Comp Lit And Dystopian Films
Comp Lit/ Dystopian Films
Self-Identity Found Within the Masses ideas of how society could or should be have been around forever. Some of the ideas created to show the evolution of a humanistic society choose to show them as dystopias or utopias, in which society is meant to be perfect or functional in every way. In many of these representations of dystopian/utopian future societies there are troubles with personal identity and a person’s confusion in a world of logic and the lack of reason love invokes within. A common theme that occurs is a controlled society where either freedom is abolished and everything is reliant on technology or logic or genetics determine a human’s quality of life. All of these ideas have the similarity of a …show more content…
hero that is struggling with their identity within such controlled societies. Within the movie THX 1138 by George Lucas and the book We by Zamyatin society has little to no freedom or privacy and everything is acted out and timed in a logical way. THX 1138 shows people almost as cogs in a machine similar to the functionality of society in Metropolis, the society thrives on the work of people. The people in George Lucas’s society work day in and day out sedated from any strong feelings that could distract them from their work. This is so in We as well, everyone in the community does their part, they do as they are told and are where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there. Both of these societies have the common factor of theology as a motivator. In THX 1138 religion is used to reinforce the way of life. The deity used is OMM 0910 this figure is an automated voice that comes from a booth. It is made to “listen” to people. The automated voice repeats the same words at the end of every session, “You are a true believer, blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy.” This is used to make the people feel as an important unit in the community. OMM invokes a sense of duty and belonging that is needed in order to keep people thinking that they are happy and doing what OMM needs of them. Although theology also plays a role in We it is used in a different context. Theology, God, specifically is what is used to show people what was once wrong with humanistic society. God created man and then gave man freedom, which is something that is no longer within the human community. Freedom is not the key to happiness, control is. This way of thinking is what helps those within Zamyatin’s world stay true to their society. They are told that freedom is bad and is full of unhappiness; this is what makes them think that they must be living the most ideal way of life a life of no hard decisions or confusion. Everything is controlled and therefore perfect. There are ideas that we are conditioned to think as we grow up, things that we know are right and things that we know are wrong.
It is something that is not often questioned or strayed from. Although in present society we realize that things are far from perfect the masses tend to stick closely to the most basic rules of life, this is the same in any society. We become so complacent and used to the way we live we often do not stray from the status quo of our own societies. This is evident in almost all ways of life. A common factor in most dystopian works however, is the perfection that is believed to be so evident in life. What is very prominent in the majority of the films or books we have read is the realization of imperfection which leads to questioning, escape, or a character’s confusion within said “perfect” now imperfect society. These characters become outsiders because they start to see the flaws within their “perfect” lives. This is evident in Metropolis, We, Gattaca, The Machine Stops, THX 1138, and A Brave New World. All of these have a character who realizes the fault within their own societies. A large number of these realizations started because of foreign feelings such as love, jealousy, loneliness, etc. The common factor is feelings in a life where there are little to no humanistic qualms. The feelings that cause Freder, from Metropolis, to stray from his decadent lifestyle is love. He sees Maria, who is unlike the dazzling woman that are handed to him in …show more content…
the pleasure gardens. She is surrounded by children and is dressed simply. He sees her and tries to find her underground where the lower class men work on the machine. By this turn of events Freder discovers the hardships of those who keep his dazzling city afloat. His change of heart starts from an emotion that he has never felt before, love and empathy. This new found sense of self is what pushes him to start trying to change the way of life of Metropolis. In THX 1138 the main character who is the movies namesake feels new emotions because his roommate, LUH, gives his placebos instead of his sedatives. When off the sedatives he starts to feel things that were always watered down by pills. He feels sexual desire, love, and unhappiness. All of these confusing emotions send him into a spiral of events that end up with his eventual escape and his first glimpse of the sun and the outside world. In the Machine Stops by E.M Forster the main character worships the machine because it gives her everything she will ever need, she never needs to leave her area, or want for anything. She loves the machine more than her own son. Her son has different ideas of living a life run by the machine and wishes to step foot on earth. He has feelings that many other people who live in such a society rarely have , a want for more than what the machine can give. He has the very human need for space and fresh air. His forbidden feelings are what drives him to break the rules of the machine and head to surface. The sense of confusion of right and wrong and what is expected of a person in such an extreme society is evident in We by Zamyatin. D-503 is a normal person living in a freedomless society that is caught between what he is taught is right and what he thinks is right. This confusion causes him to do things that change the society as a whole. He meets I-330 who smokes, drinks, and flirts. He later finds out that she is part of an organization called the MEPHI who want to bring down the green wall and combine the United State with the outside. D-503’s involvement with the MEPHI and his want to help his lover O-90 have a child, start a string of events that eventually ends with him lobotomized. Gattaca and Brave New World have similar societies in which genetics are what makes one’s social standing in life. In Gattaca the main character Vincent is a natural born and therefore is seen as someone who is only qualified to clean toilets. He desires the life of those who are given the gift of genetic fabrication. His need to live a better life drives him to take the identity of another and pretend he is a genetic master piece. His human need to be better than what is said he is, drives him to do what is seen as unthinkable in such a society. In Brave New World the character of John the savage is what shows how being human is not being happy all the time or living a life of convenience or function, being human is taking the good with the bad, and letting oneself feel what needs to be felt and living a true life. John is given the option to live a life of functionality and happiness, but refuses it and accepts a life of unhappy inconvenience. In all of these futuristic societies, what is seen as an ideal or perfect future is convenience. Convenience for a government, the lower classes are seen as face less masses that are used to supply a service, or everyone is equal and everyone in society is a way to supply a service, or freedom is taken away so no one causes problems or does anything out of line. Everything is made out of convenience. The most convenient and also inconvenient thing in all of these societies is the lack of human emotion and empathy for others. The ruler of these societies do not have to worry about irrational behavior from the masses because their emotions are repressed, what makes it inconvenient is that the repression does always stay in one’s subconscious. This is evident in every character described earlier. They felt something unknown and when the foreign feelings arose they became so strong they were not possible to ignore. This shows so clearly that human emotion, compassion, love, empathy, confusion, anger, lust, all of these are such powerful things that humans possess that one or a few humans can take down entire societies with just the power of raw emotion. To erase such things are to erase a threat. However, such a threat can never be truly eradicated. In every example of these future societies, they have fallen or have been flawed enough for some sense of person self to slip through the cracks.
In Brave New World the human need for more than just happiness is described perfectly.
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn 't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand." Humans need more than just happiness to be happy. Freedom was seen as a useless idea in We, humans are volatile and irrational, and confusing, all things that make life a difficult place to be in at times. However, life isn’t life without all of these things. Happiness is what you make of a life that is unpredictable and full of misfortune. Otherwise, you are living a
lie.
Bibliography
Metropolis : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)
THX 1138: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Gattaca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
Self-Identity Found Within the Masses ideas of how society could or should be have been around forever. Some of the ideas created to show the evolution of a humanistic society choose to show them as dystopias or utopias, in which society is meant to be perfect or functional in every way. In many of these representations of dystopian/utopian future societies there are troubles with personal identity and a person’s confusion in a world of logic and the lack of reason love invokes within. A common theme that occurs is a controlled society where either freedom is abolished and everything is reliant on technology or logic or genetics determine a human’s quality of life. All of these ideas have the similarity of a …show more content…
hero that is struggling with their identity within such controlled societies. Within the movie THX 1138 by George Lucas and the book We by Zamyatin society has little to no freedom or privacy and everything is acted out and timed in a logical way. THX 1138 shows people almost as cogs in a machine similar to the functionality of society in Metropolis, the society thrives on the work of people. The people in George Lucas’s society work day in and day out sedated from any strong feelings that could distract them from their work. This is so in We as well, everyone in the community does their part, they do as they are told and are where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there. Both of these societies have the common factor of theology as a motivator. In THX 1138 religion is used to reinforce the way of life. The deity used is OMM 0910 this figure is an automated voice that comes from a booth. It is made to “listen” to people. The automated voice repeats the same words at the end of every session, “You are a true believer, blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy.” This is used to make the people feel as an important unit in the community. OMM invokes a sense of duty and belonging that is needed in order to keep people thinking that they are happy and doing what OMM needs of them. Although theology also plays a role in We it is used in a different context. Theology, God, specifically is what is used to show people what was once wrong with humanistic society. God created man and then gave man freedom, which is something that is no longer within the human community. Freedom is not the key to happiness, control is. This way of thinking is what helps those within Zamyatin’s world stay true to their society. They are told that freedom is bad and is full of unhappiness; this is what makes them think that they must be living the most ideal way of life a life of no hard decisions or confusion. Everything is controlled and therefore perfect. There are ideas that we are conditioned to think as we grow up, things that we know are right and things that we know are wrong.
It is something that is not often questioned or strayed from. Although in present society we realize that things are far from perfect the masses tend to stick closely to the most basic rules of life, this is the same in any society. We become so complacent and used to the way we live we often do not stray from the status quo of our own societies. This is evident in almost all ways of life. A common factor in most dystopian works however, is the perfection that is believed to be so evident in life. What is very prominent in the majority of the films or books we have read is the realization of imperfection which leads to questioning, escape, or a character’s confusion within said “perfect” now imperfect society. These characters become outsiders because they start to see the flaws within their “perfect” lives. This is evident in Metropolis, We, Gattaca, The Machine Stops, THX 1138, and A Brave New World. All of these have a character who realizes the fault within their own societies. A large number of these realizations started because of foreign feelings such as love, jealousy, loneliness, etc. The common factor is feelings in a life where there are little to no humanistic qualms. The feelings that cause Freder, from Metropolis, to stray from his decadent lifestyle is love. He sees Maria, who is unlike the dazzling woman that are handed to him in …show more content…
the pleasure gardens. She is surrounded by children and is dressed simply. He sees her and tries to find her underground where the lower class men work on the machine. By this turn of events Freder discovers the hardships of those who keep his dazzling city afloat. His change of heart starts from an emotion that he has never felt before, love and empathy. This new found sense of self is what pushes him to start trying to change the way of life of Metropolis. In THX 1138 the main character who is the movies namesake feels new emotions because his roommate, LUH, gives his placebos instead of his sedatives. When off the sedatives he starts to feel things that were always watered down by pills. He feels sexual desire, love, and unhappiness. All of these confusing emotions send him into a spiral of events that end up with his eventual escape and his first glimpse of the sun and the outside world. In the Machine Stops by E.M Forster the main character worships the machine because it gives her everything she will ever need, she never needs to leave her area, or want for anything. She loves the machine more than her own son. Her son has different ideas of living a life run by the machine and wishes to step foot on earth. He has feelings that many other people who live in such a society rarely have , a want for more than what the machine can give. He has the very human need for space and fresh air. His forbidden feelings are what drives him to break the rules of the machine and head to surface. The sense of confusion of right and wrong and what is expected of a person in such an extreme society is evident in We by Zamyatin. D-503 is a normal person living in a freedomless society that is caught between what he is taught is right and what he thinks is right. This confusion causes him to do things that change the society as a whole. He meets I-330 who smokes, drinks, and flirts. He later finds out that she is part of an organization called the MEPHI who want to bring down the green wall and combine the United State with the outside. D-503’s involvement with the MEPHI and his want to help his lover O-90 have a child, start a string of events that eventually ends with him lobotomized. Gattaca and Brave New World have similar societies in which genetics are what makes one’s social standing in life. In Gattaca the main character Vincent is a natural born and therefore is seen as someone who is only qualified to clean toilets. He desires the life of those who are given the gift of genetic fabrication. His need to live a better life drives him to take the identity of another and pretend he is a genetic master piece. His human need to be better than what is said he is, drives him to do what is seen as unthinkable in such a society. In Brave New World the character of John the savage is what shows how being human is not being happy all the time or living a life of convenience or function, being human is taking the good with the bad, and letting oneself feel what needs to be felt and living a true life. John is given the option to live a life of functionality and happiness, but refuses it and accepts a life of unhappy inconvenience. In all of these futuristic societies, what is seen as an ideal or perfect future is convenience. Convenience for a government, the lower classes are seen as face less masses that are used to supply a service, or everyone is equal and everyone in society is a way to supply a service, or freedom is taken away so no one causes problems or does anything out of line. Everything is made out of convenience. The most convenient and also inconvenient thing in all of these societies is the lack of human emotion and empathy for others. The ruler of these societies do not have to worry about irrational behavior from the masses because their emotions are repressed, what makes it inconvenient is that the repression does always stay in one’s subconscious. This is evident in every character described earlier. They felt something unknown and when the foreign feelings arose they became so strong they were not possible to ignore. This shows so clearly that human emotion, compassion, love, empathy, confusion, anger, lust, all of these are such powerful things that humans possess that one or a few humans can take down entire societies with just the power of raw emotion. To erase such things are to erase a threat. However, such a threat can never be truly eradicated. In every example of these future societies, they have fallen or have been flawed enough for some sense of person self to slip through the cracks.
In Brave New World the human need for more than just happiness is described perfectly.
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn 't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand." Humans need more than just happiness to be happy. Freedom was seen as a useless idea in We, humans are volatile and irrational, and confusing, all things that make life a difficult place to be in at times. However, life isn’t life without all of these things. Happiness is what you make of a life that is unpredictable and full of misfortune. Otherwise, you are living a
lie.
Bibliography
Metropolis : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)
THX 1138: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Gattaca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca