C Block

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Literature Circle Selections

• C Block
• Theme-Dystopia/Utopia

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Definition of Utopia

• 1.
• a. often Utopia An ideally perfect place,
  especially in its social, political, and moral
  aspects.
• b. A work of fiction describing a utopia.
• 2. An impractical, idealistic scheme for social
  and political reform

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Definition of Dystopia

• A futuristic, imagined universe in which
  oppressive societal control and the illusion of a
  perfect society are maintained through corporate,
  bureaucratic, technological, moral, or
  totalitarian control.
• Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case
  scenario, make a criticism about a current trend,
  societal norm, or political system.

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The Selection Process

• Review the selections I have provided in class
  under the theme of Utopia/Dystopia
• Write in order the novels you would like to read
  in order of preference (1-8)
• Hand this list into Ms. Watson (me) prior to
  April 7th 2011.
• When the groups are selected I will try my best
  to accommodate everyone but understand that there
  are only so many of each novel so it may be
  difficult.

• Once the groups have been selected I will review
  the Lit. Circle process.

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1.Oryx and Crakeby Margaret Atwood

• In , a science fiction novel that is more Swift
  than Heinlein, more cautionary tale than
  "fictional science" (no flying cars here),
  Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world that
  turns from the merely horrible to the horrific,
  from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland.
  Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a
  tree and just might be the only human left on our
  devastated planet.
• He is not entirely alone, however, as he
  considers himself the shepherd of a group of
  experimental, human-like creatures called the
  Children of Crake.
• As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites,
  Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell
  apart.
• Source
• http//www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-
  Atwood/dp/0385721676

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One Flew Over the Cukoos Nestby Ken Kesey

• Ken Kesey's first novel One Flew over the
  Cuckoo's Nest tells Chief Bromden's story of life
  in a mental hospital. Bromden's strictly ordered
  environment is disrupted by the introduction of a
  force of unwavering individuality, a new patient
  named Randle Patrick McMurphy.
• McMurphy soon galvanizes the other patients
  against Nurse Ratched's oppressive control, but
  things turn sour as the patients' personal
  independence collides with Nurse Ratched's
  authoritarian power.
• Sourcehttp//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote
  /One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo-s-Nest.id-136.html

7
Anthemby Ayn Rand

• In Ayn Rand's Anthem, hero Equality 7-2521 yearns
  to be a scientist but is held back by a
  government that fears his intelligence.
• Ayn Rand's novella, set in a futuristic
  dictatorship, centers on the sins of free thought
  in a dark world of Collectivism, where
  individuals exist solely to serve the state.
• Equality 7-2521 dares to think, explore, imagine,
  question, love, and even discover electricity. He
  commits the ultimate sin when he rediscovers the
  Unspeakable Word "I."
• Sourcehttp//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote
  /Anthem.id-17.html

8
The Handmaids TaleBy Margaret Atwood

• Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale takes place
  after a religious coup overthrows the U.S.
  government and wages nuclear war.
• Offred considers how she went from a happily
  married, successful woman to a handmaid.
• Her name literally means "Of Fred" the
  property of a state official with whom she is
  duty-bound to conceive a child.
• The founders of Margaret Atwood's dystopian
  society hoped to improve humanity, but people
  were doomed to fall short of the new society's
  rules.
• Sourcehttp//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote
  /The-Handmaid-s-Tale.id-122.html

9
Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury

• In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, you journey to
  the 24th century to an overpopulated world in
  which the media controls the masses, censorship
  prevails over intellect, and books are considered
  evil because they make people question and think.
  
• The story is told by Guy Montag, a fireman who
  burns books for a living. Ray Bradbury's ability
  to create psychologically complex and ambiguous
  characters like Guy Montag enabled science
  fiction to be taken seriously in the literary
  world
• Source http//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNot
  e/Fahrenheit-451.id-106.html

10
Blindnessby Jose Saramago

• Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass
  epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone
  in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that
  swiftly follows.
• The novel follows the misfortunes of a handful of
  characters who are among the first to be stricken
  and centers around a doctor and his wife, several
  of the doctors patients, and assorted others,
  thrown together by chance.
• This group bands together in a family-like unit
  to survive by their wits and by the unexplained
  good fortune that the doctors wife has escaped
  the blindness.
• The sudden onset and unexplained origin and
  nature of the blindness cause widespread panic,
  and the social order rapidly unravels as the
  government attempts to contain the apparent
  contagion and keep order via increasingly
  repressive and inept measures.
• Sourcehttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindness_

11
A Brave New WorldBy Adlous Huxley

• Aldous Huxley's Brave New World looks to the year
  2540, where society accepts promiscuous sex and
  drug use and science has made humanity carefree,
  healthy, and technologically advanced. War and
  poverty no longer exist, and people are always
  happy.
• But these achievements have come by eliminating
  things from which people derive happiness
  family, cultural diversity, art, literature, and
  religion.
• Sourcehttp//www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote
  /Brave-New-World.id-45.html

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The Ugliesby Scott WesterfieldThis option is
a new selection that I sadly do not have copies
for ? I placed it amongst the selection in case
there are enough people interested in reading it
you may purchase or search in the public library
a copy and form a group of no less than 4.

• Uglies is a book by Scott Westerfeld for ages 11
  and up. The story follows a teenage girl named
  Tally Youngblood who lives several centuries from
  now in a futuristic city where you're a "littlie"
  until you turn twelve, when you go to live in an
  ugly dorm. Uglies are educated into thinking
  they're hideous until they turn 16, when they get
  an operation that turns them into beautiful
  "Pretties."
• Right after the operation, they are "New
  Pretties" self-absorbed fools whose only purpose
  in life seems to be to party. "Middle Pretties"
  have picked their professions and gone through a
  second, minor operation that makes them look
  older and wiser "Late Pretties," or "Crumblies,"
  are parents, grandparents, great-grandparents,
  etc.
• The point of these operations is to stop wars and
  disagreements among people just because they look
  different from one another
• Source http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uglies_se
  ries