How does Dystopia reflect our culture?
By Crosby Landau
Dystopian literature reflects our culture in many ways. Aspects and characteristics of dystopia are used in different ways to reflect our culture and to show a new perspective on parts of our world to which we may not give much thought.
The characteristics of dystopia, the setting of the story, and the connections we make are all ways we can identify how dystopian literature reflects our culture. Using The Giver as an example, we will figure out how Dystopian Literature reflects our culture.
Characteristics of Dystopia
Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad. Our culture has some sense of conformity, and we can see what happens when this is exaggerated to an extreme in The Giver. If we all lived the same way, we would not feel free and have no sense of choice in our lives.
Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
In The Giver, citizens lived without emotion, pain, or anything else that makes us human. They did not know what love or anger really were, and we can see how necessary these feelings are to our lives and culture by how the lack of them affected the people.
Citizens have a fear of the outside world The people in The Giver live without nature or the outside world, and fear what is outside their world. We live with the same fear at times, and it is important for us to face this fear because we can see what people lose when they let a fear like this control them.
Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. In our culture, one of our greatest fears is loss of freedom, and there is a reason we have this fear. In The Giver, along with many other dystopian stories, we can see what happens when freedom and thought are taken away, and how futile life can become.
Setting and Connections
Connections
Setting
The setting of The Giver is a community of people who live under the rule of a community of elders. They have no emotion and no choice in their lives. The setting shows us how our culture would be if core things to our lives were changed or removed. We can see how empty relationships are without emotion, we see how much choice matters in the meaning of your life, and we see how important our freedom is.
Some connections I made with The Giver were the people not having freedom, emotion, choice or even memory as a part of their lives. I couldn't help but think how empty life would seem without these things. For example, without something simple like memory, we lose so much and through connections like these we can understand why certain aspects of dystopia reflect our culture.
So, How does Dystopian Literature reflect our culture?
Throughout the presentation, we have gone through multiple ways our culture is reflected in Dystopian Literature. In all of these examples, Dystopian Literature takes some aspect of our culture, big or small, and creates a shadowy reflection of it. Dystopia takes things that may seem simple like memory, or something as monumental as freedom and turns them on their heads by exaggerating or removing them from people's lives. The setting of the story is how we can get a clear picture of what a world with these things changed or removed would be like. Dystopia reflects our culture by showing us how important certain things are in our culture, and how dangerous others may be.
How Dystopian Literature Reflects our Culture
Crosby Landau
Created on May 10, 2021
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Fill in Blanks
View
Countdown
View
Stopwatch
View
Unpixelator
View
Break the Piñata
View
Bingo
View
Create a Secret Code
Explore all templates
Transcript
How does Dystopia reflect our culture?
By Crosby Landau
Dystopian literature reflects our culture in many ways. Aspects and characteristics of dystopia are used in different ways to reflect our culture and to show a new perspective on parts of our world to which we may not give much thought.
The characteristics of dystopia, the setting of the story, and the connections we make are all ways we can identify how dystopian literature reflects our culture. Using The Giver as an example, we will figure out how Dystopian Literature reflects our culture.
Characteristics of Dystopia
Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad. Our culture has some sense of conformity, and we can see what happens when this is exaggerated to an extreme in The Giver. If we all lived the same way, we would not feel free and have no sense of choice in our lives.
Citizens live in a dehumanized state. In The Giver, citizens lived without emotion, pain, or anything else that makes us human. They did not know what love or anger really were, and we can see how necessary these feelings are to our lives and culture by how the lack of them affected the people.
Citizens have a fear of the outside world The people in The Giver live without nature or the outside world, and fear what is outside their world. We live with the same fear at times, and it is important for us to face this fear because we can see what people lose when they let a fear like this control them.
Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. In our culture, one of our greatest fears is loss of freedom, and there is a reason we have this fear. In The Giver, along with many other dystopian stories, we can see what happens when freedom and thought are taken away, and how futile life can become.
Setting and Connections
Connections
Setting
The setting of The Giver is a community of people who live under the rule of a community of elders. They have no emotion and no choice in their lives. The setting shows us how our culture would be if core things to our lives were changed or removed. We can see how empty relationships are without emotion, we see how much choice matters in the meaning of your life, and we see how important our freedom is.
Some connections I made with The Giver were the people not having freedom, emotion, choice or even memory as a part of their lives. I couldn't help but think how empty life would seem without these things. For example, without something simple like memory, we lose so much and through connections like these we can understand why certain aspects of dystopia reflect our culture.
So, How does Dystopian Literature reflect our culture?
Throughout the presentation, we have gone through multiple ways our culture is reflected in Dystopian Literature. In all of these examples, Dystopian Literature takes some aspect of our culture, big or small, and creates a shadowy reflection of it. Dystopia takes things that may seem simple like memory, or something as monumental as freedom and turns them on their heads by exaggerating or removing them from people's lives. The setting of the story is how we can get a clear picture of what a world with these things changed or removed would be like. Dystopia reflects our culture by showing us how important certain things are in our culture, and how dangerous others may be.