The Dystopian and Utopian texts The Time Machine by HG Wells and Ursula LeGuins’s The Dispossessed subvert and conform to traditional perspectives on humanity and genre conventions as a reflection of their respective contexts. These genres share a common characteristic in that they aim to criticise their respective societies through an ambiguous utopia in The Dispossessed and a future that is initially perceived to be a utopia but is subsequently revealed as a dystopia in The Time Machine. The author’s respective contexts allows for contrast of these critiques in relation to their challenging of traditional perspectives on humanity.…
The word “utopia,” means a perfect world. Many different societies tried to create a perfect world in the nineteenth century; this is where the concept of a dystopia began. A dystopia is a word used to describe a world that has its civilians living in constant fear and agony. The creators of a dystopia normally cannot see the damage their laws are doing to their society, and the act of creating a dystopia usually requires intense amounts of control over the people. However, have you ever wonder why or how the dystopian societies are created, or if the enforced laws would work in order to create a dystopian society? In pieces of literature, such as 1984, written by George Orwell, and Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, as well as in movies,…
Ideas surrounding utopian and dystopian societies are popular because they show readers a worst case scenario for the future without having to live through it, an example of this worst case scenario in writing is the story “Harrison Bergeron” which is about a dystopian society where the majority of the population believes that they live in a utopian society. The government achieved this “utopia” by making the citizens equal and this means bringing those who are above average down, through handicaps; which limits those qualities that made them above average. In “Harrison Bergeron” the worst case scenario is the handicaps and everyone being average, or as they believe, everyone is equal, ”THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They…
Dystopia challenges utopia's fundamental assumption of human perfectibility. Imagine a world where everything was equal and there were no problems in life. Humans thrive to make a world like this one, but haven't succeeded because of greed. This is how dystopias are formed and humans have made multiple of them. In the article “Gaza: The Makings of a Modern Day Dystopia,” It shows that there are still people battling poverty, violence, prejudice, intimidation, hunger, etc. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” It shows that the government had more power than the people. The societal conditions that perpetuate both dystopias is violence which was created by the ruling powers wanting more control than…
The ideas surrounding utopian and dystopian societies are popular because authors use the context and setting of dystopian novels to voice their opinions about local or global politics. Everyone is seeing the news about black lives matter and how women should have rights and racism and sexism and ageism. But when the authors see the news they’re like,” Oh, I'm going to tell everyone my opinion about racism and sexism and ageism except in the form of a book because that's the only way people will hear me.”Then the authors do write a book and they write in the form of a dystopian novel. That’s why this genre of writing is so popular right now, it’s because people are trying to share their opinions about what would happen if the everyone did get what they…
A utopia is a perfect society. One in which everything works according to plan, and everything is how it is imagined it should be. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and George Orwell’s 1984, utopian societies are built upon varying terms. Each society, while proclaimed to be perfect, has it’s inevitable flaws. The main characters in these novels, Winston and John, deal with the flaws in both similar and opposite ways. They are created to highlight the ways these utopian societies fall into dystopia, when looked at through an analytical lens. Winston and John have similar traits, as well as different traits, and their characters eventually find their way to almost identical…
The ideas surrounding utopian and dystopian societies are popular because people are very passionate about topics that can only be solved or dealt with in the future. One example of this is that people feel extremely passionate about total equality, but that can’t be achieved today due to sexism and racism in America. For example, both Harrison Bergeron and The Giver focus on humanity striving for ‘total equality,’ a topic that authors are highly passionate about. In the story Harrison Bergeron, the government uses handicaps to lower the qualities of above-average people to create equality. Likewise, in The Giver, everyone looks the same and the government has very strict laws to prevent inequalities. Both examples show total equality, a very…
The novels Utopia by Thomas More and 1984 by George Orwell and short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut explore the Utopic and Dystopic genre through the structure and regulations of their societies. In Utopia, More provides us with a contemporary understanding of society and human nature, with an indepth study of morals, values and beliefs in England around the Renaissance Era. 1984 was published while the Second World War was fresh in people’s minds, creating fears amongst society with Orwell emphasizing the possibility of such a dehumanised and controlled world if people did not exercise vigilence. Harrison Bergeron is a futuristic science fiction short story which exagerates the extent of authority and its abilities to control society, written during the time of the Cold War. Each text presents a society which reflects the growing concerns of the time and questions the nature of the individual within the society. The themes of freedom and governmental authority are explored which reinforce the utopic and dystopic views through the nature of the societies.…
A utopian society is generalized as a world where everything is perfect to near-perfect with little room for flaws or errors. The polar opposite however, a dystopian society, is a society where everything from freedom and justice has completely become irrelevant, where everything is undesirable and frightening. One source that will be used is Kurt Vonnegut’s short story; Harrison Bergeron which has very contrasting themes depending on individual perspective. The thing with these societies is that more often than not,they are based around individual perspective. Much like journalism and overall modern media, perspectives will revolve around bias. It is that bias that settles the debate between the two societies commonly used in fictional novels,…
The classifications of what a society is, are endless and quite diverse in each individuals mentality. Whether this world is a utopia, dystopia or the in-between is a subject with its many perspectives and arguments. To fully understand this situation it is necessary to give a proper explanation of each term, starting with dystopia. A dystopia is a society characterized by oppression and misery. This culture can be sought as futuristic or even the present day third world countries. The characteristics of dystopia include the unfortunate oppressed by a tyrannical government, effected by disease, disaster, and political issues making it next to impossible to find hope in life. On the contrary a utopia is the polar opposite of a dystopia, it is the ideal state that is thought of as perfect by human sanction. It is characterized by perfection and excellence leaving the world in a peaceful state. Hidden from the worlds sight and between these two expressions exists the terminology of an anti-utopia, the thought of a superlative culture, but in reality the society consists of repressive and cruel natures. The world is the appropriate representation of anti-utopia, one seemingly blocks out the bad with good. There are multiple explanations that explain the reasoning for this classification whether it is the lack of realization, narcissism, or the use of drugs. Each of the points are valid for proving this misconception between an anti-utopia and utopia. Though, through further evidence one will be able to realize the worlds anti-utopian characteristics through the use of literary elements and worldly events.…
Literature frequently tries to depict what a perfect world would be like. A world without war, without class, without major problems. As utopian as this idea seems, it more times than not depicts that of a dystopian society. Peace can only be achieved by suppressing the oppressed, class can only be disavowed through false ideals, and major problems can only be removed by creating new ones. Both George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World express these themes. Both novels deal with a totalitarian dystopian society that denies freedoms to their people.…
Most of you have heard the word 'dystopia' before, but maybe you don't know the true meaning of it. It may be determined in a theoretical fiction and science fiction as well. Besides fiction this word includes horror, apocalyptic, unnatural, fantasy, and unknown ideas that didn’t or might not even happen yet. It reflects the opposite of Utopia, the perfect world where human nature haven’t faced any problems. Dystopia is different from ‘utopia’ by its prefix ‘dys’ that tells us all the negative side of the word; it is the same as words like ‘dysfunctional’ or ‘dyslexia’.…
Why is it only when we learn about the history of failed endeavors at utopia, do we realize the importance of how our own society functions? When people take a look at dystopian societies and how life was like for the members, the greatness of how our living environment operates is revealed. We live in a world that is neither a utopia or dystopia, simply because it is the only viable alternative to a perfect society. Although not everyone is completely content, it happens to be extremely different from the dystopias of past and present. Yet, there are a select few similarities that define how we human beings think and fantasize, and those resemblances may just represent the limit of pleasing everyone, or what we still have to improve on. An…
Although many may strive to develop a utopian society, this ideal is only an unattainable dream that can never become reality; a wish that can never be brought to life. As many aim for this unrealistic ideal, many utopian societies first appear as is; a perfect society with a flawless government and harmonious people- at least on the surface. But when we are provided with a closer look at this supposed utopian society, it is revealed that, at some point in time, this society slowly began to spiral downwards. It would soon develop into a dystopian society where social values and standards have become greatly distorted and skewed. When applying the themes in this book to our current society, comparisons can be drawn in areas such as technology, social interactions and education in both societies.…
All works of Utopian literature are designed to present ideologies and protest. Through this they have maintained their popularity whilst retaining the ability to reformulate. This ability to reformulate itself has created a way for authors to explore and investigate ideologies and protests whilst keeping the issues contextual to the time. More has done this extremely well, establishing the genre at the beginning of the 16th century, in his novella Utopia. By using Rafael as the narrator he successfully presents his alternative of a communistic style state where everyone is equal, whilst keeping him safe; also convincing them that it was a non-fiction text and as a result protecting himself from punishment. He did this so successfully that many men set off in their boats in search of the island. This satire is part of what I think has cause the continued popularity of the text. Alma De Groen subverts More’s form of a single setting novella by creating play in two time frames; the present scene and the 1922 scene. De Groen takes us on a journey through Katherine Mansfield’s eyes and we see two worlds, the patriarchal society of 1922 and the matriarchal society of the present. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, is a novel, published in 1961, that focuses on the corruption of war. Given the context this novel was very popular because of recent and current war times affecting people.…