Dystopian Literature: The Hunger Games Essay

Schroder English IV Honors 26 April 2018 The Comparison of Dystopian Aspects within 1984 and Hunger Games George Orwell’s novel 1984 created a bleak future where there was little to no hope. Such a society can be classified as dystopia, a utopia with dark aspects. Dystopian works are a subgenre of literature that highlights major ethical and humane issues by creating a fictionalized setting where such issues can be seen. Dystopian literature has recently been popularized through many modern authors

Margaret Atwood and Gary Ross’ 2012 film ‘The Hunger Games’ are dystopian texts that reflect the genre of dystopian literature and the context in which they were composed. The conventional themes through which they do this are uniformity, technology and removal from present time as well as how these concepts are manipulated to create new meanings. In Atwood’s 1986 novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ the theme of uniformity, conventional to dystopian literature arises from the consideration of America’s fundamentalist

Elements of Dystopian Fiction Many people today often enjoy reading books or watching movies from the dystopian genre. A dystopia is a futuristic, fictional world which is most of the time controlled by some sort of government. This government makes it seem that the world they live in is perfect, but in reality, there are multiple things wrong with it. People who experience these worlds are usually intrigued and are engrossed in the plot line of the story. In most cases, the story consists of the

A dystopian government is a government where everything leads to death. It is an antonym for a utopia which is a place, in which the society is chosen by the people, causing it to become what the people want it, to be “perfect”. An example of a dystopian government is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. In Atlas Shrugged, the government intervenes to take control over big businesses. Another work of literature that contains a dystopian society is The Hunger Games series. Every year in The Hunger Games

utopias are dystopias , the term "dystopia" was coined by fools that believed a "utopia" could be functional ( Samman ). Utopias and dystopias are two sides of the same coin; as beneath every façade of a utopian community , there is a dystopian undercurrent detected . The term Utopia is coined by Plato in his book The Republic (380 BC). Plato's Utopia represents an ideal society of freedom ,justice and equality (Gerhard 2 ) . In 1516 , the term "Utopia" was used by Sir Thomas More in his

population (Wooden). Contrarily, dystopian literature did not arise until the 18th century in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift; however, the term “dystopia” was not devised until the 19th century, originally called “cacotopia” by British philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Cacotopia evolved to dystopia later in the 19th century by British philosopher and politician John Stuart Mill in his speech before the British House of Commons. More contemporary dystopian literature includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New

Dehumanizing: The Hunger Games Imagining the reality of being placed into different districts to end up one day being forced to participate in the “hunger games” makes this piece of literature dystopian. Works like The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have similar affects to the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The idea of individuality is the main difference that may escape this novel from the others. Individualism is the only thing in favor of the characters

concept that has continually resurfaced in literature despite its tendency to die of failure. Keller describes the American dream as a catchphrase that symbolises the social and material values which all Americans can aspire to gain to live a happy and prosperous life (Kelller 2005, pp. 49-50). In recent years, young adult dystopian novels have risen to immense popularity depicting harsh and unjust societies oppressed by dictatorships such as that in The Hunger Games (2008). (LINK) In its portrayal of the

Dystopian Literature is the complete opposite of Utopian literature, which is an ideal society where everything is perfect, in which the world is ruled by a Totalitarian leader, or a post-apocalyptic world. Dystopian literature, unlike other genres, adapts to changing times and norms in society; although, we might not find Russians as scary as our parents or grandparents, our children or grandchildren may not find ISIS as scary as we do. The first work considered to be a part of dystopian literature

Dystopian literature explores social, political and economic structures by showing us, through a nightmare world, the negative characteristics using exaggerated critiques on real world issues. The Dystopian literature of the 21st century is the complete opposite of the Utopia of the 21st century. While a Utopia is an imagined state of things in which everything is perfect, while a dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally