Evolution of Dystopia Essay

Dystopia has been used to draw on politics since the nineteenth century. In 1921, Yevgeny Zamyatin published We, a dystopian novel that inspired the use of dystopian literature in political commentary. We have built on the subject of personal exploration. Dystopian literature rose to prominence with the publication of The Giver by Lois Lowry in 1993, after being introduced as a young adult genre between 1980 and 1990. Lowry’s novel stressed dystopia as a way of self-discovery, with an emphasis on young leadership later on. The Hunger Games is an outstanding example of the young adult genre. With the development of the self-discovery theme and development in politics have been associated with the evolution of this genre (Hammond, 35). We are therefore going to look at how dystopian literature has managed to evolve from a fictional literacy genre, into the reality w face in our current day to day lives (Brake, n.p).

Born in Canada, Margaret Atwood is among the best fiction writers with 30 critically acclaimed books. She has also been shortlisted five times to win the Man Book and won it once with her book, The Blind Assassin in the year 2000. She is just but one of the many well-known writers who has enabled the evolution of the Dystopian literature. Another great writer is none other than Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man in 1826 which is the story of a survivor. After a plague wipes out humanity, one man is left as the only survivor. This story tries to portray how the world will end from the writer’s point of view. American War is also a dystopian novel by Omar El Akkad, in 2017 that shows the destruction of the world through climate. American coastlines no longer exist with the country in chaos and panic. In both of these books, the author shows us how humanity tries to coop with the sudden change in their surroundings. With the change being massive, humanity is at will to survive against all the odds.

Apart from books, dystopian literature has become part of pop culture with music and film. A good film example being, Ghost in the shell written by Jamie Moss. Set in a near future, in a world where the difference in robotics and humanity are blurring, this is the story of how a young woman’s brain was saved and repackaged into a new and better vessel. As she struggles to recover her memories, she also has to fight her way to the truth. This is just an example of many more films such as The Hunger Games depicting how to assert control; people are divided into factions with orders coming from The Capital. The Capital aims to control humanity and every year, a game that involves hunting of each other is held where death is inevitable with the survivor becoming the victor (Collins, 18).

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a dystopian novel that tells the story of how man genetically engineered babies to fit into a caste system that tries to control humanity with the idea of eradicating violence and chaos in the world. They aimed to control everyone in the name of peace. 1984 is another dystopian novel by George Orwell that was published in 1949. In this book, room 101 has been used as a punishment site. It is the place where citizens are sentenced by ‘big brother’ if they do not bend to his every will. Winston Smith begins a rebellion by keeping a secret diary of his thoughts which is a great crime according to ‘big brother’ who wants to control every aspect of human life. This novel acts as a warning to the human race and shows the importance of fighting oppression and mass control.

Different authors have had different ideas of what the future will be like, but it is evident that some of those visions of the future have come to pass. A good example is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 where the world has embraced technology too much and is now finding ways to destroy old antiques like books (Bradbury, 78). Guy Montage is a fireman with a sole responsibility of destroying books. Montage grows fascinated with the books he is supposed to be burning, and in the end, Armageddon dawns on humanity in the form of nuclear war that destroys most of the world’s civilization. This novel is set in a future that is already here. With the emergence of technology, the current human civilization has no time for books and older materials for media and entertainment. Humanity has embraced screens as a humanity drowns themselves in a sea of phones, tablets, and televisions. In the world today, there are more people watching TV than there are reading books. With technology ever advancing, we may get to see some of these visions come to life, but we also have to accept that some of them are just going to remain as just stories. Currently, Dystopia has become one of the most important genres of all the others. More and more movies depict this genre due to its exciting features that keep us glued to them. They help raise our imaginations as this is the backbone of mental development. Before the cellphone was created, it was first an idea which was as a result of having a vision.

In conclusion, dystopian literature has been evident for a long time trying to explain how our world may come to its knees. It is used to show humanity what may occur if they do not change their way of life. Dystopian literature shows how at times humanity is single-handedly responsible for the downfall of its race (Brake, n.p). This literature has also been used to explain humanity’s resilience and tolerance to the harshest conditions. Even though man is on the brink of extension, they still fight on for survival as the death of their race is not an option. This genre has also been used to show how man destroys himself with the original intention of helping his race grow stronger. This literature is one of the most exciting genres as there is no limit to man’s imagination. Even though most of this genre has been used to portray the end of the world and humanity, a happy ending is used to show the superiority of man to all other aspects of world destruction.

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Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print

Brake, Mark, and Rosi Thornton. “Science fiction in the classroom.” Physics education 38.1 (2003):

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print

Hammond, Andrew. ”Introduction.” Cold War Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017.