Sample Student Utopia Comparison Essay
To preserve the essence of humanity, people must have freedom of expression,
free will, and equality. Any attempt to create a utopia must respect, honor, and
nourish these human needs; for without them the society will become a dystopia. An
examination of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1984 by George Orwell,
and The Giver proves that any social structure that hopes to achieve
utopia must insure that the citizens have equal opportunities to have their
basic needs met, opportunities to pursue personal goals and aspirations,
and freedom to be unique.
To preserve the essence of humanity, people must have free will so that
they can do what they please as long as they do not interfere with
others’ lives in ways that are inhumane. In 1984, there is no liberty, as is
shown on page 89, when the main character writes, "Freedom is the Freedom to say
that two plus two is four." However, because of the dystopian government, the
character is later caught, and through torture, he learns to believe his government
and say that two plus two is five, which is the government’s way of destroying his
free will. In Fahrenheit 451, the society is built so that citizens cannot get access
to books that have philosophies or idea that would make people become unique, and
thus hurt the structure of the society. The government’s techniques are shown well
through the words of the Fire Captain Beatty, who said on page 67 of Fahrenheit
451,
“Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more
popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa
grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so
damned full of "facts" they feel stuffed, but absolutely "brilliant" with
information. They’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion
without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t
change. Don’t give they any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to
tie things up with.”
This shows that the government was creating a dystopian utopia in the people were
not given free will. In The Giver, the character’s wills were restricted because
everyone was forced to be the same, thus making the citizens lack the free will to
act as they pleased.
To preserve the essence of humanity, people must have freedom of
expression. In The Giver people were not allowed to change their schedules and
express themselves. This concept is best shown in the following quote on page 48 of
The Giver, "How could someone not fit it? The community was so meticulously
ordered, the choices so carefully made." Everyone took part in the community, but
nobody was allowed to express themselves differently, which made the society a
dystopia. In 1984, the government called expressions that were not supportive of
their government and social structure “thoughtcrime”, which was a crime of thought
that was not allowed. Since thinking is an important part of expressing oneself, the
system in 1984 showed how a society could not be a utopia because of the lack of
personal expression. Fahrenheit 451 did not strictly disallow expression, however, it
lacked freedom of expression, as the people were "dumbed down" by the lack of
books and the society’s system.
To preserve the essence of humanity, people must also have equality.
Equality is necessary so that everyone can be unique and different, as well as have
equal rights so that they can help each other and not dominate so that a utopian
society may stay utopian. If one did not have freedom, the society would not be a
utopia because of the inflexibility. In 1984, The Giver, and Fahrenheit 451, the
people had forms of restricted freedom in that they could not do as they please
without criticism or punishment from the government. For example, in 1984, the
citizens were tracked, and the main character was caught and tortured for not
following his strict schedule and thinking outside of the very, very, small box that
the government gave him to think in. In Fahrenheit 451 people were equal, but many
people did not have equal rights because the government planned to weed out the
people who thought differently. The Giver also had a distorted form of equality
because people were not allowed to be free unless they were in very high up
positions in the government, and the normal people could only do certain things.
To make utopia possible and to preserve the essence of humanity, equality, freedom
of expression, and free will must be preserved so that people may stay human and
possess uniqueness.