Why is dystopian literature so popular in todays culture? | Teen Ink

Why is dystopian literature so popular in todays culture?

January 22, 2019
By Jclodfelter12 BRONZE, Lowell, Indiana
Jclodfelter12 BRONZE, Lowell, Indiana
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Did you ever wonder why you’ve been so drawn into movies or book and you want more. There have been many franchises that have always drawn people into them. Just to name a few Marvel, Harry potter, and Star Wars have always been very popular, and some of them just started to become popular not even a decade ago. Many newer stories and movies are based off of dystopias or utopias and some of the most popular are The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Terminator Franchises. Dystopias stories and movies are very similar in the sense that there all very advance in technology they're all basically Government controlled, and mostly everyone besides the main antagonist has a view of a perfect world.

Technology is the main thing that gives a dystopian story it’s background. In “The Veldt” we saw how a family was destroyed by the use of technology. The Technology lead the kids to being spoiled, So when they missbehaved there parents had to discipline them by taking stuff away. But when they did, there kids would start throwing temper tantrums and they hated their parents and they screamed if they didn’t get there way. The kids always liked the Nursery which is a piece of technology that simulates anywhere in the world without you actually being there. This piece of technology is how the parents died and how the family fall apart. The kids were always in the nursery and it was pretty much the thing they loved the most, even then there parents. So when the dad takes the nursery away they are furious and end up locking the parents into the nursery with the hungry lions and they died. The technological advancements are made by the government.

The government mainly controls every dystopian story. In “Ten with a flag” we saw how the government is very controlling. In this story the government gives everyone ranks and the higher rank you have the more rights you will have. You also have a better job with the higher up ranks and you can get your rank up by doing certain things. One other things the government does is gives your newly born child a rank when they are first born and they can kind of predict the future of your child. As well as tell you if your child is going to have a disability or not. At the end of the story the dad thinks that the mom is going to die in childbirth so they decide to get rid of the baby but the government comes by and arrests the dad and drops his rank from a 8 back to a 2 just because he wanted to get rid of the baby and they tell the mom that she isn’t in trouble and to me that makes no sense why the dad gets in trouble for wanting to get rid of the kid even though they both agreed on it. Throughout all of these stories they all have had a View of a perfect world and they don’t think anything is wrong in the society they live in.

A good story that shows people thinking there world is perfect is Harrison Bergeron. In Harrison Bergeron the main character in this short story is Harrison and his parents don’t care about him at all or the way they live. In anyone in this story is better than anyone else they get a handicap and harrison is above average at everything. So he gets locked up for conspiring against the government. At the end of the story harrison gets shot and his parents are like oh well and they completely forgot that there son got shot on live TV. The main antagonist is always the one to break the system.  Harrison was the one to break out of all of his disabilities and he got arrested for plotting against the government. The main antagonist is the only person to really ever stand up to the government in dystopian stories.

Dystopian stories use Technology, Government Control and A view of a perfect world. These 3 points are what helps dystopian stories become so good in today's culture, that ends my essay for dystopian stories in today's culture.



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