Dystopia

DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY

What is UTOPIA

• An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.• The word was first used in the

book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More

What is Dystopia?

How would you define Dystopia

• An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

Popular Dystopian Stories

• 1984• Brave New World • Fahrenheit 451• The Hunger Games

DYSTOPIC TRAITS

• Will will review 8 common traits seen in Dysopic literature

• Take notes on the chart provided.

1. SOCIETY

• Definition: most impose severe social restrictions on community members

• Examples:

• social stratification: social class is strictly defined and enforced

• ruthless egalitarian

• repression of the intellectual

2. SOCIAL GROUPS

• Definition: total absence of social groups other than the “state”

• Examples

• independent religion is notable because of omittance

• family is attacked: the hostility to motherhood

3. NATURE• Definition: characters are isolated from the natural

world

• Example: conditioned to fear nature

4. Political Definition: Government asserts power over citizensExamples:- flawed in some way—portrayed as oppressive- filled with pessimistic views of the ruling class—rules with an “iron fist”

5. ECONOMIC• Definition: state is in control of the economy

• Examples: -black market—items banned or seen as contraband

• - often privatization in businesses

6. The Hero: Definition: protagonist questions society—intuition

Example: Escape or Rebel

7. CONFLICT

• Definition: societal group somewhere not under control of state

8. Climax: Definition: Emotional high

Example: can be unresolved

• - death or reeducation/conformity