The Pros And Cons Of Dystopias

It is commonplace for individuals to envision a perfect world; a utopian reality in which the world is a paradise, with equality, happiness and ideal perfection. Unfortunately, we live in a dystopian society and our world today is far from perfection. John Savage, from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, V, from V for Vendetta by James McTeigue and Offred, from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Attwood, are all characters in a dystopian society. A dystopia is the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and are characterized by oppression, corruption of government, and abridgement of human rights.

Dystopia is 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. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

Oxford dictionary defines dystopia as “an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically totalitarian or environmentally degraded to one.” In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron the government uses censorship to make everyone equal. Censorship cause utopian societies to become dystopian due to a false perception of happiness, untruthful statements and strong outliers.

Different societies have risen and fallen in the continual search for the “perfect” society. The definition of this utopia is in constant flux due to changing times and cultural values. Many works of literature have been written describing a utopian society and the steps needed to achieve it. However, there are those with a more cynical or more realistic view of society that comment on current and future trends. These individuals look at the problems in society and show how to solve them with the use of control and power. Such a society is considered undesirable and has become known as dystopian society.

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

Dystopias, on the other hand, are quite corrupt. “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. p.100) In a dystopia, there is only equality, no more. Modern day society is based on being unique; opposites.“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient.

As human beings, people naturally possess unruly desires for visions of dystopia. To feed into the unorthodox urge, sad and frightening scenarios are shoved down our throat. Hollywood producers have been doing this for decades through literature and film. A dystopia is a reality outside of your own that gives you the sensation of exploration to a new or better place in your life. A certain level of security is given to you through this type of function.

A place where everything and everyone, have gone mad. A dystopian society is a society that basically means everyone has revolted against their original thought of a utopian society to destroy the thought of relaxation to certain minds… only certain minds. Today’s dystopian society consists of riots, arguments, shaming for religion, for race, for the way someone may walk, and for the way someone may talk. Overtime, our world has formed into a dystopian society.

In literature, dystopias have always been given a bad reputation for being detrimental to a society. However, this belief does not represent the positives of a society being dystopian. It is known that any dystopia, a detrimental society, was created originally as a utopia, a pleasant society. This means that any dystopia was started with the hope of helping people, but since no government can make everyone happy, the society eventually breaks down into a dystopia.The fact that many dystopias are rooted in good intentions means that, while contrary to popular belief, there must be some good things to a dystopian society. Despite most people thinking that dystopias are completely rotten, there are in fact some benefits to a society being dystopian.

Our society is far from perfect but yet it is not a dystopia, so what does a dystopia look like? A dystopia can be defined as "a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease and overcrowding" this society is clearly displayed in novels such as 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury . In the societies shown in both of these novels you can see some correlation on the quality of life that people lead, their actions and the people that surround them. Although these two novels may have some comparisons, they also have many contrasts.

A dystopia is "an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one."the book legend and the book Maus are both two

A dystopia is an imaginary, imperfect place where those who dwell are faced with terrible circumstances. The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley illustrates the concept of a dystopia. A utopia is an ideal place where everything is perfect, but in the novel, it becomes apparent that the author is trying to demonstrate the negative effects on a society when it attempts to become an unreachable utopian society. Brave New World is seen as a dystopia for many reasons, as citizens are deprived of freedom, programmed to be emotionless and under the control of a corrupt dictatorship. These points illustrate the irony of a society’s attempt to reach utopia by opposing ethics and morality; citizens are tragically distanced from paradise,

A dystopian society, usually illusory, is the reverse of an idyllic utopia: it is generally tyrannical and inhibited. Dystopian societies mirror our future- they are usually a hyperbolic familiar society with satirical exaggeration. This kind of literature is written to amend other people 's idea of the kind of society they should thrive for. As well as that, they are written to express their concerns about the future and humanity. Societies of this nature appear in many works of fiction, predominantly in novels set in a speculative future. Dystopian culture is often mused by societal collapse, dehumanization, poverty, and deprivation.

As the world continues to progress, it is broken down between the ways in which people act and how they are controlled in society. The influences contribute to the synchronized mindsets found in dystopian societies. A dystopia is where there is oppressive control over a society created to make it seem like it is perfect (ReadWriteThink). This is the opposite of a utopia, which is an isolated, full functioning society where everything in it is actually perfect (Utopia and Dystopia). Utopian societies are glorified and strived for; however, there is no way to truly achieve one.

A dystopia represents the polar opposite of a utopia. Indeed, it could even be considered a failed utopia, a failed ideal society. If one accepts this notion as fact, then it would lead to the logical conclusion that both must share some of the same characteristics. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 portrays one such dystopia that has emerged throughout the ages clearly depicting characteristics such as conformity, isolation from external influences, and an apparent lack of poverty, misery, and war.