Symbol

"'I'd rather be myself,' he said. 'Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly.'" (89)

Bernard refuses the Soma because he doesn't want to become a mindless pawn living solely to benefit society. Where others valued themselves as tools to help production increase, bernard cares more about himself. So, he chooses to stay in control of his emotions, instead of being controlled by his emotions. This society needs that control over its member to be successful. If the people thought for themselves, even with years of conditioning, they could unravel quickly. One stressful day (or as stressful as this community allows) could uncondition a whole unit of hynopeadia. Soma tears away these complex thoughts that may enter a persons mind, leaving only a pleasurable "holiday" in its place. For example, if some one in society that followed conditioning through out his childhood one day stars to pounder the complexities of parenthood, or what little he knows about the subject, he might question, if only just for a moment, the necessity of breeding seventy-two children at a time. This one thought could possibly lead to other questions on the subject or about history and how the world around him works. These questions would be dangerous for society as whole, and Soma suppresses them. This is because the people of society are conditioned to, instead of thinking through these complexities, forget about them completely and take a vacation from their mind.