The Role Of Social Norms In The Concentration City

“The Concentration City” is a short story by J.G. Ballard that is dystopic in nature. The short story revolves around a young physics student’s dream which is the gear for the story. The main character, Franz Mattheson, dreams that he is floating in the air with his hands by his side implying that he wishes to construct an aircraft. Social control can come in many forms; however, the social control demonstrated in this shorty story is social norms. The existence of social norms impacts Franz’s desire. How? It has limited freedom. In what way? By limiting freedom, Franz has minimal chance to explore his city. Franz lives in a futuristic city in which there is limited space and, in “Free space? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Space is a dollar a cubic foot” (Ballard, p.4), the remaining space remains is
Carry on south from there and you’ll find it between 586th Avenue and 422nd Street” (p.1) demonstrates. Since the citizens have conformed, they are compelling Franz to do so as well on the basis that his desire is nonsensical, unachievable and goes against the teachings of science (which we all know is not true) in “the task of science is to consolidate existing knowledge, to systemize and reinterpret the discoveries of the past, not to chase wild dreams into the future.”(p.5) This signifies that Franz’s ideas are extremely foreign to them that not only is he deemed crazy but goes to the extent of utilizing science to prove their point . Resisting society’s forces, the physics student commences a ten-day journey to find an open space; however, his determination has positioned him in a situation as follows: “I’ll see the sergeant and get him to hand you over to one of our psychiatrist” (p.18). Hence, in this short story, social control is viewed as a negative force, a force that prevents one from pursuing their