Dystopian Novels 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.
- 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.
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.
Examples of Dystopian Novels - 1984
- Brave New World
- Fahrenheit 451
- A Clockwork Orange
- Animal Farm
- The Time Machine
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 hero’s 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.
- 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
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.
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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