Now, Weinstein is working on his next book, but its scope—it's a fictional field guide to a lost continent—gives him some agita. People naturally gravitate toward a narrative that validates their own worldview.
Either way, people are reaching out to dark visions to make sense of an increasingly unrecognizable country. Topics Books. Young children may blindly accept authority and follow the "rules" laid down by parents and other authority figures; as teenagers transition to adults, however, they are expected to take on more responsibility and to make more independent choices.
High school juniors and seniors, for example, are making significant choices about post—high school education and career options. As the adolescent psychologist Steinberg explains, these increasingly adult roles "stimulate the development of independent decision—making abilities and the clarification of personal values" p.
As teens' awareness of society's conventions and expectations gradually solidifies, they see their own potential as actors within the society. They come to recognize their own power as manifest in the choices they make about which career to pursue or what kinds of relationships they'll form.
The protagonists in dystopian literature ring true with teens' own experiences, and with their growing sense of self as agent and as bearer of the responsibility for their actions. The teens that Justin interviewed echoed this idea, explaining that part of why they liked these books is because they are driven by the main characters' personalities; the exercise of agency and responsibility certainly plays a role in these characters' strengths.
This awareness of one's own agency as well as one's responsibility for the consequences of choices is eloquently portrayed at the end of the novel Across the Universe Revis, In destroying the pumping system that delivered a sedative—like drug to the residents of the spaceship he lives in, Elder has freed them to feel emotions once again. But by the end of the book, it's clear that he has doubts about this path of action and is worried about governing a society that is truly free to feel and think and act as its members wish.
These are frightening choices he faces, and the consequences of those choices are significant, a fact that Elder seems to only fully realize once the decision has already been made.
Similarly, teenagers stand on the cusp of significant choices with life—altering consequences; there is little doubt that such choices will make them feel anxious and uncertain.
It is likely comforting, then, to see this uncertainty in Elder or in Cassia as she ponders what the Society might do to her family if she leaves to find Ky. Seeing their own concerns and worries mirrored in these characters must help teens feel that they are not alone, and may even give them the courage to face those difficult choices and their consequences, much as do the protagonists of these dystopian works. The protagonists of YA dystopias gradually develop a sense of agency and potential influence as they become aware of the flaws in their society.
While this growing awareness can isolate them from others around them, the actions they take and even their increased understanding of the truth are often aided by a relationship of some kind with another character in the story. This relationship, sometimes romantic, provides a catalyst for both the protagonist's changing perceptions about the society and his or her willingness to take action that runs counter to the conventions of that society.
Anderson's Feed , for instance, the disruption of Titus's "feed" a constant Internet connection linked directly into the brain certainly causes upheaval in his life. But it's his relationship with Violet that really forces Titus to reevaluate the role that the feed has played in defining who he is and what he wants out of life. The attraction he feels for Violet stems, in part at least, from her nontraditional lifestyle; the time he spends with her encourages him to explore the implications of a consumerist society with its tentacles, literally, in every space of his mind.
For Marcus, in Little Brother , subversive action against the powers—that—be comes easily, almost immediately after he is released from custody.
In the process of taking his initial actions to a level where the resistance will be more organized, he meets Ange, a girl who shares similar distrust of the government. While Ange doesn't open Marcus's eyes the way Violet does Titus's, she does give him the courage to take increasingly public action, as in the case of the press conference Marcus holds, and supports him as he eventually goes public with the story of his abuse at the hands of a government institution.
In The Declaration , Mrs. Princent, the cruel House Matron who ensures that the Surpluses are tightly controlled, recognizes the potential dangers a romantic relationship can bring when she promises herself to "beat any idea of romance out of Anna" p. Friendships, and especially romantic relationships, expose the protagonists to differing opinions and perceptions of life.
This could clearly be dangerous to those in a dystopian society who want a strict status quo, where all think alike and fulfill a given role. In The Knife of Never Letting Go Ness, , Todd, a young man growing up in a society where all women were killed by a mysterious virus, provides a strong example of this.
He encounters a teen girl, Viola, brought to Todd's planet by a spaceship that has crashed near his home, and her arrival causes no small disturbance in his society—a disturbance that reveals to Todd the first cracks in his society. Viola's very different perspective from a distant world helps Todd begin to see important truths about his world, and his relationship with Viola—displaying elements of both friendship and romance—drives him to take previously unthought—of actions in her defense as he tries to protect her from men who would exploit or kill her to keep dark secrets hidden.
Romance and friendships are, not surprisingly, elements that teenagers are quite interested in. The onset of puberty and its accompanying hormonal changes, as well as shifting societal expectations that encourage boys and girls to see each other in romantic ways, connect with the romantic relationships portrayed in YA fiction.
And friendships represent, as already discussed, a significant part of teenagers' sense of identity and self. But in dystopian fiction, these relationships play a more significant role than solely exploring one's sexuality or identity or weathering the ups—and—downs of romantic relationships.
These relationships, romantic and platonic, serve to actually shape their thinking about the society around them and even encourage them to take subversive action. One example of this influence is Condie's Cassia, a young girl who looks forward to her Match Banquet like every other girl and who seems set for a promising career in society. Why, then, does she suddenly decide to break with all conventions in ways that are at first subtle and then more public? Her attraction to Ky seems to give her the permission she needs to take his stories seriously and lends credibility to his suggestions that things in the society are not as they seem to be.
By the end of the first book, this attraction gives her the courage to make a decision that is bound to have negative consequences for herself and her family. This is not to dismiss the influence of her grandfather or father, both "closet activists" who we infer have their own questions about the truths promulgated by the society, but it's clear that her attraction to and blossoming romantic relationship with Ky are what drive much of the change in her thinking and what give her the motivation to deviate more and more seriously from society's strictures.
It isn't enough to argue that dystopian fiction is compelling to young adult readers because it depicts romantic and platonic relationships. We would suggest that it is the nature of those relationships as depicted in this genre that speaks to young readers. These books portray honest and authentic relationships; they acknowledge that romantic relationships are not just about exploring physical attraction or sexuality, they are about how becoming intimate with another person can have an impact on the way you see the world, the actions you take, the level of responsibility you feel toward another person.
They confirm that friendships are about more than simply having someone to hang out with, someone with whom to pursue common interests; friends also have a significant impact on the way you see the world and can influence your actions in ways that are positive and negative.
While the patterns that emerged from comparing these titles are interesting to literary geeks like us, they also signal some important implications for teachers and librarians. First and foremost, we see that these novels can withstand serious literary scrutiny, and perhaps deserve a place alongside the study of other classic dystopian pieces such as Orwell's or Huxley's Brave New World.
In fact, the dystopian pieces we discuss here bear striking similarities to these classics, and studying a YA dystopian novel would certainly provide an effective bridge to a classic piece, as has been suggested in the past by Herz and Gallo and Joan Kaywell Students' appreciation for 's Winston as he becomes aware of what's wrong in his society and of his potential for action will increase as they compare him to Cassia in Matched or Todd in The Knife of Never Letting Go.
Likewise, Winston's relationship with Julia will benefit from a character analysis based on examining the relationship between Anna and Peter in The Declaration. We can also look to ways to connect these texts with content from other curricular areas. The novels discussed here provide rich opportunities for discussion about the role government can and should play in our lives, and the responsibility individuals have for ensuring that justice and humanity are preserved by those in power.
We could use dystopian literature to build cross—curricular connections between the English class and a Government or Civics course, with a thematic unit exploring the purpose and role that government should play. Connecting events in Little Brother to current events related to security, especially in the face of past and potential terrorist attacks, would help students explore the implications of these things for their lives and personal liberties.
Similar connections could be built between physics courses and the exploration of space travel in Across the Universe , between geography courses and the ideas of limited natural resources in The Declaration , or between debates of abortion policy in current events and the policies depicted in Unwind.
The dystopian novel doesn't need to be so close to our reality in order to provide meaningful exploration of significant topics, however: Birthmarked and The Declaration raise important questions about human rights and the value of a human life; Unwind raises similar questions and also explores the rights of teenagers to make decisions about their future.
Issues of free choice—and paying the price for wrong choices— could be explored meaningfully in Matched , and the potential negative influences of a consumerist society rest in nearly every chapter of Feed and The Unidentified. The richness of many of these novels argues for their study in the ELA classroom, whether independently or coupled with a dystopian classic. Perhaps most compelling, given the broad choices available in this genre, we could consider using dystopian novels in literature circles see Daniels, This would allow students to exercise individual choice in selecting a book to study while at the same time allowing for whole—class explorations of these thematic issues and the stylistic elements of the genre.
For teachers and librarians both, we feel strongly that the connections between these novels and teens' lives and concerns argue for a need to showcase these books as we converse with teens about their reading.
While the same could be said of most YA literature, dystopian literature seems to speak particularly strongly to teens at this time and to the choices and challenges they face as they move toward adulthood. Justin Scholes teaches seventh grade language arts in Evanston, Wyoming. Not logged in, Please login to continue.
Maybe it's because we shove gloom and doom down their throats as part of their required reading. In the United States, George Orwell's midth-century dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is heavily picked by teachers as required reading for students , and the blues don't end there. Here is a list of required reading titles for American high schools , let's see how negative these works are….
That's not even from the top hundred books; these are all in the top sixteen! It's the case not just in America, but in the UK and throughout Western civilization. The United States education system being the sorry train wreck it is, there is often the only opportunity for one novel to be given as assigned reading in the course of a student's public school education… and it's usually one of these.
This leads to one of these defeatist, depressing titles becoming the only whole book some people ever read. The list is easily recognizable by the dystopian books' cultural saturation and the fact that most people on Facebook list one of the dystopian canon as their "favorite" book , despite never mentioning any other books ever. The social peer-pressure to consume these morbid titles is so powerful, that in The Guardian 's poll of UK citizens asking which book they only pretend to have read just to quit getting pestered about it, Nineteen Eighty-Four came out on top.
Ponder that for a double-plus-ungood minute…. I'm sorry, if you haven't read The Book Everyone Must Read, you won't get that reference, that's for us cultural savvy cool kids only. The Present Author will now demonstrate having read all six of these novels cover to cover and report why, while they're certainly all quality literature and worthy of note, they're over-rated to the point where I'm now convinced they're intellectual poison. In the six books I've listed, a shockingly large number of common patterns emerge.
For one thing, the same author, George Orwell, has two titles on the list Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm , out of all the millions of authors to whom we could be devoting our classroom hours. In addition, they tend to share these traits:. Catcher in the Rye stands out from the rest as not being considered dystopian, but I ask it be defined as such because the protagonist believes he lives in a dystopia.
That book is what you sound like after reading the other five. Just to zoom in on one example of how unrealistic dystopian fiction is: In Nineteen Eighty-Four , the government regulates speech and thought via ordaining a language called "Newspeak," which seeks to remove all possible words conveying resistance to the government or individual thought from the vocabulary.
Real world events heavily influenced his work, he witnessed atrocities of fascist totalitarian regimes in the Spanish Civil War, as well as the rise of Hitler and Stalin; his experiences and surroundings also inspired his politically driven novel, Animal Farm which expressed his concerns about communism. The rise in sales for such dystopian fiction is also a reflection of our fears whether that is surveillance or lies being given by the government.
How do audiences perceive such novels? It is also important to recognise that beyond the recent rises in sales for dystopian fiction, there has been a significant amount of young-adult fiction being published in this genre. This includes series such as The Hunger Games, and although much more action-packed, socio-political matters are still being raised.
Dystopian literature can be seen as a tool to educate the younger generations and therefore make them more responsive to political issues, and with the huge access to information from social media for example, this may be likely.
The Hunger Games, for example has twelve districts, all differing in wealth. The higher districts such as one and two are extremely wealthy; the lower districts like twelve and eleven are very poor and are exploited by the Capitol. It is evident there is a clear line of inequality within the story. It is no surprise that the first book of the series was published in , in the middle of the financial crisis.
There is great importance, one can argue, for the rise of dystopian literature in the young-adult world since these stories are a source of political ethics. A young student cannot be engaged by a textbook, however a dystopian story such as The Hunger Games, which is more exciting, can be a gateway to introduce societal issues to teenagers. George Orwell could have written an essay on the dangers of communism, but instead wrote an allegory of it, Animal Farm, which became much more popular than an essay could ever have been.
Hence, dystopian literature is a better way of putting across a point than for example an essay since the story is what grips the reader, therefore making them more able to learn from it and the questions it raises.
Nevertheless, either way, the actions by a society as a whole, rather than the actions of the few are fundamental to change, or lack of it. The Hunger Games is an example of a successful rebellion in which people unite to overthrow the Capitol. However, not all dystopian novels tend to demonstrate a successful revolution. The fact he has no one to help him in this rebellious act highlights how important a unity of purpose is against such controlling states as depicted in Brave New World.
People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. What has been established is that there are far more purposes to dystopian literature than it being a mere warning. All one can conclude is that this genre is becoming worryingly relevant and therefore needs more attention.
With a climate change-denier as President and nationalist political parties on the rise in Europe, one can view such a political landscape as indeed a very susceptible one to the depictions of dystopias. However, one must note dystopian fiction is a very new form of literature and has many forms, and so it might be a while before many academic journals are made about this genre. Art imitates life. In the 50s and 60s it looked like the sky was the limit for what humans could do.
America sent people to the moon, Britain and France were building a supersonic airliner, ordinary people were increasingly able to afford their own cars, homes and televisions, and diseases were being wiped out. The most successful life forms are the pests, scavengers that can breed quickly and exist on very little.
Rats, flies, cockroaches, weeds, mold. Ugly life forms that simply adapt and survive. The same is ultimately true of humans, and those humans who are most rat-like will inherit the Earth. Dystopian work are interesting because they imagine a world where usually everything has fallen apart, and we watch how people try to survive.
The signs of dystopia are everywhere. Brilliant article. Look at the popularity of The Purge. So timely discussion with the feeling that we may be living in the dystopian present. Technology would be advanced so far that it works seamlessly with the natural world. It would not be boring. There would be political challenges and battles with mad marauding criminals, nutcases and psychopaths. You would still have heroes and villains.
Human nature will still be the same, it would just be handled differently. Fighters would be defending and developing something more imaginatively civilised and optimistic than the way we live now. People are more prescient than they would dare to contemplate, and fiction too often foreshadows the reality that is fast approaching. The closer it gets the more compelling these fictions become. Dystopia is always a reflection of our current fears.
My favourite recently was the Planet of the Apes reboot in which the rebel came from another species. My least favourite Elysium in which even Jodie Foster had become a fascist dictator.
Fiction that are set in the future are usually of the science fiction genre. These films usually require some kind of adversity in order to allow the introduction of a hero figure.
The adversity usually takes the shape of some kind of oppression… which is why the future is generally depicted as bleak. Very true, hard to imagine a SciFi constructing a story without there being some sort of struggle. Some SciFi also draws on history, which is also quite bleak. Post apocalyptic stories … the clue is in the subgenre.
Something that is very clear in the works of Ursula K. LeGuin — which serve predominantly as commentary on issues of a recognisably human nature discussed in non-real settings…. Try some of the Culture books by Iain M.
Banks — no oppression, plenty of action and laughs, clever ideas and so on. If you want an example, something like The Bartimaeus Trilogy could be a dystopia, because of the way that magicians have created a class system.
All interesting points. Dystopian literature not only serves to allude to societal problems and fears of the era in which it is written but also fascinatingly, as illustrated by your Kellyanne Conway example, to reveal concerning patterns and issues in our present. We know there are bad guys terrorists, corporatists, bankers, politicians, etc in the world who are doing things make their lives better and ours worse, but identifying who is doing what is very difficult.
The bad guys have redeeming qualities, their motives are obscured, they do nice things occasionally to keep us off balance, and hell, be honest: our income, our credit, our lives depend on them to one extent or another.
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