Utopias often describe the ideal society as a perfect harmony between male and female, black and white, rich and poor.
To begin, an overview of utopian history is needed. The utopian lineage is as old as the Earth itself. Specifically, it started in the Garden of Eden, which is considered the ultimate utopia. After that, the next major utopia is described in Plato’s The Republic. According to Plato, as along as the major people classes live justly with one another, the overall society will be in harmony. Next published was Thomas More’s Utopia.
“Possibly the quintessential utopia, Utopia (the full Latin title is De Optimo Republicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia) was written during that great flowering of European culture which was the Renaissance: the Americas were recently ‘discovered’, humanist scholars flourished, the Protestant Reformation was in the air and all things seemed possible” (Mastin).
Interestingly enough, there are significant differences between Utopia and The Republic. According to More, key components of a perfect society consists of a minimal governmental control, a strong family unit, no private property or currency, and a six-hour work day. But Plato’s ideal republic materializes very differently.
In regards to religion, utopias are somewhat ambiguous. In general, either exclusive or inclusive religious communities were created. The Puritans were exclusive.
“Religious exclusiveness was the foremost principle of their society. The spiritual beliefs that they held were strong. This strength held over to include community laws and customs. Since God was at the forefront of their minds, He was to motivate all of their actions. This premise worked both for them and against them” (Kizer).
There were multiple be...
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...reedom. But instead, they created religious tyranny. By searching for that which is unattainable, they formed only despair and hardships for others, intentionally or not.
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Mastin, Luke. B.C. to 16th Century. 2008. 9 December 2013. .
Sargisson, Lucy. Contemporary Feminist Utopianism. Psycology Press, 1996.
What would happen if an utopia wasn’t all that perfect on the inside? Judging by just the appearance of something may lead to a situation of regret and confusion.” The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson address the theme of religious and traditional symbolism.” The Lottery” demonstrates how something that seems so perfect on the outside isn’t all that great on the inside.
What is a utopia? Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary defines _utopia_ as "an imaginary and indefinitely remote place; a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, gov-ernment, and social conditions; *an impractical scheme for social improvement."* In _Brave New World_ Aldous Huxley creates a _dystopia_ (which Webster defines as "an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives") by predicting a pos-sible _utopia_ after many generations. Aldous Huxley analyzes how the utopia degenerated from its original intent into a terrible dystopia. In this essay I will discuss some aspects of this dystopia and relate to Aldous Huxley's dystopian vision.
“The vision of one century is often the reality of the next…” (Nelson 108). Throughout time, great minds have constructed their own visions of utopia. Through the study of utopias, one finds that these “perfect” societies have many flaws. For example, most utopias tend to have an authoritarian nature (Manuel 3). Also, another obvious imperfection found in the majority of utopias is that of a faulty social class system (Thomas 94). But one must realized that the flaws found in utopian societies serve a specific purpose. These faults are used to indicate problems in contemporary society (Eurich 5, Targowski 1). Over the years, utopian societies have been beneficial in setting improved standards for society. By pointing out the faults of society, improvement is the most likely next step. Citizens should take advantage of utopian literature in order to better future societal conditions (Nelson 104). Because it is impossible to create a perfect society in which everyone’s needs can be met, society must analyze utopias in order to improve their existing environment.
Utopia achieves great universality by evincing great understanding and sympathy with all men (Surtz, vii). It presents the hope for far better things, sustained by the view that man may shape and mold himself in any chosen form, (viii) thus creating the best earthly state possible. Redfield’s text focuses on nine insights to a spiritual transformation. When all nine insights are understood, an exciting new image of human life, and a positive vision of how we can save this planet, it’s creatures and it’s beauty will be attained (Redfield). According to Redfield, upon reaching the new millennium, human culture will shift as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on earth. In order to understand where we are today, we must take ourselves back to the year 1000 and move through the millennium as we lived through it. Imagine yourself being alive in the year 1000, the Middle Ages. The first thing you must understand is that the reality of this time is being defined by the powerful churchmen of the Christian church (22). Because of their position, these men hold great influence over t...
... world. Everyone would live, act, and look the same in this society. I don’t agree with Plato’s or Mores theory because I don’t think a person should work and achieve a nice home and have to switch houses with someone that might not have a nice as place as what I had. I agree with Lucian because if you work harder than someone else then shouldn’t get the same amount of money as them. Whatever job they do is how much money they should get not everyone gets the same amount. People could not think for their selves because it was dictated to them. After figuring out about this society, they are not perfect. They have some good things in their society like you don’t have to pay for anything or you go to the hospital without any fees or copays. In the end, Utopia will always be a different society that everyone would want to live in but hate it when they did. (More, 2011)
The first real concept of Utopia was seen in Plato’s Republic, where it presented the very first model of what a utopian society would appear to be. Many years later, in the sixteenth century, Sir Thomas More wrote his book about utopia called, Utopia. This was written in responds to the difficult times England was facing, in social and political terms. It basically showed what could be achieved if previous historical conflict causing actions no longer happened. After the success of More’s utopian concept, many other intellects followed in writing their own utopian concepts all throughout the seventeenth century. Of all the books written, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis was one of the most notable of them all. It shows how many utopian works seek the same general ideas with many different, varied implementations. After the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth, the American Revolution occurred. After the success of the Revolution, many intellects started to wonder what the society put in place would be like. Many experimental communities throughout the new found America were put in place, all striving to achieve an ideal society. None of these societies were able to be sustained, although in theory, many have persisted.
In Sir Thomas More 's Utopia, he creates broad distinctions between the way that things were done in his homeland, and they way that they are done in his fictitious country of the same name. In his writing, he describes many aspects of Utopian life, from geography to clothing, all in his attempt to create the perfect society, one that does not, and could not, exist. More specifically, he attempts to eliminate the follies of European society in his descriptions of the Utopians, referencing their societal pillars of utility, uniformity, and humility. He describes their government, clothing, opinions on precious metals, and euthanasia practices, all in an effort to display Utopia as a country of logic, built to hinder and prevent the possibility of human failings.
In the novel “Lord of the Flies”, one can get an understanding of just how difficult it is for the foundation of a utopia. Ralph was the leader of his utopia in which the system of ruling was considered to be very democratic. Ralph had been voted in by the majority of the group which gave society a voice. The idea of democracy was farther demonstrated through the representation of the conch which said that whoever had it was to be the one speaking. Ralph had declared this when he said “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking (Golding.31).” The utopia of Ralph had some positive essentials of a perfect world, such as it was peaceful; there was freedom, equality and the thought of morality. *INCLUDE EXAMPLES* But even with those key elements it was too intricate to sustain, which led...
Even Shakespeare speaks of a utopian society in The Tempest, when Gonzalo says, “Would I admit; no name of magistrate; letter should not be known; riches, poverty, and use of service; none; contract; succession; bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none… no occupation; all men idle, all, and woman too, but innocent and pure; no sovereignty.” (The Tempest, pg. 24, lines 14-21) To Gonzalo, a utopian society has the absence of status, property, and profession which assumes unity and uniformity of humans. Although it seems perfect, it is impossible to get people to follow along. Many utopian experiments start off with enthusiasm, but end up with little followers. An example of this would be the Fruitland. It is where Louis May Alcott wrote her short story, “Transcendental Oats”, it depicted an image of how they lived there and how the experiment failed. Her father, Brandon Alcott and another man were the ones who started the experiment. However, they kept adding rules once people joined the community, thus caused many people to leave. Later on, due to crop failure and internal disorder, the community dissolved. People who joined the community were disillusioned by how different they thought the community would be. This often happened with many utopian
The Utopia Reader defines the word utopia as “a nonexistent society described in detail and normally located in time and space.” (p.1) I would best define utopia as a fictional dream- paradise land where everything is peaceful, perfect and all runs smoothly. There is no crime disease, or pain. People are happy, kind and fair and have each other’s best
In philosophy, the Utopians are uninterested in the abstract suppositions that are the rage in Europe and which Hythloday finds empty. The foremost topic of Utopian philosophy is the nature of happiness, and the relation of happiness to pleasure. In such matters they ground their reason in religion, believing reason alone is ill equipped to handle such an investigation.
...d not an actual social state. Utopias are disturbing because they represent life lived systematically—except this really isn’t living at all. The Yahoos could not have thought they lived in perfection because the horses sought to eliminate their species. Though it is never mentioned whether or not the Yahoos knew of their fate, the horses regarded them as a burden. Just as the Yahoos were treated as inferior to the Houyhnhnms, utopias dehumanize their inhabitants as they rob their people’s right to live with dignity and feeling.
While the idea of the word utopia is universal, the actual stories that derive from that idea can be very different in nature. The outcome, or even the basis of the story, relies completely upon the authors, or readers view of a prefect society. This is how progress is made, through ideas and thoughts of revolutionary writers in stories we have come to call "utopian."
Utopia is possible although there is no way to make just one because everyone has different views and different ideas of what their perfect society should be. I think that by using sort of the same concepts from Divergent, we could potentially get a society that is at the very least, close to utopia. Utopia is hard to achieve for many reasons but the main reason is that humans are not perfect creatures, Human error is bound to get in the way of this perfect society. But by making several smaller societies with their own values and priorities and letting the people choose where they want to live, I think we could definitely be on the right track. You would be living amongst people with the same values as yourself and they also wanted to be
Peoples’ views of what the perfect society would look like have changed because of a few cultures in history. This “perfect society”, also called a utopia, can be found within many different religions, mythologies, cultures, and more. These change us to think differently about what we would call perfect. For example, everyone works together, everyone for themselves, isolation from the rest of the world, and so on. A few generalizations have been made about utopias. “Man strives to create his own personal and societal utopia.” “Man has been searching for or trying to create a utopian society since time began.” “Man corrupts his utopia after finding it or creating it.” “Dreams, memories, nature, emotions, and time help shape man’s ideas regarding utopia.” “Individuality may be lost I man’s quest for utopia.” These apply to most, if not all utopian situations throughout fictional societies and history.