Dystopia
Dystopian societies are represented by different pictures in the minds of different people. One might imagine the human rights disaster that is North Korea, for example. A few fictional examples include Harrison Bergeron, The Lottery, and The Ones Who Walked From Omelas. These short stories all feature a common theme: society is seen as a utopia to the characters, but the author has added a characteristic (or characteristics) that contaminates it. The characteristics can be very minor, but can offer drastic changes to the society in a way that is hardly challenged due to “tradition.” Additionally, the characteristics are often thinly veiled in a way that accentuates the authors’ purposes behind the stories.
Harrison Bergeron, written …show more content…
Can it be possible to create a perfectly equal society? Who is the arbiter of equality? In this story, the Handicapper General is said arbiter. There are a few peculiar details to note when the Handicapper General takes her place. First, she does not seem to have any handicaps, or the author does not seem to make note of them. Second, it seems strange that the head of a department (if you could relate her position in any way to the Surgeon General or Postmaster General) would go out of his or her way to stifle a revolution, regardless of the size. These details could imply that the Handicapper General is in charge of much more than just mandating the handicaps on …show more content…
For example, the black box is a large symbol of tradition. Despite the box old, faded, and broken, the townspeople refuse to replace it on the baseless claim that it was made from an older box. The lottery itself is a warning against blindly abiding by the arbitrary rules set by previous generations. The townspeople do not question the motives behind this tradition, and that the act of mob-killing a random person – whether that be friend, family, or stranger – on an arbitrary day of the year somehow places the town on a higher moral platform than the towns that do
Dystopian societies are represented by different pictures in the minds of different people. One might imagine the human rights disaster that is North Korea, for example. A few fictional examples include Harrison Bergeron, The Lottery, and The Ones Who Walked From Omelas. These short stories all feature a common theme: society is seen as a utopia to the characters, but the author has added a characteristic (or characteristics) that contaminates it. The characteristics can be very minor, but can offer drastic changes to the society in a way that is hardly challenged due to “tradition.” Additionally, the characteristics are often thinly veiled in a way that accentuates the authors’ purposes behind the stories.
Harrison Bergeron, written …show more content…
Can it be possible to create a perfectly equal society? Who is the arbiter of equality? In this story, the Handicapper General is said arbiter. There are a few peculiar details to note when the Handicapper General takes her place. First, she does not seem to have any handicaps, or the author does not seem to make note of them. Second, it seems strange that the head of a department (if you could relate her position in any way to the Surgeon General or Postmaster General) would go out of his or her way to stifle a revolution, regardless of the size. These details could imply that the Handicapper General is in charge of much more than just mandating the handicaps on …show more content…
For example, the black box is a large symbol of tradition. Despite the box old, faded, and broken, the townspeople refuse to replace it on the baseless claim that it was made from an older box. The lottery itself is a warning against blindly abiding by the arbitrary rules set by previous generations. The townspeople do not question the motives behind this tradition, and that the act of mob-killing a random person – whether that be friend, family, or stranger – on an arbitrary day of the year somehow places the town on a higher moral platform than the towns that do