Dystopia -2From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Economics
The economic structures of dystopian societies in literature and other media have many variations, as
the economy often relates directly to the elements that the writer is depicting as the source of the
oppression. However, there are several archetypes that such societies tend to follow.
A commonly occurring theme is that the state is in control of the economy, as shown in such works as
Ayn Rand's Anthem, Lois Lowry's The Giver, and Henry Kuttner's short story The Iron Standard. Some
dystopias, such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, feature black markets with goods that are dangerous and
difficult to obtain, or the characters may be totally at the mercy of the state-controlled economy . . . .
Even in dystopias where the economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New
World, the state often controls the economy. In Brave New World, a character, reacting with horror to
the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that everyone works for everyone
else.
Other works feature extensive privatization and corporatism. In this context, big businesses often have
far more control over the populace than any kind of government and thus act as governments
themselves instead of businesses, as can be seen in the novel Jennifer Government and the movie
Rollerball. This is common in the genre of cyberpunk, such as in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? and Snow Crash, which often features corrupt and all-powerful corporations, often a
megacorporation.
Caste systems
In dystopian literature the advanced technology is controlled exclusively by the group in power, while
the oppressed population is limited to technology comparable to or more primitive than what we have
today. In order to emphasize the degeneration of society, the standard of living among the lower and
middle classes is generally poorer than in contemporary society (at least in United States, Canada or
Europe).
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, for example, the Inner Party, the upper class of society, also has a standard of
living lower than the upper classes of today.[citation needed]
In contrast to Nineteen Eighty-Four, in Brave New World and Equilibrium, people enjoy much higher
material living standards in exchange for the loss of other qualities in their lives, such as independent
thought and emotional depth.
Hero
Unlike utopian fiction, which often features an outsider to have the world shown to him, dystopias
seldom feature an outsider as the protagonist. While such a character would more clearly understand
the nature of the society, based on comparison to his society, the knowledge of the outside culture
subverts the power of the dystopia. When such outsiders are major characters—such as John the Savage
in Brave New World—their societies cannot assist them against the dystopia.
The story usually centers on a protagonist who questions the society, often feeling intuitively that
something is terribly wrong, such as Guy Montag in Ray Bradbury's novella Fahrenheit 451, Winston
Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, or V in Alan Moore's V for
Vendetta. The hero comes to believe that escape or even overturning the social order is possible and
decides to act at the risk of life and limb; in some dystopias[dubious – discuss], this may appear as
irrational even to him or her, but he or she still acts. The hero's point of view usually clashes with the
others' perception, most notably on Brave New World, revealing that concepts of utopia and dystopia
are tied to each other and the only difference between them lies on a matter of opinion.
Another popular archetype of hero in the more modern dystopian literature is the Vonnegut hero, a
hero who is in high-standing within the social system, but sees how wrong everything is, and attempts
to either change the system or bring it down, such as Paul Proteus of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano
or Winston Niles Rumfoord in The Sirens of Titan.
Conflict
In many cases, the hero's conflict brings him or her to a representative of the dystopia who articulates
its principles, from Mustapha Mond in Brave New World to O'Brien in 1984.
There is usually a group of people somewhere in the society who are not under the complete control of
the state, and in whom the hero of the novel usually puts his or her hope, although often he or she still
fails to change anything. In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four they are the "proles" (Latin for "offspring",
from which "proletariat" is derived), in Huxley's Brave New World they are the people on the
reservation, and in We by Zamyatin they are the people outside the walls of the One State. In Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury, they are the "book people" past the river and outside the city.
Climax and dénouement
The hero's goal is to either escape from or destroy the social order. However, the story is often (but not
always) unresolved. That is, the narrative may deal with individuals in a dystopian society who are
unsatisfied, and may rebel, but ultimately fail to change anything. Sometimes they themselves end up
changed to conform to the society's norms, such as in With Folded Hands, by Jack Williamson. This
narrative arc to a sense of hopelessness can be found in such classic dystopian works as Nineteen EightyFour. It contrasts with much fiction of the future, in which a hero succeeds in resolving conflicts or
otherwise changes things for the better.
Destruction
The destruction of dystopia is frequently a very different sort of work than one in which it is preserved.
Indeed, the subversion of a dystopian society, with its potential for conflict and adventure, is a staple of
science fiction stories. Poul Anderson's short story "Sam Hall" depicts the subversion of a dystopia
heavily dependent on surveillance. Robert A. Heinlein's "If This Goes On—" liberates the United States
from a fundamentalist theocracy, where the underground rebellion is organized by the Freemasons . . .
The ability of the protagonists to subvert the society also subverts the monolithic power typical of a
dystopia. In some cases the hero manages to overthrow the dystopia by motivating the (previously
apathetic) populace. In the dystopian video game Half-Life 2 the downtrodden citizens of City 17 rally
around the figure of Gordon Freeman and overthrow their Combine oppressors.
Destruction of the fictional dystopia may not be possible, but—if it does not completely control its
world—escaping from it may be an alternative. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the main character
succeeds in fleeing and finding tramps who have dedicated themselves to memorizing books to preserve
them. But ironically, the dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 is destroyed in the end — by nuclear
missiles. In the book Logan's Run, the main characters make their way to an escape from the otherwise
inevitable euthanasia on their 21st birthday (30th in the later film version). Because such dystopias must
necessarily control less of the world than the protagonist can reach, and the protagonist can elude
capture, this motif also subverts the dystopia's power. In Lois Lowry's The Giver the main character
Jonas is able to run away from 'The Community' and escapes to 'Elsewhere' where people have
memories.
Sometimes, this escape leads to the inevitable: the protagonist making a mistake that usually brings
about the end of a rebel society, usually living where people think is a legend.