New Harmony Analysis

Even though the idea of complete equality is appealing, it is individualism that makes life interesting. Everything that makes a person unique would cease to exist. Robert Owen created the first American Utopia in 1825 called “the New Harmony Community” along the Wabash River in western Indiana. The residents

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension.

Utopian communities have had an incredible impact on both American society and various recognized religious sects throughout the United States as a whole. Many people saw, and still see, democratic government as unfair, leaving the poor behind to become poorer while the rich continued to get richer; they felt a change in work and fairness was officially in order. Utopian societies were created with commendable intentions, and their idea of the perfect cooperative society is an attractive conference, but they were all considered experiments because they all declined swiftly and hopelessly.

Thesis: Demonstrates that the energy used for anger and frustration can turn into passion and devotion

Introduction- The two American Romanticism concepts of transcendentalism and the idealism of utopian communities fit together like an intricate puzzle, but there are still many factors that differentiate them.

In Camp Harmony written by Monica Sone she uses irony as a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects is often amusing as a result. I say this because when they call lunchtime it states " At the mess hall we found a long line of people. Children darted in and out of the line, skiing in the slithery mud. The young stood impatiently on one foot, then the other, and scowled, The food had better be good after all this wait" It is saying how the mess hall seems just chaotic and is found

John Humphrey Noyes was a communist in the late 1800s that founded the infamous Oneida community. Noyes was successful in promoting reform by creating a utopian society that produced a certain image of society. The socialist commune held an unselfish, collective spirit that united with the idea that they must fulfill a model of virtuous living for the world to see. Noyes impacted society by creating something that showed that a strong community could succeed. His radical and unusual belief in complex marriage perhaps made him an interesting figure in society, also. Additionally, John’s Oneida community later became a silverware company.

Throughout the early years of the United States, Utopian communities seemed to be quite prevalent. Though most did not last long, their ideas of perfection have long outlasted the settlements themselves. Of the many trial settlements one of the most noted was that of the Oneida community that was founded in the late 1840’s by John Humphrey Noyes. Noyes’ society of self-proclaimed perfectionists was started after he lost his preaching license in an attempt to spread his new ideas of communal living. 1 The Oneida society, like many societies of this era, was based on seemingly radical religious as well as societal ideas. In the early years, the community thrived partially because there was no conflict between its

The concept of utopia is one which has many differing connotations and is therefore also one which cannot be confined to one interpretation alone. The term is commonly used to represent a community or society that, in theory, possesses highly desirable or near-‘perfect’ qualities; however, these encompassing ideals, which arguably place emphasis on egalitarian principles of equality, are implemented in a number of ways and are subsequently based on varying ideologies, thus insisting on varying views of morality. The word itself, which was first coined by Sir Thomas More in the early sixteenth century and used to describe a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean, was taken from the Greek οὐ (‘not’) and τόπος (‘place’), literally translating

The Utopians live in a society that is free from the grips of money and hoarding, one that is as close to perfect as one can feasibly imagine. It is a world where people get along together in harmony, with “nothing private anywhere” (More 231). The only have gardening competitions, and even their gardens are not permanent, dying with each passing year. They “change houses by lot” every ten years to keep people from hoarding earthly goods, and by doing this create a society where not only does everyone contribute, and everyone also communicates and relates to those around them (More 231). This happens in large part, according to More, because of “communal living and their moneyless economy” (More 269). Through this revolutionary and ideal living, they create a place where there is no bribery because there is no money, with

Utopia- good place, or in other words, no place. Thomas More, in his work Utopia, describes a nation in a parallel universe free from greed, pride, immorality, poverty, and crime; told as a narrative of a well-traveled explorer Hythloday to Moore himself, Hythloday speaks of a nation founded purely upon rationality, efficiency, and perfect morality. Thomas More’s work is no political or social theory, but rather a social critique and a commentary. In an age experiencing political and social struggle across every aspect of Western civilization along with the flooding of ancient and new ideas, Utopia is More’s way of discovering and exploring man’s and society’s natural structures and tendencies, and expressing his discontent towards them- this is shown in the narrative, as the dialogue of Hythloday and More represent his conflicted view between the ideal and the pragmatic. Acknowledging these flaws, More’s work critiques the utopian society from the perspectives of an imperfect man, but also vice versa.

A utopian community would be a world without oppression, discrimination or social hierarchy—essentially, an ideal place to live. However, does a perfect society really exist? In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, More flirts with the concept of a utopian community with regard to geography, city structure, labor, government and religion. Considering these aspects, the community depicted in Utopia is primarily a success, with limited failures.

The dominant group sets out to create their ideal world, which also forces one to understand community as the “imagined world” of the powerful, how it was created, “and how it changed over time” (269). That leads one to see “the study of community as a socio-cultural process” of creation and interaction (267). Consequently, the social interaction between the powerful group and the weaker ones becomes just as important as the interaction within the dominant group. In this definition of community, Los Angeles becomes a case study for the creation of urban communities in the United States, a study that starts with the Anglo immigration near the turn of the 20th century.

In Charles Derber’s “The Good Man Fills His Own Stomach,” Derber refers to two very different communities. One is the Ik who lived in Uganda and were described as “unfortunate people expelled by an uncaring government.” The other, was an imaginary community from the Woody Allen movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. This community seemed to resemble a community from our present day upper class with only the best hotels, restaurants, and symphonic recordings. Although these two groups are very different, they each still follow the criterion of a community. Each are groups of people who have formed a sort of bond with each other because of a certain lifestyle, interests, or beliefs.

As the 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director and poet Henrik Ibsen once said: “The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom - these are the pillars of society” (Ólafsson, 2008, pg. 127). A good society is a romanticized terminology. It does not exist yet but may be what everyone is looking for. It is highly responsive to its inhabitants and progressive in the nature of its existence. People often times blame society for the way our daily life is structured, but cannot contribute good values due to their ignorance. A thriving or, in this case, good society is one which ensures a drive to move forward for all those present, one that has laws based on justice and individuality, one to seeks freedom for all inhabitants and has a good population acting as the backbone of the society. On the other hand, a ‘bad’ society is a society in dire need of the population’s assistance, or else it will be left to dust. This essay will be delving deep into the intrinsic concepts which give society the title of ‘good’.