How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #16
"What's in those" (remembering The Merchant of Venice) "those caskets?" the Savage enquired when Bernard had rejoined him.
"The day's soma ration," Bernard answered rather indistinctly; for he was masticating a piece of Benito Hoover's chewing-gum. "They get it after their work's over. Four half-gramme tablets. Six on Saturdays." (11.75-6)
We see the same thing here; the gum that Bernard is chewing made its first appearance in Chapter 3, when Benito was offering it to a disgruntled (and very different) Bernard.
Quote #17
Drying her eyes, Lenina walked across the roof to the lift. On her way down to the twenty-seventh floor she pulled out her soma bottle. One gramme, she decided, would not be enough; hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction. But if she took two grammes, she ran the risk of not waking up in time to-morrow morning. She compromised and, into her cupped left palm, shook out three half-gramme tablets. (11.116)
On the issue of suffering, Lenina is the opposite of John. She takes soma to avoid suffering, while John purposefully seeks out suffering as a fundamental part of the human experience.
Quote #18
Punctured, utterly deflated, he dropped into a chair and, covering his face with his hands, began to weep. A few minutes later, however, he thought better of it and took four tablets of soma.
Upstairs in his room the Savage was reading Romeo and Juliet. (12.36-7)
Now Bernard explicitly joins the same camp, hiding from suffering by using drugs.