Dystopian Society in Modern Literature

A dystopia is rather typical as a literary subject. It is generally unpleasant, with a repressive society and/or stringent judgment force, and is the flip side to another typical literary subject; a utopian society, in which whatever is best to either the residents or/and lead character. Some stories embeded in a dystopian universe or ‘world’ might appear quite regular or perhaps even ‘perfect’ in the beginning, however ultimately the factors behind that become evident and become rather undesirable for the lead character as they are forced to combat against a society or group they were once a part of.

Examples of this type of dystopian world remain in both Uglies [2005, Scott Westerfeld], where the reader follows the female protagonist, an ‘unsightly’ who is enabled to undergo surgery to become ‘pretty’ -depicted to be a best state in her world- once she turns sixteen, but throughout the unique, she learns it might not be everything she had wished for.

With mind adjustment by the judgment force, seclusion between particular age groups up until a ‘maturing event’ and bulling the ‘inferior’ group into wanting to do what the judgment force selects- in Uglies, it is becoming a ‘quite’ who has actually intentionally been given mental retardation without consent, something she does not desire to happen And in The Knife of Never Releasing, which follows an extremely simular pattern.

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The main protagonist [Todd] is a ‘boy’, and will continue to be so until he is thirteen and has completed a ‘coming of age’ ceremony of his own, and from then on is considered a ‘man’.

Like in Uglies, becoming a ‘man’ is considered a perfect state, or at least more idyllic than being a ‘boy’, and this is reinforced by bulling by his ‘superiors’ -men- over his ‘inferior’ state, thus making it seem that becoming a ‘man’ is something he should want to become, so he is no longer isolated from his peers, and becomes ‘one of the group’.

Again, over the course of the novel, he finds out exactly what become a ‘man’ means, and it is far from what he wants to become. Some other examples of modern dystopian lit. can be found in these novels; Armageddon’s Children (2006) by Terry Brooks Bar Code Rebellion (2006) by Suzanne Weyn The Pesthouse (2007) by Jim Crace Extras (2007) by Scott Westerfeld The Host (2008) by Stephenie Meyer Double Cross (2008) by Malorie Blackman The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins Revealing Eden (2012) by Victoria Foyt.