Speculative Fiction: The Genre Of Dystopian Fiction

According to the website dictionary.com a Dystopia can be defined as, “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding” (Random House). Throughout the world there are thousands upon thousands of dystopian novels. People all around the world are attracted to these types of novels, especially modern day teenagers. These teens are attracted to them because they can easily relate to the novel itself and the characters in the novel. Teens can relate to these books easily because they often feel oppressed and overcrowded.

What is a dystopia? The definition of a dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad (google definition). Although some people may believe that where we live is a dystopia much like in Fahrenheit 451, in reality, where we live also contains features and characteristics meeting the qualifications of a utopia. We see this happen within government, relationships, school systems, and security people feel. In dystopias such as the society in the novels Fahrenheit 451 and “Harrison bergeron” we see similarities connected to our society starting with government and specifically how it restrains creativity.

Worlds in fictional books have always had an ever-changing style. A society has a big effect on the personality of a character. There are two main types of society’s in a fictional book, a utopian and a dystopian society. A Utopian society is one that is jubilant whereas dystopian society is doleful and cheerless. The qualities of a dystopian society are in the books, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Anthem by Ayn Rand.

“All utopias are dystopias. The term "dystopia" was coined by fools that believed a "utopia" can be functional.” ( A.E. Samaan) Dystopia is like North Korea they believe their society has no other option or say in their own lives. Dystopias are based on human misery, a protagonist that questions society, and they serve as warnings to contemporary man. Dystopias are the complete opposite of utopias.

Two key aspects in a dystopian text are the reflections of society and futuristic settings and how they have changed overtime. The two texts I will use to support the points are Fahrenheit 451 and The Island. The first aspect of change is reflection of society. Reflections of society means taking themes and issue that are current to that time and using them in a way to terrify the audience and create worst

Dystopia, an imaginary place where people live dehumanized and often fearful lives. In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and The Giver by Lois Lowry, both societies are robbed of their human attributes and live in fear of the government. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut illustrates how life would be if everyone was equal in every aspect. The citizens are attached to “handicaps” that deprive them of their intelligence, an attempt to prevent a rebellion. For the most part, people followed the regulations that were evident until Harrison Bergeron, son of George and Hazel Bergeron, realized that the handicaps were inhumane.

This interview reveals aspects of Bradbury 's personality and influences. His voice and language demonstrate his incredible passion and loving nature, notably for books. He discloses how current events, specifically the Nazi book burnings, influenced Fahrenheit 451. With this, readers can better understand Bradbury 's warning and motivation against censorship. Brians describes the dystopia genre and its origins; lists prominent novels; summarizes common ideas and themes expressed.

Dystopia is a popular genre in which authors write about a fictional society that is perceived to be perfect and ideal by the vast majority of the people in it. Authors must intrigue the reader, and this is difficult because they have to somehow illustrate a future that is vaguely similar to ours. However, it has to be completely fictional, which makes it tough to formulate realistic storylines. Nevertheless, these authors use literary elements to counter these difficulties and produce realistic characters and you can see this when Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, and James Dashner use symbolism in their respected novels, Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, and The Maze Runner. This literary technique gives Dystopian Literature the uniqueness and adds the key elements to make the story flow.

The book Anthem by Ayn Rand is an example of a dystopian society. The definition of a dystopian society, is a society that is in the illusion of a perfect society, but in reality they are living a horrible life, but they don’t know any better. In Anthem the main character equality broke that illusion and figured out what was happening. Another example of a dystopian is the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In the Hunger Games people lived and districts and had their lives chosen for them before they were born.

A dystopia is an unhappy place that is an illusion of a perfect society where nobody is equal and everyone is oppressed. In the dystopian novel, 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith rebels against the over controlling government that gives the illusion of a "good life" to it's people. The short story "Harrison Bergeron" written by Kurt Vonngeut Jr. tells the tale of the great Harrison Bergeron who escapes jail to free the people of their handicaps and show them the beauty of being different. Lastly the movie Idiocracy, directed by Mike Judge, the protagonist Joe Bower is chosen for a military experiment which goes horribly wrong where the entire word has become incredibly stupid due to the failure of natural selection. All dystopian literature,

A dystopian society is a dysfunctional society that is marketed to its citizens as a utopian society. It includes elements such as a lack/ downplay of religion or one government sanctioned religion that everyone must follow. The government either uses force and or fear to control its population. There is a suppression of freedom of speech and a suppression of intellectualism. In this society, there is a protagonist who rebels against the status quo.

Dystopian stories are usually set in an unfavorable society in which to live, where the antagonist is the society itself, and the protagonist is the person who is looking towards changing this society and fixing its flaws, who believes that they can make a difference by overthrowing the government or escaping from it. The conflict is often not solved, or the hero fails to solve it, and the dystopian society continues as it was before. Harrison Bergeron is an example of a dystopian story where society has intensely controlled the population’s unique qualities to make everyone exactly equal. People’s talent, beauty, intelligence, and any other quality that makes them different is brought down and destroyed by forcing them to wear handicaps, masks, and weights. Harrison Bergeron is the protagonist of the story.

Teenagers and Dystopian literature? Have you ever thought about what our society is going to look like in, say fifty years? Many people do especially teenagers, they think about it and that is why books with a dystopian societies are popular among teenagers. This is something that every person thinks about at least once, and that is why they stay so popular even after being written for so many years, they just appeal to the teenage mind. The main question is why does dystopian literature appeal so much to the young adults, what is making dystopian literature so entertaining?

Dystopian novels have an entrancing factor that allows them to captivate the American public like no other genre. The mass popularity gained by these novels can be seen dating all the way back to 1950’s with the publishing of George Orwell’s 1984, and through the present day with the publication of various dystopian novels such as Divergent, Maze Runner, and The Hunger Games. The main reason why these dystopian worlds resonate with so many people is because they address present day problems in outlandish but conceivable ways, "whatever its artistic or philosophic qualities, a book about the future can interest us only if its prophecies look as though they might conceivably come true. "(Beauchamp). While The Handmaid 's Tale focus on a variety of issues, such as the mistreatment of women, it also realistically illustrates the mental deterioration that occurs during prolonged periods of isolation in captivity.

People use literacy to express their thoughts, feeling and sometimes experiences. Some stories are similar and others are not, these stories are then categorized into different genres to have a universal organization for the many literature pieces we have. I have decided to read and analyze a collection of stories that all fall under the genre of dystopian fiction. By imagining and writing about the extremes of a society, which are dystopian societies in these stories our present society is enabling itself for the actions, it needs to take in the chance of a similar event. Human instinct finds comfort in a situation that one has experienced before but the fear of the unknown causes threat.