Dystopian Novels

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Dystopian Novels
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Definition Check Utopian

• Utopian refers to human efforts to create a
  hypothetically perfect society.
• It refers to good but impossible proposals - or
  at least ones that are difficult to carry out.

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Dystopian versus Utopian

• Dystopian is the opposite of utopian it is often
  a utopia gone sour, an imaginary place or state
  where everything is as bad as it could possibly
  be.

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Dystopian Novels

• Dystopian novels usually include elements of
  contemporary society and are seen as a warning
  against some modern trend.
• Writers use them as cautionary tales, in which
  humankind is put into a society that may look
  inviting on the surface but in reality, is a
  nightmare.

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Examples of Dystopian Novels

• 1984
• Brave New World
• Fahrenheit 451
• A Clockwork Orange
• Animal Farm
• The Time Machine

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1984

• 1984 by George Orwell (1948)
• The setting is the future world of 1984, where
  the head of government is the all-knowing Big
  Brother.
• The heros longing for truth and decency leads
  him to secretly rebel against the government.
• He is arrested by the Thought Police who
  torture the hero to reeducate him and force him
  to love the Big Brother.

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Relation to the Real World

• 1984 serves as a cautionary tale against
  totalitarianism
• Totalitarianism - A centralized government that
  does not tolerate parties of differing opinion
  and that exercises dictatorial control over many
  aspects of life

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Relation to the Real World

• The regime in the book could represent a
  futuristic England or United States, since Orwell
  was worried about their increasing power during
  his lifetime.

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Relation to the Real World

• There are direct parallels between the book and
  the society at that time
• Leader worship similar to Big Brother,
  dictators Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were
  revered and followed absolutely
• Joycamps - a reference to Jewish concentration
  camps
• Thought police a reference to the Gestapo, the
  secret police of the Nazis
• The Use of Propaganda similar tactics were used
  in the totalitarian regimes of Hitler and Stalin

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Brave New World

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
• At first, the world it describes sounds like a
  utopia humanity is carefree, healthy, and
  technologically advanced.
• Warfare and poverty have been eliminated, and
  everyone is permanently happy.
• However, all of these things have been achieved
  by eliminating family, cultural diversity, art,
  literature, science, religion, and philosophy.

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Relation to the Real World

• The issues raised in the book were influenced by
  the issues of Huxleys time.
• The Industrial Revolution had brought massive
  changes to the world.
• Mass production made cars, telephones, and radios
  cheap and widely available.
• The effects of World War I and totalitarian
  regimes were still being felt.
• Huxley used his book to express the fear of
  losing individual identity in the fast-paced
  world of the future.

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Relation to the Real World

• One event that influenced Huxley was an early
  trip to America.
• Huxley was outraged by the commercial-led
  cheeriness and selfish nature of many of the
  people.
• There was a strong fear in Europe of worldwide
  Americanization.

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Relation to the Real World

• Therefore, in Brave New World, Huxley explores
  the fears of both Soviet communism and American
  capitalism.
• Worse, he suggests that the price of universal
  happiness will be the sacrifice of everything
  important in our culture motherhood, home,
  family, community, and love.

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1984 versus Brave New World

• The major difference between the two books is in
  1984 people are controlled by constant government
  surveillance, secret police, and torture.
• In Brave New World humans are controlled by
  technological interventions that start before
  birth and last until death, and actually change
  what people want.

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Fahrenheit 451

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
• The story takes place in the twenty-first
  century, in an America where books are banned.
• Society feels that opinion books contain
  conflicting theories which are disruptive to
  society.
• The penalty for owning one is having one's house
  and books burnt by "firemen."
• 451 F is stated as the temperature at which
  book paper catches fire and burns

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Relation to the Real World

• In the novel, Bradbury combined several issues of
  his contemporary society
• The burnings of books in Nazi Germany.
• Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the
  Soviet Union.
• The explosion of a nuclear weapon.
• "I meant all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the
  world at any time, right, left, or middle,"
  Bradbury has said.

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Relation to the Real World

• The author also addresses the concern that the
  presence of fast cars, loud music, and
  advertisements creates a lifestyle with too much
  stimulation where no one has the time to
  concentrate.
• He also addresses concerns about censorship at
  the expense of personal expression.

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Summary
Goals Methods Used
Theme
everyone equal, thinks the same way force, spying, secret police evils of totalitarianism
no war or poverty, only happiness change what people want sacrificing culture for happiness
absence of things disrup-tive to society book burnings, no personal expression consequences of fast-paced society

1984 Brave New World Fahrenheit 451
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Summary

• The dystopian literature of the period reflected
  the many concerns that resonated throughout the
  twentieth century.
• The concept of a dystopia was introduced to help
  reveal the potential consequences of a utopia
  turning against itself.