Utopia

Utopia by Sir Thomas More is a literary work divided between two books which are quite
different, book one also being much shorter than book two and having no chapters like the
second one which has nine.
Book one describes a trip that More took to Flanders in modern-day Belgium, there he met
with his friend Peter Giles and the fictional character Rafael Hythloday. A big part of book one is
made up of socio-political debates between More, Hythloday and Giles centered around
punishments for theft. At the end of the first book Hythloday begins to describe Utopia to the
gathered group at the dinner party arranged by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Book two is the one that describes Utopia in more detail, the nine chapters describe each a
different part of Utopia, the book describes the physical,social and cultural asspects of Utopia.
The first chapter focuses on the geography of Utopia, which is an Island separated from the rest
of the continent. The second chapter is about the layout of Utopian cities and shared property
which was a common concept in Utopia, shared property being the norm. The third chapter
describes the government and justice system in Utopia. Chapter four covers Utopian work and
how there is no money in Utopia the ’’economy’’ being such that nobody is richer than enyone.
The fifth chapter describes the family structure of the Utopians and some of the very strict rules
by which society is organized. Chapter six describes how Utopians travel and brings up an
important fact, that Utopians have to ask for permission in order to travel from one city to
another, this fact highlights how much Utopians are controled, this chapter also tells how all
Utopians live in full view of oneanother, so that they can’t do anything without other knowing,
this also serving as an exaple of the constant fear of being constantly watched, this two facts, the
control and fear can make a reader think of Utopia more as a dystopian society. Chapter seven
deals with Utopian slaves which were manly criminals and poor members of foreign societies,
slavery being a very common punishment for things that were not even be considered crimes in
other societies.This chapters also mentions how women have more rights than it was common at
that time, this fact gives a better image, in the eyes of the reader, to Utopia. Divorce is possible ,
not very common but still gives Utopians some freedom. Chapter eight covers the military, and
just how much Utopians hate war. Chapter nine is about religion, in Utopia there are many
religions, and they are free to worship whoever but agree on the idea of a supreme being.
Utopia is a very isolated society people having completely different values form the norm in
the rest of the world, to the point that Utopians think of gold as something useless. A lot of the
customs and norms of Utopia apear to be perfect, however a lot of the Utopian laws make it
seem like and authoritarian society which values normality and efficiency over it’ people’s well
being