individuality and the characteristics that made them unique and began to build their own identity. identities based on consumerism. The objects they purchased determined their social status, how others saw them, and ultimately how they saw themselves. Consumerism led people to “shop for 'identity'” and because identity was turned into a commodity, it could “be purchased by other shoppers to acquire the same status” (Spierings and Houtum 903). Rather than valuing their individuality, people focused on continually purchasing goods to fabricate an image of who they believed they wanted.,)