Across the decades, there have been countless examples of broken societies in literature . In these places, life has taken on a new meaning than what we know to be true today. These dystopian future novels are often dark, and there is almost always previous event in that timeline that would lead to reason why the system is set up in that particular way. Family is often a big theme in this type of book. Whether it be because that is what the government demands or reprimands, family is almost always an interesting aspect of futuristic/dystopian novels.
However, when societies become too controlling or demanding, or when there is a major conflict that affects a large amount of people, the central theme of a whole, happy, and healthy family is lost more than it is promoted. As I said before, there are many, many examples of different family dynamics in popular dystopian literature. For example, in the book Unwind, by Neal Shusterman, there was a war between two different opposing sides with different ideas on the way abortion should be handled by the government and society. That would be the conflict that changed everything.
The result of this war is a scary compromise between both sides, and that compromise has lead to a very different reality where life is cheap, families can be added to be strangers, and they can be broken down by choice. One character who is a prime example of this power heavy balance of history and government, is a boy named Connor Lassiter from the book Unwind. He was sent away to be unwound, which is the modern day equivalent of a full body organ donation. It was not his choice of course. He now has no family. He has no one to turn to, to ask for help, and be 100% open with besides his few close friends.
Because of way things now, many kids like Connor are losing their families and their lives. On the other side of the coin, families who chose to have their children unwound will still be missing a part of their family, and thay will be for the rest of their lives. Another example of my thesis comes from the book Anthem, by Ayn Rand. In this particular society there are no families whatsoever. People are born, and then they go off to schools where they are raised for their whole adolescent lives, until they are randomly chosen to have a certain job for the rest of their adult lives.
There is no family, and no culture that comes from family living. The premise for living like this is that there was a war, and after that war a group of people decided that they would set up the society in a certain way so there would be no chance of a big war happening again. As you can see, the idea of family is hopelessly lost, and unless something changes it will be forever in this book. One character in this book, named Equality, is defying the system, and starting a family, but the end of the book does not explain how that will affect the rest of the community.
It does however lead us to believe that Equality will be successful in his endeavours, in at least being together in their closest version of a family. In the short story Examination Day, by Henry Slesar, there is a government imposed intelligence test, that determines how smart you really are. The smartest of the kids who take the test are exterminated. This unfortunately happens to a boy named Dickie Jordan, in examination day. We can learn from these books and characters when comparing them to what is happening in everyday life.
How the government is affecting our lives everyday is something that should be both accepted and monitored, because more often than not in literature, conflict leads to new, more horrible systems than we have today, that often break up values we as human beings hold dear. Mr and Mrs. Jordan are now incomplete without their son. This intelligence test is undoubtedly designed so the current system will stay in place. If no one is smart enough to realize that what the government is doing is wrong than it won’t change. The final character I will be talking about is a young girl named Ann Burden.
She is the main character from the book Z for Zachariah by Robert C O’Brien. Before the book begins, it is explained by the character in her journal that there was a nuclear war. This book is the exception, in the sense that there is no other people (that we know of) besides Ann and one other man. She still however, because of the decision to have a nuclear war by some unspecified country, has no family. They went of to look for other people, and never returned. It is very unfortunate, considering that there isn’t much else to do, besides look for other societies and hope that you can find someone. Still, Ann’s situation shows of a conflict.
