Dystopian Literature Essay Example
The Power of Dystopian Literature is in its Ability to Warn
A dystopian novel holds the power to not only engage a reader in a fantasy world, where life is vastly different from our own, but to speculate as to the reality of this future for mankind. Dystopian literature is first and foremost a warning designed by an author, built from issues of the present. Some of the most famous novels of all time are from a dystopian viewpoint; take War of the Worlds by H.G Wells for example. The texts I have examined are The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The power and impact on the reader on these text lies within its dystopian setting and therefore its ability to warn for the future, but are these predictions believable, and if so, do people really take these words of warning into account?
Dystopian literature is built off the issues surrounding society at the present, and is a creative exploration of the possible consequences for the future. A dystopia is not a happy future for all, and authors use this setting as a warning that there is bad to come if something does not change. Atwood describes The Handmaids Tale as “speculative fiction”, meaning what she warns is what could happen if society remains aloof to what is happening in the world. Dystopian literature can often become a reflection of the current society, exemplified. An example of this from Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaids Tale, written in the 1980’s when feminism was a peak issue of society. Atwood predicts women of the next generation would forget the feminist fight and struggles for equality, expecting rather than demanding equality. Atwood’s dystopia explores the idea that this would leave the next generation open to a slipping of women’s rights and subdued willingness to fight for these rights, ultimately leaving women defenceless and yet again of a lower social status than that held by men. The fact that an issue at the forefront of people’s minds in the 1980’s
A dystopian novel holds the power to not only engage a reader in a fantasy world, where life is vastly different from our own, but to speculate as to the reality of this future for mankind. Dystopian literature is first and foremost a warning designed by an author, built from issues of the present. Some of the most famous novels of all time are from a dystopian viewpoint; take War of the Worlds by H.G Wells for example. The texts I have examined are The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The power and impact on the reader on these text lies within its dystopian setting and therefore its ability to warn for the future, but are these predictions believable, and if so, do people really take these words of warning into account?
Dystopian literature is built off the issues surrounding society at the present, and is a creative exploration of the possible consequences for the future. A dystopia is not a happy future for all, and authors use this setting as a warning that there is bad to come if something does not change. Atwood describes The Handmaids Tale as “speculative fiction”, meaning what she warns is what could happen if society remains aloof to what is happening in the world. Dystopian literature can often become a reflection of the current society, exemplified. An example of this from Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaids Tale, written in the 1980’s when feminism was a peak issue of society. Atwood predicts women of the next generation would forget the feminist fight and struggles for equality, expecting rather than demanding equality. Atwood’s dystopia explores the idea that this would leave the next generation open to a slipping of women’s rights and subdued willingness to fight for these rights, ultimately leaving women defenceless and yet again of a lower social status than that held by men. The fact that an issue at the forefront of people’s minds in the 1980’s