Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

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• Dystopian Essay

  ...Genre: Close Study of Dystopian Genre The dystopic novel evinces a strong theme common in much science fiction and fantasy fiction, the creation of a future time (usually), when the conditions of human life are exaggeratedly bad due to deprivation, oppression or terror. This created society or ‘dystopia’ frequently constructs apocalyptic views of a future using crime, immorality or corrupt government to create or sustain the bad quality of people’s lives, often conditioning the masses to believe their society is proper and just, and sometimes perfect. It can provide space for heroism in disrupting the dystopian setting. Most dystopian fiction takes place in the future but often purposely develops contemporary social trends taken to extremes. Dystopias are frequently written as commentaries, as warnings or as satires, showing current trends extrapolated to nightmarish conclusions. A brief note on the etymology of ‘Dystopia’ The Oxford English Dictionary reports that the term ‘Dystopia’ was first used in the late 19th century by British philosopher John Stuart Mill. He also used Jeremy Bentham's synonym, ‘cacotopia’. The prefix caco means ‘the worst.’ Both words were created in apposition to utopia, a word coined by Sir Thomas Moore to describing an ideal place or society. DYSTOPIA: definition dys-/dus- (Latin/Greek roots: 'bad' or 'abnormal') + -topos (Greek root: 'place')...

  12520  Words | 39  Pages

• Attack on Utopian Society in Brave New World Essay

  ...Attack on Utopian Society in Brave New World Huxley’s Brave New World is an attack on Utopian Society. Having a perfect society seems ideal since it takes away the pains and struggles of the real world. Things such as finding a loved one, heartbreak, deciding on a career path, being successful, and raising a family. This novel focuses on what the world would be like if it were a utopian society, and the reader can see that it is not as perfect as it seems. It shows how technology and engineering can get to a point where it is too much, and has the ability to control almost every element of society and the human race. Every person is engineered, and born to a certain caste. Each person is “conditioned” so that they only perform certain tasks and have no ability to excel at anything else. A person’s fate is decided for them. The lower castes especially, since these castes perform laborious tasks, they are cloned so the work performed becomes identical to the others. Just as the humans are clones, so are the products they produce. As Marilyn Monroe once said, “imperfection is beauty…” If there are no imperfections to the human race, than what is the beauty of the humans and each individual’s uniqueness? This so-called perfect society is actually the complete opposite. Everything unique about humans is taken away, and people are “manufactured,” not born. Although humans strive for perfection, when one actually gets a taste of...

  1560  Words | 4  Pages

• Utopian vs Distopian Views in the Chrysalids and Animal Farm Essay

  ...Topic: Compare and contrast the main themes in Animal Farm And the Chrysalids showing the Utopian as opposed to the Dystopian Society. In our contemporary civilization, literature plays an important and impacting role in our daily lives. Adapting to the different likes and tastes of modern day society, books and novels have different types and genres, all having in common the objective to please the reader and to convey morals and themes to the audience. In the 20th century were written two novels, The Chrysalids and Animal Farm, which will be compared and contrasted in the following essay, showing utopian and dystopian societies. The comparison between both novels will be done via the contrast and comparison of the themes the authors try to convey to their audience through their literary work. The term “utopia” was first introduce by Sir Thomas More in 1516 who chose it as the title of his book which describes the ideal or perfect society. Ironically, the term was coined from Greek words which, literally translated, mean “no place”. A dystopia (the opposite of utopia) is a fictional society, usually portrayed as existing in a future time, when the conditions of life are extremely bad due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. Both novels have a rich variety of themes, some of which corresponding with each other in both novels such as power and corruption, violence and fear, just to name a few. Power and...

  1452  Words | 4  Pages

• Explore the Role of Religion in Dystopian Fiction with Regards to the Children of Men and Brave New World. Essay

  ...“Religion plays a key role in dystopian fiction.” With reference to The Children of Men and Brave New World, how far do you agree with this statement? Sixty years separate the publication of the dystopias The Children of Men and Brave New World, but both authors express their depictions of a future world in which religion is drastically changed, and not for the better. Religion and spirituality serve a number of purposes in the two novels, most notably to illustrate the difference between our society and their dystopian society, and also to show the importance of faith in overcoming the difficulties which human beings face. The plot of The Children of Men centres around the struggle of a dissident group to help one of their number give birth to a child in a society suffering from mass infertility and a tyrannical leader. The idea of religion features prominently in the novel, and a religious reading of this tale echoes that of the nativity tale and the birth of Christ: that the hope for society is a child born to an unwed mother in a shack, reflecting the birth of Jesus in a stable. The religious elements of this novel are far more prevalent than in Brave New World, but both novels use the changes to the society’s faith as a means of illustrating quite how warped and horrifying the dystopian society is. While religion as we know it is an idea repressed in The Children of Men by the despot warden, Xan Lypiatt,...

  2029  Words | 5  Pages

• Dystopian Societies Essay

  ...Dystopian Societies A dystopian society claims to be perfect in it’s efforts to please the wants and needs of human being, but in reality is corrupted in its selfish actions to control society. In the movie “Aeon Flux”, Mother Nature is killing off human beings and society is enclosed within walls of a futuristic society. Aeon Flux is a lady who works with other rebels in the city to seek the truth behind the government’s true intentions. This is a dystopian society because although it has resolved the worldwide problem of extinction, the government within the society is corrupt and wants complete authority over the people, such as a totalitarian society. When we are first introduced to the city, it looks very efficient and futuristic, much like a utopian society of our ideal future. However, Aeon Flux explicitly tells the audience that innocent people in the society are going missing and she is on a mission to reveal that the government has something to do with this. Thus, this society claims to be utopian, but is actually corrupt and devious. In Aeon Flux’s attempts to enter the government agency, we see that it is protected by many lethal obstacles that Aeon and her partner have to get by in order to get inside the government agency. This implies that the government must be hiding something important, otherwise they would not make such an effort to keep people out. If the society was truly...

  429  Words | 2  Pages

• On Dystopian Societies Essay

  ...On Dystopian Societies A Report on our future world By Jeffrey Clemmons The girl scrambled for food through the thick wall of trash, the smell of mildew crossing her nose. She wore a tattered leather jacket and a pair of old jeans with shoes that people once called Chuck Taylors. She cursed when she didn’t find anything and turned back to her brother who was in the shopping cart looking hopefully at her. She sighed, “Nothing.” Her little brother sighs as well and she begins to push him in the cart again, back into the destroyed and broken streets. All around them the buildings had collapsed, they’d been bombed or quaked. Some had merely just deteriorated and broke down by themselves. An old thing made of tons of metal once called a Chevy sat on the side of the road. They went past it without a second glance, and stared through the crunchy and dead grass on what was once a park. Now there were no trees, dark green water that was more than most likely dirt, and the benches were about to break down just like the buildings. A highway bridge not far away next to a McDonalds was broken in he middle, something like a stuntman trick, only the stuntman was dead. The McDonalds sign wasn’t even buzzing today-the batteries had died a good four years ago with the rest of the world. The girl hadn’t tasted a McDonalds burger in what seemed like forever, maybe it was forever. Maybe it wasn’t. The world had changed so much because of two things: World War III and...

  3290  Words | 9  Pages

• Comparison of how Orwell in 1984 and Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go use failure and futility in human relationships as a theme in their dystopian novels

  ...Comparison of how Orwell in 1984 and Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go use failure and futility in human relationships as a theme in their dystopian novels As humans, we judge ourselves by how others perceive us and seek to conform to a universally accepted code of ethics and laws. It is this inherent value that we possess, a conscience that make us different from animals and it is also what is missing to a large extent in Orwell’s “1984” and Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go”. The futility of relationships in these works is part of what makes the worlds in which they are based seem so bereft of hope and consequently, dystopia in nature. In Orwell’s vision of humanity’s future, the only truly acceptable thing to ‘love’ is Big Brother. The Party restricts all other love so as to break down the ties between family, friends and lovers whilst transferring this loyalty to the Party itself as a form of control. The Party is said to have, “cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and women.” This does not just show the breakdown of relationships, but the reduction of the self. The Party is removing the essential links that allow humanity to be more than a collective of individuals and instead uses this to its own ends, although what these are, beyond a desire for control, we never truly discover. It is partly this lack of knowledge of the Party’s overall goals that makes the situation seem so desperate, it is as though love is being...

  2037  Words | 3  Pages

• dystopian Essay

  ...Krystian Biskup and Meng Yao Liu Mrs. Prinzo English I Honors, Period 9 October 17, 2013 Your Story Title Goes Here 1. What do people in America fear today? 2. Which of the above fears do you want to include in your dystopian story? 3. A dystopian story has a back story: a war,natural disaster or other terrifying event is introduced early on in the story to set the stage. Describe the backstory for your dystopia. 4. You will also need a hero in your story. This protagonist will at some point recognize that there is something wrong with society and risk her or her life to do whatever he or she can to improve it. Describe your hero. Give him or her a name; indicate what he or she does for a profession; What is his or her concern with society?; What will he or she do to save society from itself? 5. Describe the government in your dystopia. What kind of government exists; who is in charge? 6. List 5 rules dictated by the government that it expects citizens to follow. 7. Describe the average citizens in your dystopia. What do they wear?; Describe their appearance; What do they do for a living?; Do they have children?; How do they behave on a daily basis?; What do they do for fun?; How do they respond to the government? 8. What happens to citizens who do not obey the government? 9. Describe the setting of your story. What does the place look like where your citizens live? What do the buildings, homes, cars, etc. look...

  406  Words | 2  Pages