Utopia, By Thomas More: A Literary Analysis

Throughout history, it is evident that humanity has been fascinated with the idea of a perfect society. Perhaps the reasoning behind it is to provide a stark contrast to the obvious and omnipresent corruption that runs rampant in the world, or perhaps people are simply dreaming of the perfection they expect in the next world after death. Regardless of the intentions behind it, humans have often attempted to construct these perfect societies, or “utopias,” not out of brick and mortar, but out of words. Utopian literature experienced a considerable surge during the Renaissance with the publication of Thomas More’s work, Utopia, in which he both coined the term and established a precedent which many authors would adhere to in subsequent years …show more content…
This dehumanization manifests itself in several different ways in this text, but one of the most glaringly obvious is the blatant promotion of eugenics. Eugenics is defined as the “science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed” (“Eugenics”). This practice is looked down on by today’s society as a brutal animalization of humanity, especially because of the atrocious acts that have been committed while employing eugenics, of which the Holocaust during World War II is one example (Klinger). While not all instances of eugenics contain acts of violence such as this, the fact that the concept itself could induce such appalling deeds is frightening. Although there is no aggression accompanying the eugenics advocated in the City of the Sun, it explicitly equates human being to animals when it mocks those “who exhibit a studious care for our breed of horses and dogs, but neglect the breeding of human beings” (Campanella 1602). The very connotation of the word “breed” as associated with animals, not to mention the likening of human beings to “horses and dogs” is a direct degradation of their citizens, and to human nature