...Dystopia Dystopia is often a society set in the future that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the control of some form of government but not always. A dystopian society can also be a planned structured society in which the conditions of life are deliberately made miserable. Some examples of these can be characterized by poverty, oppression, violence, disease, scarcity, and/or pollution for the benefit of a select minority or some unnatural societal goal. I am going to discuss how the short story “The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson and the film Demolition Man directed by Marco Brambilla exhibits dystopian. In the short story “They Lottery” the author makes a society where the town people are willing to kill each other in order to preserve a their idea of balance and success. The town in "The Lottery,” have employed what they sees as the fairest way to continue this ancient tradition. “The Lottery” is a story of misguidance and ultimate horror. The way the plot is structured takes the audience from one extreme (a very sunny, happy day) to another (a ghastly murder). The town is described as a simple and beautiful one, with children running and playing, happy to be out of school for the summer. The reader is led to believe that everything is perfect and the community is gathering for a raffle of some kind. After all, the story’s title is “The Lottery”. Lotteries have a positive connotation in most peoples’ mind. Lotteries are usually grouped...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...Youth in Dystopia (DRAFT) Christopher Lewis Chapman University May 21, 2014 Vadeboncoeur (2005) criticizes the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and explains that youth are always defined as being in the process of becoming an adult. But what happens if this question is no long applicable or even necessary? Dystopian novels remove this illusion of choice. In each of the novels I will address, all teenagers attend or participate in a ceremony whereby they transition from young adult to adult. The first series I will address is Scott Westerfield’s Uglies series, where youth undergo plastic surgery as their rite of passage. Maturation and growing up require endure body modifications to create same-ness and the perfectly pretty white race. Second, I will analyze Ally Condie’s Matched series, where social order to determined by sorters who decide vocation and spouses. All teenagers attend a ceremony where a person’s perfect match is determined by a computer program. Lastly, I will use Veronica Roth’s Divergent series to explore how the world is constructed by personality type. Youth choose to participate in factions that are determined by a psychological examination that detects a youth’s instinctual predilections when facing their fears. As readers begin to figure out the rules to this new society, they are challenged to make comparisons to their own world. We are forced to wonder whether or not, as educators, we reinforce stereotypical...
Words: 3808 - Pages: 16
...The unforeseen future can hold a drastic change of lifestyle, different from what it is today. The authors of the stories criticize our present social system, by displaying a satirized dystopian future of society, in which the world is led by corporatism and has lost control of themselves as well as the ability to think and instead are governed by a higher form of power, having become controlled sheep. The dystopian possibilities shown in the stories aren’t that far out of reach. Many of the dystopian elements can be scene in today’s society but on a smaller scale. As time progresses our civilization can itself become incorporated in a reality that was once the plot of fictitious stories. The classic cult movie “They Live” by John carpenter exploits corporatism that is seen in a large scale in today’s society. The movie revolves around Nada, a happy go lucky wandering construction worker, who stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that are capable of showing the world’s true nature. Through his sunglasses he can see hidden subliminal messages throughout the city that are projected by advertisements and mass media. He only sees the core of their message and only the reason why they exist. No matter where Nada looks, or at whichever magazine he flips open he can see the same subliminal messages, which can also be seen on money. The memos contain messages such as: “obey," “consume," “buy," “work, sleep, play” and are meant to restrain and control the population. Nada also discovers...
Words: 1290 - Pages: 6
...Two Dystopias “Harrison Bergeron” (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and “The Ones who walk away from Omelas” (2001) by Ursula Leguin are both short stories set in dystopic worlds. In “Harrison Bergeron”, everyone has been made equal. In order to achieve this, anyone who is more intelligent, beautiful, and athletic than others must wear a handicap in order to meet the government’s standards of what they considered to be “average”. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” the characters live in a world where everybody is happy although living their everyday life with the knowledge of one injustice. This one injustice is that the people of Omelas are aware of a child who is living in a locked cellar with poor conditions, who is malnourished and neglected. The citizens in Harrison’s world are suffering from a life with harsh restriction and do not have the freedom to live life as they want to. The life of the citizens in both stories are unaccepted; however, the world portrayed in “Harrison Bergeron” is more intolerable. In both worlds there are people who are suffering. Most of the habitants of Omelas are living a joyous life but at the expense of one child’s misery; they are aware of the living conditions of the child, yet they choose to live their lives normally. Others who were unable to stand to live with this guilt decided to leave the city. The world described in “Harrison Bergeron”, those who were seen as higher than average has to wear a handicap. For instance, if...
Words: 885 - Pages: 4
...The society that portrays in Kurt Vonnegan’s “Harrison Bergeron” is both a utopia and a dystopia. “Harrison Bergeron” is a utopia and dystopia because all the characters are equal, but it seems asperous and impetuous kkby having handicaps to force equality. Diana Moon Glampers also kills two people, which is not perfect. What makes it a utopia is that they are all equal, so no such thing as bullying. The handicaps make it harmful to the people who have to wear them, but for the people who don’t have to wear believe that the handicaps are just to help them. “All this equality was due to...amendments to the constitution,”(page 69), meaning they thought it would help since it was in the constitution. “Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter...
Words: 431 - Pages: 2
...In Ayn Rand’s Anthem, mankind destroys all traces of their materialistic and individualistic past to form a utopia. This so-called utopia is actually more of a dystopian society. Dystopias are defined as an imagined place that is usually totalitarianistic and environmentally degraded. Anthem’s society is one of these societies, due to the tyrannical leadership, lack of technological advancements, the indoctrination of people, beginning at birth, and the loss of individualism. The tyrannical leadership is shown through the ruthless enforcement of unreasonable laws. People were “burned alive in the square of the City” (Rand 49), and theft was punishable by “ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention” (Rand 18). Technology was also severely...
Words: 264 - Pages: 2
..."no-place", and...in standard usage, the word's meaning has narrowed and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society." Dystopia, on the other hand, is the direct opposite of utopia, and is used to describe a utopian society after things have gone diminished. The future based short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is based on a 'utopian society' where the world is living up to the idea of America’s fourteenth amendment in which everyone is created equal. The gifted, strong, intelligent, and beautiful are forced to wear handicaps of either earphones, heavy weights, or hideous...
Words: 1300 - Pages: 6
...How does a society go from being a utopia, to a dystopia, what is a utopia??. In George Orwell’s novella, Animal Farm, the farm animals are restricted and mistreated. They have an overseer named Mr. Jones who is not only a drunk, but is slowly losing his ability to take care of Manor Farm. Gradually the animals are moving toward the idea of revolution against their dictator. Lois Lowry once said, “The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. Is a life without colour, pain or past.” This quote can be interpreted as a life without problems, surprises or consequences, is a life with no originality or vitality. George Orwell uses a large variety of literary elements such as, symbols, dramatic irony and conflict...
Words: 1074 - Pages: 5
...(0) Imagine a world where no one can have individuality, each person must be identical in personality to the next. If one thinks for themselves, they are outcasted, burned and thrown away along with whatever taught them. (1) The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is a perfect example of a world like this, a dystopia, and it has many elements that show it. (2) First, the antagonist in the novel, the government, has control and will do anything to keep it. (2) Next but foremost, technology is used in many unpleasant ways throughout the novel. (1) Bradbury’s novel is a dystopian work of art and the elements in it play a huge role throughout the story. (1) Despite the fact that Montag faced many adversaries throughout the novel, the mastermind behind it all is the government as it tries to keep control. (2) The first way the government tries to keep control is by killing off those that do not conform. (3) For instance, when Beatty comes over and Montag asks about Clarisse, Beatty states “The poor girl’s better off dead...queer ones like her don’t happen often.” (Bradbury 60). (4) To clarify, Beatty means that Clarisse was too much of an individual and she would not fit in so killing her was acceptable. (2) To further my point, the government in this world alters what is taught about history to make their actions seem normal so the...
Words: 687 - Pages: 3
...The word utopia, first created and used by author Thomas More during the Renaissance, is derived from ancient Greek meaning nothing or nowhere. Even though utopias ultimately shouldn’t exist, in the 1700’s many different philosophers tried to set up real-life utopias (Dunn 1) and even before that, people wrote about the concept of utopian societies as if they were real. After reading multiple dystopian articles, short stories and even a book, it is easy to see that the concept of a utopia is one that ultimately cannot exist and that utopias ultimately perish and turn into a dystopia. All of the stories mentioned in this essay share one theme: the government plays a role in what they do, what occupation they have, who they interact with, and...
Words: 741 - Pages: 3
...A dystopia is an anti-paradise usually with a totalitarian government controlling it. A dystopian novel is often a futuristic society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state. Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist who wrote Anthem during World War 2. Ayn Rand’s Anthem is an example of a dystopian novel based on the society worshipping the council, independent thought, free speech and the ability to retain any knowledge they wanted is restricted and the Unmentionable times being banished and forgotten. The first reason showing that Anthem is a dystopian novel is that the society worships the Council of Scholars. The Council makes the rules and disciplines the people who do not follow the rules. One of the Council’s...
Words: 527 - Pages: 3
...The history of utopian literature began with religious tales of past golden ages or future paradises, such as the Genesis story of the world creation and the Garden of Eden. While both myths demonstrate the characteristic of utopia and dystopia The Genesis account moreover demonstrates the necessity of a system of rules for stability. Therefore, when people talking about utopia, the synonymous word perfection would come up to their mind. So, a utopian society is an ideally formed society which has perfect political and social order, just like a paradise. The citizens in this kind of society would definitely have the most enjoyable life we all dream about, that there are no wars, diseases, discrimination, and inequity. According to my previous...
Words: 322 - Pages: 2
...Topic: In both The Giver and The Chrysalids, the communities strive to create utopias in their own ways. Discuss how memories are forgotten and/or emphasized to achieve this. In the novels The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and The Giver by Lois Lowry, both authors illustrate how, when communities emphasize or forget memories from the past, it will result in a dystopia. Further, it will also affect our future generations and the way people choose to live. In the Waknuk community of The Chrysalids, memories are recalled, emphasized, and then used to threaten and control the society. The leaders rule the community using fear as a weapon, forcing the people to believe what they want them to believe. The Waknuk community’s idea of a utopia is to have the people obey the rules, and to live under the will of God. A citizen of another community criticized the Old People, “If they had not brought down Tribulation which all but destroyed them” (Wyndham 157). The memory of Tribulation is constantly discussed, repeated and emphasized throughout the novel. The community believes that if they break the laws and rules of The Bible and Nicholson’s Repentances, their two only and sacred books, they will be faced with consequences like how the “Old People” of the past did. Tribulation is believed to be a period of time where the people of earth made too many mistakes, broke too many rules, that angered God, causing Him to destroy all of earth to give people a chance to start a new...
Words: 1036 - Pages: 5
...Dystopia – Divergent At the age of 16, the children have to take a psychological test, which indicates their best-suited faction. Later on, they’re allowed to choose any faction as their permanent group at the Choosing Ceremony. Is this our future community? And is this the best way to control the population? “Divergent” is a movie where people are divided into distinct factions based on their human virtues. This dystopia is a disguise of their problems of the future and it only gets worst. It may take places in the future but it seems like something that could happen in out time. We’re not too close to what is happing in “Divergent”. We’re slowly becoming a society who is divided into certain groups. Rich, poor, in-between people who don’t really know have to put themselves. But will the world like “Divergent” help the population or make even worse? In some way, it could really help people who don’t know what to do with their life, and here would a test really help them and guide them into a life that fits perfectly for you. But on the other hand, it could really end with a totally mess and totally chaos. If people don’t fit into the test and there come a difference result than expected, the government could take all the people that didn’t make it in the test, like they should do, and kill them. Only because they didn’t fit in the society that they created. It would make them question the government and it would in a revolution only because it would frustrate the...
Words: 617 - Pages: 3
...Because of this, the settlers were forced to adapt to the difficulty of the dystopia. Ultimately, the New World was a combination of both utopian and dystopian qualities. There is a major contrast between utopias and dystopias. Each is characterized by opposite qualities, making the two entirely different. While a utopia is considered to be a perfect world that is void of conflict, a dystopia is regarded as an imperfect world that is full of difficulty. Although these definitions appear to be rather definitive, the New World shows a correlation to both. However, it is clear that the New World has more correspondence to a dystopia than to a utopia. The New World presents several utopian qualities. A utopia is characterized by a peaceful, safe environment, abundant with opportunity. Utopias are generally considered to be perfect. Ideally, a utopia would be free of any conflict, poverty or disease. The New World offered the settlers a chance at a new life. They viewed it as a land full of knowledge and undiscovered resources. In Christopher Columbus’ Letter, he affirms that the beautiful land is perfect for planting and sowing, as well as building towns and villages (Belasco 82). Everyone was treated equally and they worked together to grow as a community. These are all characteristics of a utopia. Although the New World consists of many utopian attributes, a larger majority of them are dystopian. A dystopia is a place full of difficulty and hardships. It is unorganized, chaotic...
Words: 594 - Pages: 3
