Dystopian Research Paper

Some might claim the YA genre has grown to be too dark for its target audience. Meghan Gurdon, a firm believer of this idea, explains why she believes this in her article, “Darkness Too Visible”. Gurdon describes the experience of a mother of three in a bookstore looking to purchase a YA novel for one of her children, when she found herself leaving the bookstore empty-handed due to the content of the teen books. While teen books decades ago contained less violent/corrupted material, times have changed along with the genre. She is concerned that these books could have an effect on these young readers’ brains as they are merely transferring from childhood to adulthood. Gurdon still has faith that YA books would sell just as well and connect with young readers today without all of the dark subject matters discussed in them these days.

One night, a very dark night, trouble was lurking in the shadows. You could just smell it in the air everywhere you go. It was like choking on a dark cloud filled with danger. Legend has it that it targets one person until they die. It fills them with dreadful thoughts, making them do bad deeds, and leading them to suicide. Today it chose to pick me...

I look to the right of my bed and it’s there; crouching beside me. Its face is pure white and doesn’t resemble skin at all, but a shining porcelain. The monster doesn’t have a mouth - there is just skin running down from the bottom of its nose to its chin. Shielding it’s beady eyes are a pair of raven-black goggles strapped to its bald head. It wears what resembles a completely circular helmet the colour of a neon orange and its hands are covered in tactical gloves, dark as a jet-black night. It wears an amber jumpsuit and stare into my soul. Its wretched face is about five centimetres away from mine and I can feel an ice cold breath creep onto my forehead.The creatures body is hunched over and strange

A dystopian novel is a story relating to or denoting an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. 1984 by George Orwell, is indeed a dystopian novel as it describes a nightmare vision of future society which is opposite to a perfect world. George Orwell creates this image using a few different techniques including, the language or style, the setting, characterization, and oppression.

A dystopia the darkest form of government, a utopia gone wrong, a craving for power, struggling for fewer rules. The dystopia is factual the worst possible form of a government. Its the struggle to be so perfect that it fails. There are typically two types of dystopias first a monarchy. A monarchy is a group of people controlled by a king or queen, and they make every last decision. What they want they get. A monarchy is typically born like this example from lord of the flies. “He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them"(Golding 58). This shows that a monarchy starts by one just taking over from the start rather than being a

Young adult fiction is a unique area in its own way, and one that incorporates forms of lives not common in society. The book, Maze Runner is a typical example of adult fiction in which the author presents scenarios involving various forms of life, which readers can learn from and apply to their own, as well. To begin with, by reading this book in class, students will not only learn about magic and terror, but also about sorrow, bravery, friendship as well as suffering in attempts to find redemption. Everything about this book is fictional but subsequent events from previous ones make things even more real. In the beginning, fiction is achieved when the main character, Thomas,

Teens love dystopian stories because they can relate to the hero. In “Anthem” and “Divergent” the hero is different than everyone else in the story. Also they have a feeling of being divided. Then teens can relate to the actions of trying to fit in. They even can relate to the Uncharted Forest in “Anthem” and the Walls in “Divergent” because they feel like they are being blocked off.

What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the

dystopian communities, there is always some form of suffering occurring. A dystopia never benefits society as a whole and will provide nightmares for those who do not benefit. A civilization following dystopian characteristics involve illusions of prosperity, people being singled out, and a strong sense of corruption. Dystopian civilizations are full of suffering whether it be covered up, out in the open, or even done in a ceremonious nature.

The stone hollow echoed with dozens of small breaths and the clunky shuffling of chairs and tables. The lighting pulsated, from glowing orbs, the color of mandarins, positioned near walls throughout the room. Every child in the room was quiet in fear of disobeying and in pure content that today was another school day. Eilig sat in the back left of the room, at an ancient wooden desk with years worth of scratches and pen marks. Everyone else’s desks were identical: a scribbled-out heart an inch away from the corner, a deep, inch long scratch on the side. The silence was contagious until a woman entered the room, with hare-like features she clutched a clipboard, needle-like claws holding the soft wood in place.

As new genres in the world of novels fade out of the public eye, new ones arise just as fast. A genre that has taken the world by storm is the dystopian trope. Many new young adult novels have this new genre incorporated into the story, often weaving in themes of sadness or conformity being overcome by rebelliousness and hope. It is one of the newest genres, yet one of the most widely varied compared to older ones. Even novels from 70 years ago, such as Ayn Rand’s Anthem share similarities with the same types of stories from only 20 years ago, like The Giver by Lois Lowry.

All of these factors in the stories are important to the plot. Little similarities appear between each book, yet they share the similarity of being relatable. The reason why these books are so popular, to teens in particular, is because people can relate to the feelings and emotions of everyday people. Their experiences might not be as dramatic, but feeling like an outsider or like you have to just go along with what people tell you to do is a common feeling that most people share. Feelings are probably one of the most universal things that people feel. These differences and similarities make the stories what they

In “Bold Books for Teenagers: Summer Reading”, Gallo explains that action packed stories filled with adventure attract teenage students and allow them to actively participate in these adventures by reading. The creepy scenes of the lab and mutant children in cages with their organs out and the morphing of Erasers and violent fights were all disturbing yet attract both male and female audience: the males get excited by them while the girls sympathetic. In James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series, the suspense and nonstop action, as well as Max’s “smart mouth and witty” narration keep teens (especially boys) reading. The way the characters are well detailed makes them never predictable and straightforward with their plans which keeps the readers on their

As an adult reader who has crossed over to the reality of life, reading about these characters can be a transparent, futile exercise because as adults looking back at youth we have the experience to know where these characters are headed before they even start their journey. However, for young adults who are still in the throes of existential angst this is a powerful novel that handles teenage rites of passage and coming-of-age issues such as loyalty, friendship, belonging, and even death and loss very well.

There will always will be a power or a government with a society. Whether it be as small as a group or as large as a country. According to multiple sources, government has been around since the first city-state was created. Just by this source alone we demonstrate how society has always needed an order and power: Government. Dystopian: An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Lord of the Flies, a novel that is realistic is the fact that it parallels with the real world. The moral that Golding was taking example of was the evil inside all of us. He created this novel to express dystopia, which was how boys were stuck on an island and how they created their