Perfect but imperfect. Equal but not equity. Imagine living in a society controlled by technology. A place thought of as perfect. A place where everyone thinks they’re equal. A dystopia is a supposed an example of a bad place; a direct result of an attempted utopia. A dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Three reasons I believe dystopias are  rising in popularity with young readers is because they offer a futuristic place, an escape from reality, and what is meant to be a perfect world.

“Ten With a Flag” is the perfect example of a dystopia being futuristic. This type of story gives readers an idea of what the future could be like. This gets reader's mind to start wondering what if this actually happened. Though what happens in the future can be prevented, a dystopia is usually written over what people of today's society would consider perfect. For instance, in the short story “Ten With a Flag”,  “Once we turned onto the surface streets, Johnnie engaged the auto-drive and leaned back in his seat”. In the short story the automobile is connected to a web which controls everything. The automobiles in this short story are examples of automobiles that could possibly be seen in the future. Maybe many years to come or just fives year away. We don’t know, but what we can tell is that this story is futuristic. “There is no flag on your baby. You made you sacrifice just as central predicted you would”. The parents of the baby have to make a choice whether they’ll risk having a baby with a flag but is a 10, or not to keep. When the father decides to not keep that baby, the officers take the father away, sending him to prison. Later the doctor comes back in and tells the mother that there was no flag, because they made the sacrifice. In the short story they mention that they predicted that the father would make that chose. This shows that it is set in the future due to the fact that they already knew the father would do something similar. Along these lines, the two examples demonstrate that a dystopia is set in the future.

In spite of the fact that a reason I believe dystopias are such a rise in the present society is because most tend to be set in the future. There are many more reasons, but another reason I believe they are such a rise in society is because they can be an escape from reality for most readers. One example of a dystopia being an escape from reality is the short story “The Veldt.” “They walked down the hall of their HappyLife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars with everything included. This house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them”. In this quote, the author writes about all the technology available. It shows readers what not only the future could be like, but gets the reader's mind to zone out away from what life is right now. I am certain we do not have homes that cothe, bath,feed, and rock us to sleep. Therefore, the readers are getting an escape from reality due to the fact that there is way too much technology that we do not have yet. “Oh, occasionally they frightened you with their realism, they made you jump, gave you a scare. But most of the time they were fun for everyone. Not only your own son and daughter, but for yourself when you felt like a quick trip to a foreign land, a quick change of scenery. Well here it was”. Imagine having a room where you can just think of a certain sencery and it comes up. This quote is showing an escape from reality because that is not possible. Once again, I am sure we do not have a room that can do that. This leads readers to start imaging these possibilities and what things could be like, which takes them far away from reality.

No one is different. Everyone gets treated the same. There is no harsher punishment for whatever reason. Everyone looks and speaks the same. Everyone has a certain schedule that benefits them. No one is poor. No one is starving, and no one is less than anyone else. Anything else you want to make it a perfect world. A dystopia is supposed to be an example of a perfect world. For instance, “they weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else”. The government is trying to convince everyone from that world that they are living in a perfect world. Many of us from today's society would think that would be perfect. Though making everyone equal was a way to start a perfect world, another form in which this dystopia story tries to convince readers that it is a perfect word is when they apply the use of the handicapped.”Harrison and baleria are shot because they took off there handicaps”. When characters try to think anything different, a buzzer rings in their head, causing their thoughts to stop. This is working to keep the people under control and what is supposed to be perfect. That way they can not think nor know anything different than what they are taught to think and know. Taking off the handicaps can cause the charters to know more than what is meant to be shared with them. When readers do take off their handicaps they get in serious  trouble or in this cause shot. Due to the fact that they will know it isn’t a perfect world or anywhere near perfect. These type of short stories come off as perfect and make us want to continue reading. I think that that is another reason why it is such a rise in society.

I highly recommend these stories for everyone to read and learn from. Technology might now be the best thing for this world. After all, maybe  having a perfect world isn’t that the right thing. Maybe being ourselves and different is a good thing.