We have all read a book or seen a movie of a dystopian society, wether it’s the new The Hunger Games movie , or a classic like Animal Farm. These days dystopias have become so complex and realistic but they still share similar characteristics of dystopias written in the past. A dystopia is a society that is made up of humans suffering and living in oppression. On the other hand, a utopia is a society where everything is perfect : government is stable, people have rights, and there are laws benefiting the common people. The problem is that utopias can become dystopias when corruption occurs.
This happens in almost all dystopian novels and movies. All dystopias have one thing in common, the use of propaganda to manipulate the people. In dystopias, a real society where everything is perfect (utopia) is an illusion. The characters think that they are living in a utopia, they think everything is better and that they are living the best life. In reality they have just been brainwashed and manipulated to be controlled by the leaders of the society. The characters are actually living in worse conditions then ever imaginable.
In the novel Animal Farm, the animals think that they are living a great life now that the pigs are leading and jones is gone. In reality, the animals are living in harsh working and living conditions because the pigs manipulated them. The pigs used propaganda, to justify their rations of food and power on the farm. When there were readjustments of food rations, the pig named Squealer, explained to the common animals how even though they got less food, conditions were still better than when jones was taking control. This was obviously a lie because the animals are living in horrible conditions.
To prevent animals from running away, the pigs made rumors of how the humans were severely mistreating the animals. This shows that they used propaganda to control the animals because the propaganda allowed the pigs to scare the other animals from running away and got them to work harder on animal farm. Overall, Propaganda is one of the major traits in a dystopia because it shows how the people are controlled and manipulated into living an oppressive life. Classification is another characteristic of a dystopia, because all dystopias have a wealthy higher class and a lower class living in poverty.
The movie Soylent Green is a dystopian movie made in the 1973 showing the harsh full impacts of overpopulation in the world. It takes place in the year 2020 in New York City, where 40 million people live. In this dystopian movie, there is no middle class, people are living in hallways and on the streets and cant afford electricity. There is a rich upper class and a lower class living in poverty. the upperclass is one that has the better life, while the lower class suffers from poverty.
Classification in dystopias shows how a utopian society can become a dystopia when the gap between 2 classes increase. he bigger the gap between the higher class and lower class, the more harsher conditions for the common people. In the movie Elysium, the common people live on earth where living conditions are horrible, while the rich class lives in space where health care, technology and living conditions are substantially better. There is no in-between of the two classes, you were either poor living in poverty or rich living in a space paradise. In a utopia, there is middle class and people get the opportunity to get to a higher class through education and working hard.
In dystopias, the people are stuck working hard in harsh conditions with very little benefit. Some sort of classification of people is in every dystopia, this is what cause the gap between the the upper and lower classes, resulting in the common people living in poverty. In all dystopian movies and novels, the characters are brainwashed to think that the outside world is dangerous and bad for them. In the movie Divergent, the people are living in one big society in a city that is closed off by tall walls. They are trapped in the society by the leaders.
The are brainwashed and told that the walls are there to protect them from the outside world. The leaders built the wall so they people don’t see how bad their life style and society is. In the book, no one is really allowed to leave the society because the natural world is banished for the protection of the people. they completely banish the world outside of the society. In the movie Soylent Green, the upperclass area is protected by big fences form the lower class area. There is a visible line of poverty.
In dystopias, the leaders make up lies to prevent the people from seeing the truth in how they are being treated. In all dystopias, there is a wall preventing the people from seeing the outside world. To conclude, dsitopias are what others predict can be our future. Through corruption and manipulation, our real world can become a dystopia. In todays world there is propaganda and survalence on us. Many of the common traits of a dystopian society exist in our world today. Are we a utopia or dystopia? It can very well be our future