The U.S. and Dystopian Literature
Imagine a chaotic society of people who are so entangled by ignorance and inequity that they do not realize it; this would be called a dystopian society. Dystopian societies are very popular among many fictional stories. In fact, in the stories Fahrenheit 451 and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, dystopian societies are represented. In many of these stories, the people in the fictional societies are violence-loving, irrational people who always seem to do what people of the U.S. society would consider "immoral." These stories are not a representation of how the U.S. society is now, but how it could be in the future. Unlike the society of Fahrenheit 451, the U.S. allows people
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In addition to that, the relationship between American parents and children in the U.S. is better than the relationship that Bradbury portrayed in “The Veldt.” Therefore, the people of the U.S., though similar in some ways, are far from being at the same state of the horrific dystopian societies of Fahrenheit 451, “The Veldt,” and The Hunger Games, because in the United States, there is a stronger emphasis on important moral principles such as …show more content…
In “The Veldt,” Bradbury tells about a distant relationship between parents and children to convey the theme that if parents do not spend quality time with their children, the children will eventually hate them. Also, Bradbury states that in the story’s society, the children think of killing others at the age of two years old: “Long before you knew what death was you were wishing it on someone else” (Bradbury). According to research, the lack of discipline and order in that society does not reflect the relationship between American parents and children. Based on a survey done by SheKnows Parenting Editors in the article “Survey Results: The Truth About The American Family,” most children are disciplined by their parents. In addition to that, the survey revealed that most children would rather live close to their parents instead of living far away from them. This proves that the majority of American children have a good relationship with their parents and would never go so far as to kill their parents, like the children in “The Veldt” did. Also, research done by Annette Lareau proves that middle-class Americans “ seek to develop their (children’s) talents and skills through a series of organized activities, through an intensive process of reasoning and language development, and through close supervision of their experiences in school.” Since the middle class is the most common class
Geoffrey Canada, the author of Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun; A Personal History of Violence, grew up and worked his entire life near or in the underclass society. Through his keen observation on behavior of children in these regions, he has noticed how with the introduction to guns, in particular to children created even more dangerous neighborhoods. Throughout his lifetime in New York, he tells us that violence has changed to be less organized and the social stability of the children is tested with (fire) power that they are too young to fully understand, it was an evolutionary decent. His observations on the violence that children can commit to each other parallels well with fictional story Lord of the Flies written by Nobel prize winning writer, William Golding. Golding, like Canada, looks what kind of environment is needed for violence to prevail in children. Although Golding’s 1954 book Lord of the Flies is fiction, it describes our current impoverished America’s epidemic on violence very well.
At what point can a society be described as dystopian? Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, tells the story of a man named Guy Montag who lives in a dystopian society where life isn’t as great as the government makes it out to be. Our society is slowly becoming more and more similar to the dystopian society found in Fahrenheit 451 in the fact that many families aren’t as stable as most might desire them to be, the government mostly ignores the country’s ideals and only focuses on its own for the sake of its own benefit, and many of society’s ideas are being disrespected or noted as activities that people shouldn’t be allowed to indulge in while in this country through censorship.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a materialistic society that has forgotten social interaction with each other. This materialistic society is where Bradbury believed society today is headed<THE TENSES HERE ARE A LITTLE CONFUSING.>. The materialistic society in Fahrenheit 451 created through Bradbury's cynic views of society<THIS IS A FRAGMENT SENTANCE.> His views of society are over-exaggerated in contrast with today's events, especially in the areas of censorship and media mediocrity.
In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the author creates a picture of a society that resembles our present-day society in a variety of ways. Although a society in which government has total control over its citizens seems to be a little extreme, there are definitely clues that can be seen today that suggest that we are headed in the same direction. Some of the resemblances between the society in Fahrenheit 451 and our society today are the governments’ hypocrisy, the gullibility of the citizens who fully support the government, and the fact that books are becoming rather extinct due to advances in modern technology.
A dystopian society can be defined as “a society characterized by human misery”. 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury both demonstrate dystopian societies. However, that does not mean they do not their differences. In each society the government has different ways of controlling and limiting its citizens for doing only what they want them to do. In 1984, violators are brainwashed into loving and following Big Brother as if they never knew the truth and return back to their everyday lives. Fahrenheit 451 also punishes violators in a way that makes them regret and scared to ever do it again instead of making them forget.
Fahrenheit 451’s society can compare and contrast to the society today. Social status where the firemen and famous are on top while the thinkers and the ‘nobodies’ are on the bottom. Guilty pleasures of the book readers, in Fahrenheit 451, and the people in the society today are not being shared do to fear. Knowledge was the biggest difference from Fahrenheit 451 to the society today. In conclusion, the society today is very similar to the society of Fahrenheit
This appears in The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451. In The Hunger Games, the people are told by the government and the media that their society is a lot better than what is used to be, and that the reason they have the Hunger Games is because they want to remember what their people fought for. However, the government is using it as propaganda to cover up how twisted and wrong the country is. Their society would be much better off without the Hunger Games, having people constricted in small areas, and using higher powers (the president) to scare the public. They try to show it off as a perfect world, but it’s actually not. This is also evident in Fahrenheit 451 when everyone thinks their country is better than all of the rest, and that there’s nothing wrong at all. Their society is a disaster though; almost everyone is suicidal, no one can think for themselves, and all forms of recreation are either malicious or just not exciting at all. In both books, there are protagonists who realize that the society they live in is a dystopia, and they try to rebel against
The dream of a utopian society is a common one, but unfortunately, all utopias are destined to contain dystopian elements. Although, some dystopias are more sustainable than others, as within the society citizens may believe it to be a utopia. Ray Bradbury 's Fahrenheit 451, focuses on a dystopia in which all literature and outside communication is completely banned from apocalyptic America. The society’s focus to keep all their citizens “happy” through fulfilling careers and a lot of time for leisure. In an attempt to prevent pain and doubt, no time is left for thought or reflection. Without pain, the citizens can never truly be happy. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, revolves around the apocalyptic world in which humans are genetically
A dystopia- “an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror” (Dystopia). Aldous Huxley demonstrates just that in his book Brave New World. In Brave New World Huxley creates a perfectly stable society through using clones. This society achieved this stability through the administering and conditioning of the brain. Huxley an extreme humanist feared this future society because of the work of other extremist with theories that could not be proven (Chunk) Sigmund Freud known as he father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, and influential thinker of the early twentieth century” (Thornton), he came up with many strange ideas about the human brain that many psychologist struggled to come to acceptance with, but these theories made him an acclaimed psychologist. His ideas could not be scientifically proven by any means, but that did not matter to the public. They exalted Freud and everything he stood for. Huxley saw how Freud’s discoveries left everybody in apprehension, and that intimidated him, Huxley saw how effortlessly people could be manipulated by one person who had no tangible scientific evidence to back his philosphy up. The gullibility of Huxley’s society not only scared him, but it petrified him. In Brave New World Huxley uses an innumerous amount of Freud’s concepts to show America the consequences of being so easily deceived. In the book Huxley used Ford as a god like figure they would say “our Ford” in place of saying “our Lord” but at times Huxley would perspicaciously change Ford’s name to Freud thus saying “our Freud.” This minor component often ends up getting discounted by the reader because Freud’s name never explicitly gets m...
Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence on the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our Democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books.
What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the future.
It is of mixed opinions as to the popularity of modern society and that of the current government. Some believe the United States is, frankly, the best and most free country. They are those who enjoy the freedoms granted by the government and indulge themselves into the American culture. Others are not as fond; always searching for an excuse to criticize the current happenings, whether they be in the government or on the streets. In previous decades, such as the 1940s, the majority of citizens shared the more patriotic view. When comparing the current United States as a whole to that of a dystopian society, it becomes clear that the former faction may be looking through rose colored glasses. The dystopian motifs in George Orwell 's 1984 stemmed
Modern-Day America is far from a utopia, but still not to be considerd a dystopia.America cannot be compatable to the futuristic society of The Giver by Lois Lowry. They both have bad qualities, such as America has a problem with racism, while in The Giver the goverment eliminates choices. In additionto that both societies have a problems with birth controll. Modern-Day America and The Giver has their ups and downs.
Imagine being in a game where everyone dies except for one victor, and you have to risk your life to save your little sister’s life. Also imagine not being able to speak freely in your own home. These are some examples of how dystopian governments take control of the people in the societies in dystopian novels. The governments of 1984 and The Hunger Games share the dystopian goal of dehumanizing their citizens in order to maintain and win control over the citizens. The Party and the Capitol are after power, and whoever has control of the people in a society has has all the power.
Society will never be perfect. Equality will never be sustained. A dystopian society will always have corruption of government. Corruption is present all around the world but is swept under the rug. Abridgment of human rights happens every day in our country or another. Oppression is the cause for all the sadness in our world. There will be always selfishness in dystopia. One must sink for another to rise, but “good doesn’t mean good for everyone. It means worst for someone.”