Preview

Dystopia

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
797 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dystopia
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 with things such as money or winning of some sort.

The community don’t seem to be looking out for its own people or think this could be a unrealistic tradition. The townspeople in “The Lottery” never give so much as a “sorry but we’re super crowded” excuse as to why the drawing is held or how it ever got started; the townspeople participate voluntarily and without any need for a reason. They go about their day as if they the stoning never happened. I would say this is the best example



Cited: Johnson, Michael. "Dystopian Nightmares." Expert Advice & Forums on Health, Home Improvement, Finance & More. 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. <http://factoidz.com/dystopian-nightmares/>. "Dystopia." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 2009. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia>.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “The Lottery” paints a bleak picture of a town blindly following a tradition of ritual murder. Over time, details and paraphernalia of the original lottery were either lost or abandoned, but the town continued to hold to the yearly ritual of stoning an innocent person. It is unclear why the lottery was instituted, but it is clear that many fear giving it up. “Nothing but trouble in that” (Jackson), was Old Man Warner’s response to the idea. In the end, an innocent woman is stoned to death howling, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson).…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Lottery” begins with the gathering of families—men, women, and children. It seems all innocent initially with the children playing and collecting stones, husbands and wives standing together; all waiting on the drawing of the lottery. This tradition had been followed for years, there was even one character Old Man Warner who criticized other towns for doing away with the lottery. The lottery was a drawing that leads to the persecution of the individual holding the slip with the black dot. One of…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery is a short story written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, yet still, leaves a mark on any person who gets their hands on it today. The story starts out by setting an enjoyable atmosphere at the beginning of summer. The community gathers and the story almost fulfills the reader’s idea of a perfect town activity. However, the story has a sharp twist at the end that leaves the reader in shock. Jackson wrote the story to leave an impact and whom how quickly human nature can change. Shirley Jackson shows the duality of human nature in the characters of the children, Tessie Hutchinson, and Mr. Summers.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is not what you think it is. A lottery typically, is something you would want to win. In Jackson’s story, it is quite the opposite. You wouldn’t think anything was wrong at the beginning of the story. It takes place in a small village. Everyone seems to be excited about the lottery, because everyone is present for the lottery. All the characters in the story seem to get along well. Everyone in the town gathers for the lottery. All the children are gathering rocks. This rock collecting didn’t seem to make sense until later. The lottery takes place by having each man or head of household draw a piece of paper out of a black box. The man that draws the black dot then has to have their family members…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Lottery

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “The Lottery” is about a village that came together on June 27th for the lottery. The lottery is a gathering of all the families that stay in a village that resulted in one individual getting stoned to death. “The Lottery” has many themes. Looking at “The Lottery” the black box and stones, rules and families’ bond, and characters in it explained how their symbolism transformed the story from a random collection of events to a story about people’s willingness to sacrifice other people to follow traditions that no one know the meaning to.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utopia Dystopia

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Utopia has proven to have more relevance than the concepts addressed infamous ideologies such as communism and liberalism (heylighen pp 2). In the past, the concept of Utopia has faced criticism that suggested the ideas of Utopia are unrealistic. It has been argued that the Utopia failed to apply to important aspects of the society. Development in the study of human behavior such as in psychology has proven to have the ability to answer these complex social systems (More). The modern development has played a major role for revisiting the ideologies suggested by Utopia. Despite the fact that Utopia was disregarded in the past, its ideas have slowly started showing up in the modern social systems. Utopia is a manifesting in technology,…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jokes and idle conversation is made just as the ceremony begins, making The Lottery seem run-of-the-mill, a chore. That is when the horror began. The annual slaying of a human being was turned into a chore for these people, that disgusted me, filled me with a rampant sense of injustice. Life is not valued in that society, it can’t be if they disregard it so readily. Familial love must be tamped down, stifled, in order for people to partake in the murder of their loved…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dystopian Society

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A world composed of dystopian elements, hope and dreams are shattered, bashed by the greater power of the antagonist. Such a place of melancholy is unheard of in the society of today because the human race has been fortunate as to steered off from making those bad, negative decisions. Americans live head up high, carefree of the problems of 3rd world nations and arrogant when it comes to the topic of superiority all because of how spoiled they have gotten throughout the ages. They live such an easy, simplistic lifestyle. But in the tales of both Wall-E and Fahrenheit 451, ignorance and oppression has seized their once brilliant world. Human misery has been engraved into each of their members starting at birth and everything has turned into a test of brute force with only the strong surviving. It is a "dog eat dog world." Even though they both face misery and limitations, many elements between these two worlds are different. Those being how their societies are treated by their head leaders and many others.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, is a compelling story about the human race and how it is affected by its surrounding traditions. When the 27th of June arrives, a village is overtaken by a two hour lottery, which includes the picking of stones, a black box and ends in a fight for the “winners” life.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a very surprising story to say the least and gives an overview in the beginning of a small American town of three hundred people that have an annual ritual called “the lottery.” There are significant parts of the story that adumbrate the end of the story and leave the reader in a muddle until the end. First off, in the beginning of the story, the children of the town have just finished school…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dystopia

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Short stories such as "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson typically follows a dystopian society. The author first introduces the story to be a utopian community where she describes the day as "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (Para. 1)." This entices our feeling of comfort and invites us to see what this day is all about, not knowing of what might happen in the end. The fact that Jackson first introduces us into such a calming scenery but ends it in such a misery, dehumanizes the mindset that such a "perfect" community can hide such monstrous activity. Dehumanization is a great deal in this short story where the villagers are blindly following the tradition of stoning the lottery 's winner to death and treating the event like a festivity. Dehumanization is also seen through the villager 's actions such as: "The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quite. wetting their lips. not looking around (Para. 20)." Jackson creates this sense that these villagers have done it so many times that they don 't even care anymore and just what this lottery to be over with, so that they can go back to their daily lives. The villagers were describe as quite because they don 't want to make the lottery any longer than it is already and it can also be taken up…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, the story exposes the cruelty of humans nature; thus, the injustice of society . In the short story, it says “‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” This shows that they knew that it was wrong, yet they did it anyway. The lottery ritual was very ancient in their village, so they did not want to change. Their complacency during the stoning of their friend reveals the darkness in the village; nevertheless, the darkness in human society.…

    • 95 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After my extensive reading the information about “Lottery”, I finally can make an analysis and appreciation of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Lottery”. The former is Ursula le Guin’s allegory about a Utopian society in which the whole town’s happiness is based on sacrificing one child’s happiness. The latter is a short story about drawing lots; ironically, the winner is also the loser who will be stoned to death.…

    • 827 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Metropolis and Dystopia

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dystopia - dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, and various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual evolution. (Definitions from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki)…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays