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.
Both Uopia and Dystopia are opposite terms, one means perfection and the other means that everything is terrible. as many writers, critics and philosophers give different definitions for them, and many books have written about them to show that the society as it is or how it should be. The dystopian stories are regularly stories around survival. Dystopian tales stress the feelings of the frailty of the people in the face of oppression. Merriam Webster also defined dystopia as "a
For their dystopian ideas they both made them having some kind of rebel, who believes in more than just black and white or normal. They saw more to life and tried to make it better. The movie “The Giver” and the book “Anthem” both had a dystopian lifestyle, because they both had rules to follow and was under control by the upper class. The book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand was a good book. This book was all about a lie of a life.
In the world of literature, there are books that depict a utopian world and then there are other books that depict a dystopian world. A utopia is a place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions. Whereas a dystopia a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Literature that is considered to have a dystopian world explains a current trend, societal norm, or political system through an exaggerated worst-case scenario. The examples of dystopias that are going to be explained throughout this essay is Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games.
Lastly, both societies dehumanize those living in it. In conclusion, both Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games contain several elements of a dystopian society. The first characteristic of a dystopian society is that information is restricted, as well as independent thought and freedom being limited. Firstly, information is restricted in Fahrenheit 451 because books are not permitted and anyone who owns one is treated with cruel punishment. Next, freedom is limited in The Hunger Games because each district keeps its members within a small, condensed area without allowing them to leave.
How does the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by author Kurt Vonnegut, incorporate the common characteristics of dystopian literature? The short story “Harrison Bergeron” by author Kurt Vonnegut, typifies the characteristics commonly associated with dystopian literature. Whereas in the text, everyone is described as the same. “They were equal every which way.” (Vonnegut 1), In which “The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.” (Read.Write.Think). 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).
This dystopian society is a satire of this current society, making others who read this novella to reflect upon it. Satire is the use of exaggeration and humor to expose and criticize people’s vices, usually in the background of contemporary issues. The author uses satire to expose problems such as police brutality, lack of communication, and censorship. All of these problems are important to expose, but one is more important in this time period than any of the other two problems. The lack of communication is highly significant in F.451 is shown in the example of Mildred talking more to the three-wall
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.
The origin of the word ‘dystopia’ is from the Greek, means ‘bad place’; devoid of all comfortable; a place that appears perfect on the surface but is bad underneath. A dystopia is a future world that broadens and distorts modern day issues into an inexhaustible and dehumanized state in which controls have been forced upon society. The inhabitants have social and physical limitations which oppress many aspects of their
Dystopian fiction is a contemporary literary sub-genre that falls under the umbrella genre of speculative fiction. This type of fiction predicts the possible, oppressive, futuristic sociopolitical changes that deprive the society of worldly pleasures. Dystopian fiction was defined by many scholars. Basu, Broad, and Hintz in their edited book Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers (2009) defined dystopia as a fiction that “describes non-existent societies intended to be read as “considerably worse” than the reader’s own” and that is the opposite of utopia which is “the non-existent society “considerably better” than the current world” (Basu et al. 2).