The Oxford English Dictionary defines dystopia as “an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.” The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a sad novel with mystery and excitement. There is prejudice against black people, and little seems to be right. One may wonder if the book meets the standards of a dystopian novel. The book overall does not meet the qualifications of a dystopian novel for many reasons. To start, the first reason that To Kill a Mockingbird is not a dystopian novel is its setting. A dystopian novel usually has a futuristic science fiction setting. The novel is set in the “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s (Lee 5). There are no advanced technological advancements; it is a plain simple town. Macomb, while it is fictional, is very realistic. To Kill a Mockingbird does not match the setting of a typical dystopian novel like Fahrenheit 451 and Hunger Games. Both of those books fit the cookie cutter dystopian book perfectly as far as the setting of each novel goes. …show more content…
The protagonist realizes there is something fundamentally wrong with society and tries to fix it. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird the protagonist is Scout. At the end of the book she realizes that awful prejudice society had against black people; however, she in no way tries to fix it. In dystopian novels such as Divergent the main character realizes that there is something radically wrong with their society, such as division of people. The protagonist, Tris, wants to repair society. There is a fundamental injustice in the society in To Kill a Mockingbird of segregation. Scout being a young girl can have little effect on the views of the people around her and she does nothing
The society is trying to be utopian but the more we read the more we realize it's flaws. Things like freedom of choice and expression, love, happiness, music, and art are all things we associate with a utopian society that the novel is deprived of. These things where all removed for the sake of living, but the novel leaves us scratching our heads wondering if it is worth living a life that doesn't give us anything worth living for. Although I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dystopian society because they have got some things right. For instance ethnicity and religion play no role in society as they shouldn't. And they do live in total peace. A hidden message of the novel might be that you can't have sunshine without a little rain. In this case they have gone with the safe choice of having only
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a novel written by Harper Lee. It is set during the early 20th Century in the fictional town of Maycomb. Lee has decided to write the novel from a child’s point of view because a child is innocent but as the novel progresses the narrator, Scout, loses her innocence as she deals with the complications of her father being a lawyer. The novel revolves around racism and Scout sees discrimination wherever she goes whether it is racial or social prejudice. The town’s people agree with the idea that whites are superior to blacks. An example of this is when Atticus, Scout’s father, has to defend a black man who is accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter.
'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a novel that was written in the 1960s, but Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. Lee provided her readers with a historical background for the affairs of that time and in doing so she exposed the deeply entrenched history of the civil rights in South America. Like the main characters in this novel, Lee grew up in Alabama; this made it easier for her to relate to the characters in the novel as she would have understood what they would have experienced during the period when racism, discrimination and inequality was on the increase within the American society.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that takes place in Alabama during the Great Depression. It is narrated by the main character who is a little girl named Jean Louise Finch aka “Scout”. Scout has a father named Atticus who is a lawyer and an older brother. The Finch’s are a white family and when Atticus goes to defend a black man, the whole town is shocked.This novel has tons of racism. Racism is an issue that is still current. Large amounts of racism are expressed in the novel still happens today through racial profiling, police brutality, and segregation.
I grew up in a home where my parents taught us to serve our country, community and those around us. They taught me through example, my father was a scout leader when I was a child. He often took me camping and to merit badge Pow Wow’s. As a boy I began to dream about becoming a boy scout. When I became old enough I joined the cub scouts. While in Cub scouts I learned about being part of the pack, about working together to accomplish large projects, to work together to accomplish a larger goal. Then when I was older I was able to join the boy scouts they taught me about being a citizen in the community, about being a good neighbor. They taught me about doing a good turn daily, and being prepared. When I was 13, I became a life scout. Being a life scout is not anything special, other than I was able to start working on my eagle project.
Dystopian literature has been described as fiction that shows a negative perspective without the limits of society and mankind. Utopian works ordinarily sketch a future in which innovation enhances the regular life of people and advances human
To Kill A Mockingbird depicts the daily occurrences in Maycomb County, an Alabama town in Southern USA. The story is set in the 1930s, when the people are mostly poor as a result of The Great Depression. Set in a time before the implementation of racial and sexual equality, the story provides insight on the mentality of the county people and their discriminative practices, which are aggravated by their difficult financial situation.
Dystopian literature highlights social flaws. It enforces the acceptance of imperfection, and the questioning of social practice. The idea of a perfect world may be great, but the reality of it is not. Not only that but it goes to show that there is no such thing as perfect, and that perfection is overrated.
To Kill A Mockingbird took place in the 1930’s, a time that was enormously charged with racial tension. One example of this is the existence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Even though the KKK was in a time of decline in the 1930’s, it had been very prominent in the 1920’s and had still not completely died out. The KKK had rallies and
Dystopian literature is a type of writing where the world in which the story takes place is not the best place to live and the people are normally controlled in everything they do. It comes from the Greek roots for Bad and Place. Anthem Ayn Rand is clearly an example of a dystopian novel because the government is flawed, and thoughts and feelings are restricted.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel written by Harper Lee. It is set in America in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a time of economic decline after World War II. The novel follows a young girl called Scout Finch and her brother Jem as they learn about the prejudice and racism within their society of Maycomb County. The children and their widowed father, Atticus have a unique relationship that includes the teaching of valuable life lessons and unusual, maternal nurturing.
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has become a mainstay in American high-schools. This is a classic novel that has inspired many people of all ages. It had a big impact on how people viewed and treated each other. This is a story that teaches everyone about the value of honesty, love, friendship and trust. Every word written in this book has a truly deep meaning to it. The time period that the book was written in was during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. This setting was in a small town in Maycomb, Alabama with people who did not get along. During this time there was a lot of segregation within America and different races. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a family who believes in doing the right thing and being honest. There was a
A dystopia in the 21st Century consists of an unpleasant society that's made to seem as if it were a utopian world, but in reality is quite the opposite because of its unjust laws and rules, oppressive society, and harsh rulers. According to John Adams the word "dystopia" comes from Greek origin meaning literally a "bad place. [2] Dystopian fiction is a literary genre that "explores" political and social structures, usually of a futuristic setting. This genre has grown to be immensely popular, especially in the "Teen" category. The dystopia genre is relatively new as it's less than a century old. The dystopias usually consist of a protagonist going against a system made to seem like a utopia and fighting its oppressive government in hopes of defeating it and freeing themselves along with everyone else.