In a book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, he creates a vision of a perfect utopian society that achieve happiness by altering the mindset of its citizens to believe they are happy. In a society depicting such a strange ideology of people are no longer happy as they make their minds up to be, but as happy as the government allow them to be. In Brave New World , it is implied further, that if we are to find true fulfillment and meaning in our own lives, we must be able to contrast the good parts of life with the bad parts to feel both joy and despair. Consumerism plays a huge role in Brave New World because it not only make citizens happier, but it also make them easier to control. The world state keeps the citizens in need of unnecessary
A dystopian society is a menacing setting which serves as a warning to us about totalitarian futures that seem all too likely and real (Kennon, 2005). Gradually, many authors use dystopia as a genre, thus becoming dystopian literature. Cranny-Francis (1990) described dystopian literature as “the textual representation of a society apparently worse than the writer/reader’s own” (p. 125). Booker (1994) wrote that dystopian literature offers the chance of giving new perspectives on questionable political and social practices that would have been otherwise thought as natural. In a research done by Mcclantoc (2016), it can be deduced that the main ingredient of a good dystopian literature are the main protagonists who induce some kind of social change in their society or world.
Dystopia, the antonym of Utopia, is the total opposite of an ideal society – most likely describing a darkly-imagined and unfavorable society. Dystopian societies commonly portray an exaggerated futuristic world and are used to represent existing issues in real life. Writers explore the social and political structure of a society and use it to criticize a current trend or political systems. They typically share similar features, for example: dehumanization, environmental disasters, totalitarian authorities, etc. In dystopian novels, they take these characteristics to extreme, but at the same time most themes and elements can still be applicable to real life.
This short story carries characteristics of dystopian literature, where they’re under control by the government.“ Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out,” (Vonnegut 2). Whereas Propaganda is being consumed. “ Used to control the citizens of society.”
Utopia is similar to science fiction because both of them represent unreal world and refer to unique and perfect society (Suvin 34 – 38) there is another definition of utopia which is “Utopia is a holding operation, a set of strategies to maintain social order and the perfection in the face of deficiencies, not to say hostility, of nature and the willfulness of a man” (Davis 37). On the other hand, there is an opposite definition of utopia which is described as an imagined community established in specific time and place by which the writer wants the reader to imagine and know a perfect society than his community (Sargent 9).
In the article The Fine Line Between Utopia and Dystopia, author Zsanelle Morel discusses the utopian and dystopian themes among popular literature. Morel eventually reaches the conclusion that, “Although the idea of a utopian society can be briefly imagined, this society could not sustain itself due to the unpredictable nature of life,” with unpredictability being key. Human lives are not always stable and not every minor event can be foreseen when making decisions affecting an entire society. In an article, Jetse de Vries writes about the contrast between utopias and dystopias. Additionally, de Vries describes other authors’ tendencies to categorize fictional societies as either utopian or dystopian whereas many of them in reality are a combination of both: “a lot of utopias are basically dystopias in disguise:
In dystopian literature, it is critical that we understand that the manipulation of thought as a technique for control. This is in evidence in the texts Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, The Circle, by Dave Eggers, Equilibrium directed by Kurt Wimmer and 1984 by George Orwell. These texts epitomise the manipulation language and informed historical events, enabled by the colossal advancement of technology. These points revolve around the ideas of ingrained conditioning, which fuels conformity and consumerism. The manipulation of language can determine how people perceive the world.
How A Modern Society Can Change To Imperfection According to Lauren Oliver an author of many young adult novels, “I think that Dystopian futures are also a reflection of our current fears” (Oliver). Dystopia a word said when it isn’t a perfect world; actually the opposite. The future worlds are made up to be imperfect and scary, a future where every single person is equal and government reigns like a king over everyone. This means that all fears of being completely equal and controlled are what people make the imperfect future to be like. There are numerous similarities and differences between the Modern American Society and dystopian societies of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the film 2081 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, and The Gathering Blue written by Lois Lowry.
With the growing of human society, peoples are always wanted to create a perfect place to live since the past. The term utopia was coined in Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing Atlantic Ocean with a fictional island society. A utopia can be defined as a society possessing highly desirable or perfect place, or any visionary system of political or social perfection. Modernist and Modern Architects were concerned with creating a Utopian City, and therefore a Utopian society. Utopian fervor was led by The carnage of the First World War; In the mid 1920s, as the economy of post-war was improved, Modernists utopian desire was stronger to create a better world began to take shape.
The dystopian world also has a school to go to at the first place but, there is only one school in the entire community and even the world. To add to the last sentence our modern, mundane, and “real” society has a plethora of