The term
dystopia derives directly from the word utopian, which first was
first noted to have appeared in the year 1516 in Thomas Mores
well-known work Utopia (Xiaolan). The word utopia itself refers to
a society that is typically set in a distant future and is implied
to be the ideal or perfect world for all people in the world to
live in. (Xiaolan) On the other hand, the word
dystopiais
said to be the opposite of utopian, meaning that while its still
set in a distant future, it is the darker version of society that
has begun to crumble at the seams due to the strict regulation of
the world. In dystopian novels a society typically originates as a
utopian society, with ideas and implications of making the world
perfect for all people living,
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Cassia begins
to realize the truth when the perfect society she lives in makes a
mistake. A mistake that causes her to doubt everything shes ever
known about the world around her and subsequently meet and fall in
love with another boy in her town, who opens her eyes to the truth
about the outside world throughout the secretes the society keeps
from them such as literature and poetry. This shift in the
protagonist ideology is able to fuel the fires of a revolution
later in the novel to get rid of the system where everything is
decided for the citizens. Overall this novel is able to showcase
that having a machine and set of individuals make major life
decisions for a society is not a way to live. This eventually leads
to the societies down fall, showcasing that once again utopian
societies are not perfect and never can
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This concept in
evident in Ayn Rand's novel Anthem. This novel depicts a society
where individuality is nonexistent and people are given similar
names followed by a serial number. To begin with, this novel stars
the protagonist Equality 7-2521 who has been taught to refer to
himself as we and us, as if the self were a mere reflection of the
group (Cox). In this novel a council of chosen individuals makes
decisions for the society, as a whole including the jobs people
will end up with. Equality 7-2521 sentenced to a life as a street
sweeper although he has a brilliant scientific mind at first begins
to accept his fate and continue life with his head held high.
However, after discovering a tunnel presumably from the
Unmentionable Times of the distant past equality beings to revolt
against the society and use the tunnel as a place to further his
scientific research and create inventions (Cox). The moment
equality creates the light bulb is when the story takes a shift.
Equality so amazed by the object he created attempts to show the
invention to the council that rules over the society, however the
council quickly dismisses the invention fearing that it would
wreck the Plans of the World Council and are then forced to try
to eradicate the idea at the source being equality (Cox). With this
being said, taking away the individuality of a
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