Worlds of Nightmare

Five hundred years ago, the writer, Thomas More, wrote a book to
describe an imaginary ideal society and named it Utopia, which
means good place in Greek. Ever since then, this word has been
used to refer to a perfect community in literature and movies. About
three hundred years later, the antonym for the word Utopia was
proposed, which is dystopia. Literally, dystopia is applied to an
undesirable imaginary place where people live in misery. Today, I am
going to explore some main features of contemporary dystopian
literature, and then move on to take a look at its development in
these few decades. Meanwhile, to support my ideas, I will take you
to a tour of four dark dystopian worlds created by talented writers at
different periods of time. So are you ready to begin this unpleasant
journey with me?
To understand the characteristics of dystopian fictions, lets visit the
first dark world depicted by Lois Lowry in her book The Giver. At
first glance, this world seems to be perfect: there is no pain, fear,
war or discrimination. Everyone acts the same and is polite to each
other. However, one thing is missing: choice. At age twelve every
member is assigned with a lifetime job by the government. When
they grow older, a partner and two children will also be distributed
to each of them. Everything is planned and in order. If any citizen
breaks the rules, he or she will be released, which means to be
given a poisonous injection and die. A plot like this is a typical
setting for dystopian literature. Usually, the time is set in the future.
There is a controlling, oppressive government. Citizens do not
recognize any problems and are even satisfied with the situation.
Dystopian novels may also add in elements such as unequal social
stratification, poverty, drawbacks of technology and environmental
issues.
Notably, the development of dystopian literature can be
classified into three waves in these few decades, with each of them
having different focuses. The very first popularity wave came during
1930s to 60s. Probably inspired by World War 2, fascism and
communism, dystopian fictions published during this period focus on
the fear of the State and mostly talk about governments control
and lack of freedom. Now lets continue our tour to the second world
created by Aldous Huxley in his book Brave New World published
during this period of time. The book describes a world in which
people fertilize human eggs, and babies grow in bottles. Through
gene technology and hypnosis education, people control how babies
are born and who they are. There are 5 classes of people: Alpha,
Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilons. While Alphas are designed to be
good-looking and smart, Epsilons are cloned to be short, dumb and
ugly and they are responsible for the lowest jobs in the
society. Words like father, mother or love are regarded as
obscene. Moreover, to prohibit rebellious activities, books are

destroyed and people are encouraged to take drugs and have causal
sex with lots of people. The book tries to indicate the possibility of
the government controlling people by giving them immense
pleasure and seduction. Other works published during this period
include 1984 by George Orwell, and A Clockwork Orange by
Anthony Burgess.
Later on, the second wave opened a new branch and discussed the
drawbacks of technology and biological reproductive issues. Here
comes the third dystopian world, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo
Ishiguro. In this world, peoples average life expectancy exceeds
100 years old. There is an England boarding school called Hailsham,
in which teachers inside keep telling students that health is
extremely important. Later it is revealed that the students are all
clones, made to be "donors" that provide vital organs for normal
people through a series of surgeries that eventually lead to their
death. The origin of this wave was possibly due to the rapid
development of modern technology and our anxiety about whether
it has violated the nature and morality. Another example is The
Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood.
And finally, here comes the third wave which takes place at present
the young adult dystopian series. Dystopian fictions have regained
their popularity in the market and this time the readers are
teenagers. Features of these works include a romantic plot and
mostly a tough female main character. To show you a clearer
picture, lets visit our last destination the world of Hunger Games
created by Suzanne Collins. The nation called Panem is divided into
twelve districts. While the capital enjoys wealth and resources, most
people in the other districts suffer from poverty, and are responsible
for producing or refining goods in a particular industry. For example,
district 4s industry is fishing, 6 is transportation and 11 is
agriculture. Annually, to entertain the capital, an event called
Hunger Games is held, where teenagers from each district have to
fight each other to the death until there is only one survivor. Other
popular works include the Divergent series and Delirium series.
Besides exciting and fun to read, according to an article in Slate
magazine, the popularity of this book genre among teenagers may
reveal that in modern days, there is a strong link between young
adults and dystopia as High Schools build an environment of
competition and jealousy and anxiety about exclusion and
belonging, in a way resembling the dystopian worlds in literature.
I always believe that books are like mirrors, for they let us see our
reality through an imagined portrayal. Even though these stories
take place in the imaginary future, hidden behind the inky black text
of these novels are metaphors and reflections of the risks we might
actually face in the reality. Lets ask ourselves, arent we familiar
with the scene of rich people enjoying their cuisine while children in

low socio-economic areas of the world are trained to kill and fight,
just like what happens in Hunger Games? What about our
ignorance towards inequality which resembles the situations in
Brave New World and Never Let Me Go? Next time when we flip
through the pages and exclaim at the horrible worlds of nightmare
on the book, do not forget to question whether we ourselves are
living in one.