Dystopian Literature

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Recommended: Utopia vs dystopia

!!!Genre of 1984 __1984__, written by George Orwell, is an example of a novel in the __dystopian__ literature genre. Dystopian literature specifically looks at how political, social, and economic structures can go bad and oppress the people that they are meant to help. In order to better understand what the dystopian genre is, we should first compare it to its opposite genre - utopian literature. [{Image src= 'george_orwell.png ' alt= 'Orwell ' caption= 'George Orwell, writer of 1984, one of the most famous examples of a novel in the dystopian genre '}] !!Utopia vs. Dystopia Though the word __utopia__, which means ' 'good place ' ' or ' 'no place ' ', was used in ancient Greece, the word was most notably applied to literature in Sir …show more content…

Information is closely controlled; sometimes, important information is hidden, and other times, information is altered or falsified outright. This confuses the citizenship and hides anything from them that might cause dissent. 2. Things about the old, free society are changed or destroyed in order to erase them from memory, such as ways of writing, ways of speaking, or artifacts that have important historical or cultural value. 3. Citizens are watched most or all of the time. Constant surveillance allows the leaders of society to watch everyone and to make sure that no one is trying to rise up against them. 4. Citizens are often distracted with unimportant things to make sure that they do not focus on their lack of freedom. For example, citizens might be distracted with television entertainment (such as in the books ' 'Fahrenheit 451 ' ' or ' 'The Running Man ' ') or shopping in commerce (such as in the book ' 'Jennifer Government ' '). The main characters in dystopian novels often are trying to take down, deal with, or escape their oppressive societies, and oftentimes, the main character fails to do so in order to show how powerful these dystopian leaders can be. These things are common to most, if not all, dystopian stories. Let 's apply them to Orwell 's ' '1984 ' ' as …show more content…

It is effective at hiding information from the citizens. The Ministry of Truth has even destroyed the old language of English and replaced it with a Party-endorsed language. Newspeak is a new language that is used, and the words in it are often contradictory and confusing. By destroying the old way of speaking, the citizens lose an important connection to the days before the Party came into

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