Why is dystopian literature experiencing such a rise in popularity today? Dystopian Literature has always been popular, but over the years it has seen a spike in popularity. Dystopian literature has seen a rise in popularity because they show parts of our own society at more drastic levels, rebellion, and because they’re all around exciting.

Parts of our own society are shown at more drastic levels with teenage experiences. One reason is “The Hunger Games can be compared to high school as a ‘…cutthroat race for high-school popularity becomes an annual televised fight’” (Stevens). This is a very large part of our society and teenagers lives. These books are very similar to the experience that teens have to they can relate to them. Another reason is the caption to a picture in the article “The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature” states “The tributes in the Hunger Games are seen metaphorically as students of high school who will stop at nothing to be at the top of the food chain” (The Rising Popularity…). This is another example of high school students/teenagers doing whatever it takes to be popular. Another example about this topic is “Yes, that’s right. Dystopian fiction interacts with current real-world events far more than you might think. Because a dystopian novel most often reveals how a particular societal system that was designed to make society better has gone wrong…” (Dyer). This is shows that a lot of dystopian literature is based on something in our society going wrong. This makes teens want to read these kinds of stories because the connect to their own lives and what they are going through.

There is a lot of rebellion shown in dystopian stories. One part of “The Veldt” where rebellion is shown is “Mr. Hadley looked at his wife and they turned and looked back at the beasts edging slowly forward, knees bent, tails in the air. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar” (Bradbury). This shows rebellion because the kids in “The Veldt” hate their parents and the “nursery” can create virtual realities. During this time period, technology is so advanced that it can take the parenting away from parents. The kids are in the nursery so often that the nursery only listens to the kids so when the kids trap their parents inside, the lions that were in the simulation became real and ate the parents. Another example is in the story “Harrison Bergeron”. Harrison Bergeron is a short dystopian story where everyone has certain amount of “handicaps.” One that almost everyone has is a sash that has lead balls in them so they can’t run faster than anyone else. For people who are smarter than the average person they get a little earpiece that makes a random noise to scatter your thoughts about every 20 seconds. If the government thinks you're prettier than the average person they will put a mask on you. So moral of the story, unless you're completely average, you will have at least on of these. But Harrison Bergeron, George and Hazel’s son is 14 years old, 7 feet tall and has the biggest and all of the handicaps possible. Harrison tried to overthrow the government with all of his power. So they threw him in prison. This is also a form of rebellion by him trying to change the government and society. Instead of a little earpiece, he had big bulky headphones, Glasses with thick lenses to make him half blind and have headaches. On top of all that, he had mounds of scrap metal on him since they haven’t made heavy enough handicap sashes. He also had his eyebrows shaved, a red rubber ball for a nose, and black caps over random teeth. "’Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out,’ said George. ‘I don't call that a bargain’" (Vonnegut). This is rebellious because Hazel, George’s wife(who doesn't have any handicaps and is completely average  says to take out a few lead balls so his handicap would be a little lighter. Most teens go through a rebellious phase so reading this will bring sympathy for them.

The final reason on why dystopian stories are popular is they’re all around exciting. One reason comes from an article says “These are essentially heroes' journeys – they just happen to be set in an imagined future world” (Why is dystopia so…). Dystopian stories/movies are extremely exciting. For instance, the hunger games is one of the most well-known dystopian series and it is very exciting. Another reason comes from the story “Ten With a Flag.” “The flag is an option, not a right. Arrest him” (Haines). This is the climax of the story “Ten With a Flag”. It is a dystopian short story about how a married couple is pregnant with the “perfect baby”, which is a ten out of ten, but it has a flag. A flag means a sacrifice has to be made by the parents to give birth to the baby. Babies that are rated a ten don't usually have a flag since they are perfect. Obviously the parents want to have the baby, but since there’s a flag, the father’s reconsidering it. The mother agrees with the government because she knows that she doesn’t have a choice. So the father makes the choice to not have the baby and take the flag so the government arrests him. Action packed books and movies are always fun to read and watch.  Young adults are still figuring out what they want to be and what they want to do when they are older so these books might encourage things to be on their “bucket list.”

In conclusion, dystopian literature has been around for many years, but it has been seeing more popularity every year it's been out. So why is this important? It shows why teens and young adults enjoy these books so much. These are the reasons on why I think that dystopian literature is becoming more popular.