Dystopian Control
What do a TV remote, a fork, and a steering wheel have in common? Control. All three are devices which people use on a daily basis to control their environment to maintain their survival, safety, and ease of living. Those in power in most dystopias would add their subjects to the list without a second thought. Leaders, or any other ‘force of evil’, in an effective dystopia will use the protagonist and their fellow subjects to ensure that they stay in power.
One of the ways that the protagonist is used by the ‘force of evil’ is through oppression. For example, in George Orwell’s 1984, Winston, the main character, is a member of the Outer Party. As such, he lives off meager rations, must follow every unspoken rule of Oceania, and above all must be cautious as to not tip off the Thought Police and be sent to the Ministry of Love for brutal torture as payment for his thoughtcrime. Though he is told that he is important, that he is privileged, Winston is actually oppressed more than the ‘proles’- the lowest social class- or inner party members. Similar conditions are present in Collins’s The Hunger Games and Dashner’s The Maze …show more content…
All four are effective dystopias in which the leaders oppressed their subjects, blamed the problems in society on others, and tricked the protagonists of each of their respective worlds into accomplishing the goals of those in power. Wall-E, though a great movie in its own right in respects to the meaning of humanity and love, is not an effective dystopia, because Wall-E was not oppressed, had no enemies, nor did he work for ulterior motives that would have hurt him. Wall-E simply uses the dystopian theme as a stage upon which to glorify other messages. So the key to identifying a true dystopia is deception. Who is deceiving whom and for what gain? When the deception is revealed, the true dystopian story
What do a TV remote, a fork, and a steering wheel have in common? Control. All three are devices which people use on a daily basis to control their environment to maintain their survival, safety, and ease of living. Those in power in most dystopias would add their subjects to the list without a second thought. Leaders, or any other ‘force of evil’, in an effective dystopia will use the protagonist and their fellow subjects to ensure that they stay in power.
One of the ways that the protagonist is used by the ‘force of evil’ is through oppression. For example, in George Orwell’s 1984, Winston, the main character, is a member of the Outer Party. As such, he lives off meager rations, must follow every unspoken rule of Oceania, and above all must be cautious as to not tip off the Thought Police and be sent to the Ministry of Love for brutal torture as payment for his thoughtcrime. Though he is told that he is important, that he is privileged, Winston is actually oppressed more than the ‘proles’- the lowest social class- or inner party members. Similar conditions are present in Collins’s The Hunger Games and Dashner’s The Maze …show more content…
All four are effective dystopias in which the leaders oppressed their subjects, blamed the problems in society on others, and tricked the protagonists of each of their respective worlds into accomplishing the goals of those in power. Wall-E, though a great movie in its own right in respects to the meaning of humanity and love, is not an effective dystopia, because Wall-E was not oppressed, had no enemies, nor did he work for ulterior motives that would have hurt him. Wall-E simply uses the dystopian theme as a stage upon which to glorify other messages. So the key to identifying a true dystopia is deception. Who is deceiving whom and for what gain? When the deception is revealed, the true dystopian story