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Analysis dystopian literature
Dystopian fiction analysis
Analysis dystopian literature
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Like in many dystopian novels, Divergent has divided different types of people into created class structures to try and perfect humanity and prevent war. These structures are called factions, and people born or switched into them are forced to live their lives and think as the faction demands it. These factions are separated by their character between selflessness, peacefulness, honesty, intelligence, and bravery. Human beings cannot be limited to a single characteristic and one way of thinking. The leaders make it out so the people feel as if they have a choice in what they do with their lives, but the truth is that they are only given the choice to choose between a few pre-determined lifestyles. If they fail initiation going into a new faction, they are forced to live outside of the society; factionless. This system is not a beneficial way to structure a society. The point of these factions is to lead to a better society and a better world, but war and rebellion are inevitable. Having people forced to live in different factions based on how they act and think, and limiting them only to that nature is not better, but ludicrous.
Something that seems to be working well in Tris’ society is the factions mostly keeping to their own and all contributing to help the society become better. Erudite controls the social media and newspapers, Abnegation controls the government, Amity grows the food for the factions and controls farming, and Dauntless is in control of protecting everyone in the city and guarding the gates. All together working as a whole creates the illusion of a perfect society. Until human nature kicks in and the bad contaminates the society. A revolt is in the control of a single faction. Without all the pieces working, ...
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...as each of the five characteristics, though some more than others. Divergent individuals should not be prosecuted, because they are just like everyone else.
Tris’ mother says that everyone would rather be dead than factionless because community is most important, but maybe there could just be one big faction, raised Abnegation, but also having different characteristics. If everyone were Abnegation things would work better. Everyone could be raised to want less and get less so that they would be content, and greed would not poison them. Tris’ father says “Those who want power and get it live in terror of losing it. That’s why we have to give power to those who do not want it.” If everyone was Abnegation and the decisions were thought out by everyone, things would be fair. No one would become desperate for power, and no one would disagree with the power and rebel.
Throughout a series of books, and now movies known as Divergent they hit a lot of points as to what is believed as a “good society”. In the series, Divergent all must conform and fall into a certain category Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Candor, or Amity . If one fails to do so, and falls into all of the categories they are known as “Divergent," and must be killed for failing to conform to traditional society standards and rules. This relates to Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, because he talks about humans not needing a form of structure set by a hierarchy, such as a government. A good society according to Thoreau, is one with little to no government involvement, one that respects laws to a certain extent, and one that follows
Given the nature of man, factions are inevitable. As long as men hold different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of property, they will continue to fraternize with people who are most similar to them. Both serious and trivial reasons account for the formation of factions but the most important source of faction is the unequal distribution of property. Men of greater ability and talent tend to possess more property than those of lesser ability, and since the first object of government is to protect and encourage ability, it follows that the rights of property owners must be protected. Property is divided unequally, and, in addition, there are many different kinds of property; men have different interests depending upon the kind of property they own. For example, the interests of landowners differ from those who own businesses. Government must not only protect the conflicting interests of property owners, it must, at the same time, successfully regulate the conflicts that result from those who own, and those who do not own, property.
In Federalist Paper Number 10, Madison sees Factions as being inevitable. Humans hold differing opinions and are all living under different circumstances, and are likely to group together with those most like themselves. Some groups of people will attempt to work together to benefit themselves even if it goes against public interests and even if it infringes upon the rights of others. In the Federalist Paper Number 10, Madison feared that Factions could be detrimental to the common good and in order to minimize the effects and control the effects of Factions, the best form of government would be a large republic. According to Madison, to minimize the negative consequences of Factions, they must either be controlled or the causes of Factions must be removed. Since he describes the causes of Factions being the different interests and living conditions between individuals, it can be argued that this solution is not very feasible. It would be impossible to make sure every single person makes the same amount of money, has the same goals, and even goes through similar life experiences. The greatest source of Factions, the deepest and biggest cause of Factions, according to Madison, is the unequal distribution of property. The acquisition of property or lack of property creates class divisions the foster differing interests. Since it is not possible to
. Factions can be present in many different settings in society. They can be a passion for different opinions on religions, government, or war. Madison claims that "the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever been formed distinct interests in society." The modern government includes factions as necessary operations, and the regulation of these interest groups form the foremost assignment of legislation.
In Divergent, Tris is the poster child for going against conformity. She chooses her own path in life, goes against “the test”, and she challenges any standards that society places out for her. Tris leaves her faction, abnegation, because “[she isn’t] selfless enough, no matter how hard [she tries] to be." (pg 336) She isn’t what her faction obliges her to be, and unlike many others she did not try to become something she was not. She moves onto something that suits herself better. “Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it's not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way.” (pg 442) but the Divergents’ “minds move in a dozen different directions. [They] can't be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies [their] leader...
Next, Madison explains the reasons why unequal distribution of property leads to factions. Under the liberal society, people can freely practice their own faculties and experiment of life. Because people make decisions based on their reasoning and self-interest, they will focus on what is beneficial to them. When a group of people come together because they have the same interest, it becomes a faction. According to Madison’s writing “By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion or of interest… (Page 63)” He believes the unequal distribution of property will divide people into different group and eventually lead citizens to factions. Moreover, because faction is made by people who hold sim...
Learning about it and talking about it are two different things to me. Even though Divergent is set in a futuristic world a lot of the structures in that society go hand and hand with our society today. We have achieved or ascribed statuses, kids who are born into religion or parents who decide they want to be a certain religion. We have kids born into a certain job and do it because their parents want them to choose it. I see day in and day out people following the rules because they don’t want to be an outcast in society. If you don’t follow our society’s norms people look at you like you are crazy and no one wants to be looked at like they are crazy. If you don’t follow society’s rules then you can end up in poverty and have no one to care about you. So many people in the movie followed the rules because they thought that’s the only way society can be ran but it isn’t. Today I also see a lot of the same things going on. In the movie Tris stepped up and did the right thing, once Tris did that more and more stepped up and joined the cause. We today do the same thing, we don’t step up and do the right thing until others do. In present society we have primary groups who each have their purpose of keeping society functioning. We have teachers who teach knowledge to kids who someday will have jobs to keep society running. We have the work labor force to do the things that people like politicians don’t want to
In our contemporary times the founding fathers would not see a problem with faction, because now we have a very strong central government. Factions today can be consider any type of groups that has an objective such as AARP, NAACP, Occupy wall St. and many others. Over the years factions have become larger and more powe...
The Vikings formed a society that’s institutions caused a loss in compassion and was focused on self-interest. Institutions being: “The organizational structure through which political power is exercised” (116). Rousseau believed “that all of society, not just political society, is corrupt” (58). This moral corruption that exists is caused by the formation of institutions that set the basis for a group identity and beliefs, the Vikings. Group identity is, “the degree to which members identify with a group” (56). This identity leads to an estrangement among those who are outsiders. The institutions promote the use of collective action: “A coordinated group activity designed to achieve a common goal that individuals acting on their own could not otherwise attain” (42). This collective action is the Vikings pursue to destroy the Dragon population. The Vikings view the Dragons as “pest” who steal their food and destroy their land (How to Train Your Dragon). So, the i...
Federalist No. 10 discusses faction, liberty and the process of government to keep the surplus of faction low. James Madison describes a faction as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community” (Federalist No. 10). Madison takes the argument in Federalist No. 10 that faction and liberty are inseparable. This is logic in our government; instead of trying to eliminate the cause of factions; the government can control the effects of faction (Federalist No. 10). Madison states two solutions to eliminating the cause of faction; “the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interest” (Federalis...
In “Federalist #10”, Madison describes the dangerous effects that factions can have on Republican government and on its people. Madison defines a faction as a group of citizens who unite under a shared cause, and work against other groups in order to achieve their means. Their means of achieving their goals may achieve adverse effects upon the rights of other citizens. Put in more modern terms, a faction could be reasonably compared to a special-interest group. The sort of faction that most endangers the liberty inherent in United States society are factions that contain a majority of the whole. The weakness of a popular government is its susceptibility to the effects of factions. However, a well-constructed Union provides numerous advantages, and its ability to break and control factions is its most important and vital to the success of the Union. Factions arise due to the nature of man to be moved by different opinions and passions. Men will be diverse in their opinions as well as their social and economic classes, and just by the mere presence of dividing classes will factions arise. By means of factions, legislative measures are often decided by an overbearing majority, with little or no regard for others who do not share their interests. Protecting against factions will protect those in the minority, and ensure that the public good is served.
They are necessary is because their causes are woven into the fabric of human nature. In Federalist No. 10, James Madison explains that there are only two ways to cure society from the problems of factions: by eliminating its causes, or controlling its effects. Some of the brightest political minds in the history of the world have debated which way will produce the most favorable result. To summarize Madison’s conclusion, he believed that the causes of factions can never be destroyed. Therefore, the best strategy to implement is to control its
One person might say that anarchy would be the only way to have complete and utter freedom, while others would go as far as to believe a controlled communist government is the best route to achieving liberation. Factions (a group of people who agree on certain topics) are inevitable, due to the nature of man. As long as men hold different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of property, they will continue to fraternize with people who are most similar to them. In Federalist #10, James Madison summed up factions eloquently stating that “Liberty is faction, what air is to fire, an ailment without which it instantly expires.” The government created by the Constitution controls the damage caused by such factions. The likelihood that public office will be held by qualified men is greater in large countries because there will be more representative chosen by a greater number of citizens. Power is distributed in a checks and balance format, making it difficult for factions to completely take over. Madison’s views on faction are still relevant and exercised frequently even after 200 years have passed.
Human nature cannot be changed, we evolve, we learn but humans interact by finding commonality with others. We create factions through religious ideology, politics, race, gender, and intelligence in an attempt to simplify the world and create a system that we can understand. Madison recogniz...
Society, what makes a good one? Is it the rules? The people? The choices? In the novel, The Giver, the community runs solely upon rules. The people believe that if there are many strict and specific rules, there will never be any problems. Rules in their community are put as a priority before anything else. I believe rules should not define how a society runs.