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A literature essay on a dystopian society
A literature essay on a dystopian society
A literature essay on a dystopian society
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The future holds a different meaning for everyone, for some it holds hope while for others it holds despair. This constant wondering about the future has influenced many works to be written about the future. Some of these works propose a blissful future, but the majority paint the picture of an unfortunate dystopian world. Recently I read Daughters of the North, a novel in which the dystopian future of England is shown. Shortly after reading Daughters of the North, I watched The Road. This film showed a similar view of the future, yet more grim and unappealing that Daughters of the North. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting these two works to show two different points of view of what a dystopian world is. After watching The Road I realised there was a large amount of books and movies that believe the future will be grim. I believe this is because as humans we fear what may be in our future due to the conflicts that we face today and wish to warm the world.
When reading Daughters of the North, I took a specific interest in how the environment was represented. In both Daughters of the North and The Road I observed that the climate had been effected by climate change. The altered climate caused complications for the characters in both works, and contributed to the dystopian world. Buildings and towns where described as run down and old, suggesting a poor economy. The people in both works where shown as depressed and badly treated, having to fight to survive and being abused by those who held power over them. An antagonist was heavily present in both The Road and Daughters of the North, these antagonists held power over the main characters and worsened the hardships they had to face. Those who held power had claimed ...
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...of the North and The Road. Today climate change is a growing problem and as a society, we have yet to open our eyes to the damage we our doing to the environment. Both Daughters of the North and The Road show possible outcomes of what can happen if we avoid the truth and proceed to live our lives in such a self destructive manner. Food shortages are prevalent in many parts of the world, but have yet to heavily impact the United States, by lacking an understanding of the malnutrition others go through, we are unable to contemplate what a large issue world hunger is. The Road shows a extremely drastic example of world hunger, one where cannibalism and killing are common tactics to receive food. Though they seem impossible, distopias such as those in Daughters of the North and The Road are very possible, it is just up to humanity to prevent them from becoming reality.
Conclusively, dystopian texts are written to provide a warning about future times. Authors and directors use a variety of techniques to put their idea forward and have an impact of the audience. Rules that the chosen texts exhibit include that citizens have a fear of the outside world and all citizens adhere to a strict set of rules, but there is a main protagonist who scrutinises the governments or society’s nature. The rules that authors and directors use to put forward their messages of the moral issues human cloning and relying too much on technology and instinctively perusing traditions are evident throughout all three texts.
Imagine a world where everything is black and covered in layers of ash, where dead bodies are scattered throughout the streets and food is scarce. When earth, once green and alive, turns dark and deadly. A story about a man, his son and their will to survive. Within the novel Cormac McCarthy shows how people turn to animalistic and hasty characteristics during a post-apocalyptic time. Their need to survive tops all other circumstances, no matter the consequences. The hardships they face will forever be imprinted in their mind. In the novel, The Road, author Cormac McCarthy utilizes morbid diction and visual imagery to portray a desperate tone when discussing the loss of humanity, proving that desperate times can lead a person to act in careless ways.
Dystopia represents an artificially created society to where a human population is administered to various types of oppressions, or a human population lives under the order of an oppressive government. The novel Fahrenheit 451 and the film V for Vendetta both effectively display this dystopian concept in their works. The nature of the society, the protagonist who questions the society, and the political power that runs the society are examples of how the novel and the film efficiently capture the main points of a dystopian society. The authors of the novel and the film use their visions of a dystopian future to remark on our present by identifying how today’s society is immensely addicted to technology and how our government has changed over the past decades. Furthermore, the authors use our modern day society to illustrate their view of a dystopia in our
Through out the course of history there have been several events that have been a pivotal point which has molded the behaviors and thoughts of this century. A lot of notable activist and authors wrote stories and speeches about how they believed that this day and time would be like. A lot of these views were very accurate surprisingly. In the novel 1984 author George Orwell gives his vision on how he believed that the countries would be like if they kept going the way they were.This report will give you a brief rundown of the characters, theories and principles of this novel along with some of my personal insight of the novel.
Much of what the future holds are consequences of the events that have already taken place. Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 is a story about a lifestyle in the future that has evolved from our present, but in a seemingly different world. There is no flow of ideas, and the main purpose in a person's life in those days was to relax, not think, and be happy. Despite the seemingly unreality of the world in the future, the author is using it as a cautionary tale of what may become of our society. Bradbury stresses his views on how best to keep our society's system of government checks and balances, technological advances, and its fluidity of ideas.
Neither are passionate nor creative in factors such as love, language, history and literature. Our society today, in general, is unsure about the future: The nightmare of total organization has emerged from the safe, remote future and is now awaiting us, just around the next corner. It follows inexorably from having so many people. These quotes represent Watts’ fear for the future; George Orwell and Aldous Huxley both explore the future state of civilization in their novels.
Taking everything into account, a future society, depicted by Bradbury, is alarming and differs much from our one. Such things like feelings, socialising, appreciation and communication are vanishing from their lives. These creatures are changing into dull, hollow zombies. The relationships inside the couples are a burden. Along with, nothing seems worth while. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a genius work to make people ponder over the future.
Alfonso Cuarón’s movie “The Children of Men” depicts a catastrophic future for humanity. Although it is portrayed to show events in the future approximately the year 2027 what is interesting is that the society in which the people live in is very similar to the world we live in today. The buildings, stores, cars (although weird-looking) do not look at all fancy as one might think the future to look. Cuarón’s look on the future is not a positive, hopeful one as his movie foreshadows sorrows, miseries and gloom waiting to be welcomed into our world. His movie though does indeed go parallel with the political and societal events of today.
Dystopian literature is often portrayed as fiction or too unrealistic to be realistically considered. Many producers of songs, plays and movies have also created pieces, such as the Blade Runner and The Matrix, and have been some of the best works ever produced. It is a popular genre because of how today’s modern society can relate to one in this category. Our world is becoming more and more like the ones you would read about in your english class or the one that seem too fake to even consider real. These movies and books are thought provoking and paint two types of society. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell present the reader/viewer with what our society will look like in the future due to technology and classification
Which Way Home is a documentary about the struggle of a group of young kids from Mexico and Central America to make it to the United States on a train called “The Beast.” This documentary, directed by Rebecca Cammisa, brings to attention a human face on the immigration issue. It shows life-threatening risks that are taken by child migrants so they could bring an end to their problems such as fear of life on the streets, lack of jobs and having a better education.
People’s lives are constantly changing, and the changes could be small or massive. I have chosen to explore the theme ‘My World has been Turned Upside Down.’ This theme is portrayed in the novel The Hunger Game, by Suzanne Collins; the short story The Sniper, by Liam O’Flaherty, an advertisement for State Insurance, shot by Nathan Price and the visual text Aliens directed by James Cameron. The texts The Hunger Game and The Sniper have the common connection of killing people and keeping themselves alive. In the texts The Aliens and The Hunger Game they are connected because the main characters both need to save loved people and take massive risks. As well as the similarities there are also contrasts among these texts. The difference between
Literature is a form of art that is created simply with written symbols strung together to form words. It is the meaning behind these words which gives literature its finesse. It can show us the past, the future, and the present. Whether it be prose, drama or poetry, all literature speaks for itself and gives way to what the author wants to express. One branch of fictional literature is dystopian literature. Dystopias offer unique insight on what the future may become. It can be seen as a way for a creator to envision a terrible world unlike their own - or one that is all too similar. Such is the case with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story: “Harrison Bergeron” which depicts a caricature of America predicated on contemporary issues; it satirizes
A dystopian novel is a literary genre that satirically criticizes existing societies and taken for granted beliefs. The word dystopia has Greek origin and is made up of two morphemes “dys” meaning “bad” and “topia” meaning “place”. The word describes a harsh environment, namely society . The dystopian fiction presents a society which despite its antagonism, is not challenged by citizens. On the contrary, it is viewed as the best of all possible worlds. Indeed, even though individuals are constantly controlled by an oppressive political or religious ideology and dehumanized, they still abide by the imposed rules and never question them. The protagonist of the dystopian novel tries throughout the plot to question the utility and fairness of the established socio-political
When people predict the future, they usually foresee events or advances that they want to experience, such as world peace or flying cars. This is the case in neither Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World nor George Orwell’s 1984. In both novels, Huxley and Orwell extract their fears from their own minds and place them into a futuristic society. Social critic, Neil Postman, contrasts both of these author’s fears. In his contrast, Postman determines that both Huxley’s fears and representation of a future society are more prevalent in modern society than those of Orwell’s. What makes Postman’s assertion true is the acceptance of oppression and the effects of technology which Huxley’s society and the modern United States share over Orwell’s society in
Clear memories of his mother brothers and sister goes through his head thousands of times for 25 years and then through searches for months he finally finds his real mother and family back in India, from where he was adopted from his Australian parents when he was five. This book “A long Way Home” is a memoir of Saroo Brierley, a man with a powerful story living the extremes. Saroo was 5 years old when he got separated from his older brother, one night while at a train station in rural India. Saroo's elder brother Guddu had left him sleeping on a seat at a Burhanpur train station, but didn’t return for a long time, Saroo (than known as Sheru) when woke up boarded a train in search of his brother, thinking that his brother might be scavenging