DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE

Imagine a world where every year, the government selects twenty-four teenagers and puts
them into an arena to fight to the death. Or a world where love has been diagnosed as a
disease but thankfully a cure has been found, and all young people are required to get this
cure when they turn eighteen. Yes, I am talking about the world of dystopian literature, and
that is the topic of my presentation. A Dystopia is an imaginary futuristic world in which
society lives under the oppression and control of a totalitarian government, a repressive
society, a force of technology, or a corrupt business corporation. Dystopias often start with
an illusion of a perfect society, or UTOPIA. But as the story progresses, the reader and
characters both realize that this fictional world is the opposite of perfect. It often focus on a
current social, technological, or governmental trend and show us what would happen if this
trend were taken way too far. It’s basically an exaggerated “worst-case scenario.” This allows
the dystopian story to make a criticism of a trend in our real world.

Utopia: An imagined society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its
citizens.

Dystopia: An imagined society where everything is bad or unpleasant.

The history of dystopian fiction:

The word ‘dystopia’ is older than you might think. It has been traced back to 1747, where it
appears as ‘dustopia’, but is clearly being used with the same meaning as the modern word.
Although dystopian fiction itself is sometimes said to have begun with the 1908 Jack London
novel The Iron Heel, there are several Victorian novels which qualify as dystopian fiction, at
least of sorts.

The genre can be traced back to 1516 with Sir Thomas More's novel Utopia which was the
first novel to be written about a utopia. This novel caused authors to think skeptically of
utopias and inspired them to start writing about dystopias. One of the earliest well-known
examples was H.G. Wells’ novel, The Time Machine, which depicts a distant future in which
the human race has evolved into two species, one that herds the other like livestock. In the
1930s, 40s, and 50s, dystopian literature became a powerful way for American writers to
criticize communism and socialism. These decades produced some of the most important
dystopian classics: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World. The next few decades saw many
more dystopian novels--A Clockwork Orange, The Running Man, V for Vendetta--but up until
this point almost all dystopian novels were written for adults. In 1993, the first dystopian
novel written specifically for young adults was written by Lois Lowry. The Giver is a story
about a perfect society where the government makes all the decisions in peoples lives.
Inspired by The Giver Dystopian novels geared towards young adults: Among The Hidden,
Divergent, The Maze Runner,Hunger Games. Since the beginning of the 2000s, dystopian
novels have become one of the most popular and successful trends in young-adult literature.
Common story elements:
- Citizens of the dystopian society live under harsh control—usually the control of
government, a corporation, technology, or religious or philosophical ideas.
- The truth about the world is often kept a secret from most of society.
- The story sometimes takes place after an apocalyptic event that ends the world as we
know it and gives rise to a new world and a new way of life.
- Citizens are expected to conform strictly to society’s expectations. Individuality is
seen as a bad thing.
- The society tends to dehumanize its citizens.
- There is often an illusion of a perfect society covering up how horrible things really
are. Sometimes the story’s oppressors truly believe that they are doing what’s right;
but often the illusion of a utopia is merely propaganda meant to keep the citizens
under control.

Creating a dystopia:
In general, fictional dystopian societies usually form in one of two ways:

1. Society adopts a new form of government, or gives power to a corporation or

technology or system of belief, in order to create a better world or to solve real
problems and create a perfect society; but the new government, corporation,
technology, or belief system is taken too far and becomes oppressive, unjust, and
inhumane.
2. Other dystopias are created after an apocalyptic event destroys most of society as we
know it, and those left alive are forced to adopt extreme policies in order to ensure
humanity’s survival.

The government, technology, or corporation given control after the disaster usually begins
with a genuine desire to save the world, but it either becomes corrupt and oppressive or it
goes about saving the world in such a bone-headed way that it ends up threatening
humanity's survival.

What Is the Significance of Dystopian Fiction?

Dystopian novels that have a didactic message often explore themes like anarchism,
oppression, and mass poverty. Margaret Atwood, one of literature’s most celebrated
authors of dystopian fiction, thinks about it like this: “If you’re interested in writing
speculative fiction, one way to generate a plot is to take an idea from current society and
move it a little further down the road. Even if humans are short-term thinkers, fiction can
anticipate and extrapolate into multiple versions of the future.”

Here are other reasons why dystopian fiction is significant in literature:

 - Dystopian fiction can be a way to educate and warn humanity about the dangers
of current social and political structures. 

- Dystopian novels can also be satirical critiques. It takes place in a futuristic society
with a youth subculture of extreme violence. A totalitarian government protects
society by prescribing good behavior and abolishing violent impulses.
- Dystopian stories require a greater suspension of disbelief and can be very
imaginative.

The protagonist:
- often feels trapped
- questions the current political system
- knows that there is something wrong with their society
- helps the audience recognize the flaws of the dystopian world

Themes in Dystopian Stories:

Most dystopian stories share common themes, or messages. And you'll notice that how the
dystopia was originally created usually affects the eventual theme of the story. Common
themes are:

- Danger of Technology
- Importance of truth
- Dangers of one group/person having too much power
- Importance of free will
- Danger of propaganda