Whether it is due to conditioning or the firm belief that happiness can only be found by avoiding the truth, the characters in the novel do everything they can to avoid discouraging situations. For example, when Lenina and Bernard are visiting the reserve, and Lenina becomes frightened of the unknown and seemingly barbaric scenes and rituals in the village, she "feels someone's pocket only to discover that, by an unprecedented oversight," she had no bottle and “was left to face the horrors of Malpais without help” (Huxley 74). Soma is a drug used in the novel as a repercussion-free way to escape reality or deal with it more easily. Soma is used to “calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering” (Huxley 162). The characters in the novel often take soma vacations during which they are away from reality for several days at a time: "And if ever, by some unfortunate chance, something unpleasant should happen, well, there's always soma to give you a vacation come on facts" (Huxley 162). Somas are used when denial or protection from the truth by the Controllers is ineffective or