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Dystopian Societies

Dystopian societies presented in our day-to-day life

By Beige Shell WritingsPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Dystopian Societies
Photo by Alex Avalos on Unsplash

Before you is an article explaining the different themes of a dystopian society present in our media today. In a dystopian society, the world is described as being the opposite of a perfect society. This society is as distressing and as oppressive as possible. A dystopia can be central; an enclosed town with a corrupt government terrorizing the people within. Including, a dystopian society could be considered universal if a nuclear apocalypse destroyed the world, besides one community, with a person in power being wicked to the citizens. In the documentation below, is a set of different medias that reveal dystopian societies are clarified to further the imagined dystopias. In the following composed source before you, is a make up of diverse forms of themes within the dystopian societies that our culture depicts.

In the song “The Year 2525”, the most abundant attribute present in this dystopian society is a small group of powerful people or an organization that controls everything and everyone. Throughout the song, there is an endless amount of textual evidence to prove that it is a dystopian society, but one stanza in particular helps visualize it. In the second stanza, Zager and Evans say “In the year 3535, Can’t tell the truth, can’t tell no lie, Everything you think, do and say, Is in the pill you took today”. In this bleak, unusual stanza, you may summarize that, if they cannot tell a lie, or the truth, and cannot think or do or say anything without a pill in the morning, you can tell that the organization in charge is distributing a pill to everyone to keep them from being free-thinkers. Also, to prove this is a dystopian society dominated by the first attribute of a dystopia, is the fact that someone must make this pill, give out this pill, and continue to do so. The farther you go in the song, the more you hear these people not being in control of their own lives. The song “The Year 2525”, had a profuse quantity of dystopian attributes present, but the attribute consisting of a small group of powerful people or an organization that controls everything and everyone was the most abounding of the attributes.

In the movie The Giver, in the very first scene, the at-hand attribute in this dystopian society, is people feel as if they are constantly being watched by those in power. The Giver exhibits many different dystopian attributes, but one scene singularly stands out to help you conceptualize being incessantly watched. In the first scene of the movie, Jonas, the main character, is riding his bike down a path that has trees on boths sides of it. While Jonas is riding his bike, thinking, his two best friends pull up beside him on their bikes. Fiona and Asher were on opposite sides of Jonas. The three of them rode into the the center of the city they live in while they were discussing their ever approaching graduation. They were talking about the assigned job that comes after graduation. Right as they broached this topic, one of the three friends, Asher, stood up on his bike and yelled, “Whoever is listening, please, please, do not make me Vice Chancellor of Waste Management! Please!”. From this scene, you can concur that everyone in this dystopian society has been led to believe that they are continuously being watched by those in power. Another sign of the dystopian attribute is the possibility of the people being aware that they're being watched, which caused Asher to say what he did in a mocking nature. The movie The Giver, had a fulsome amount of dystopian society attributes within it. Throughout the whole movie, as well as in this specific scene, the attribute composed of people feeling as if they are being watched by those in power was the most bountiful.

In the short story, “The Lottery”, the most common attribute within this dystopian society would be that people are expected to conform to expectations of those in power; being an individual is dangerous. Across the story, you find a cluster of different dystopian attributes being represented. One section that precisely aligns itself with this peculiar attribute, is the segment when Bill Hutchinson drew the piece of paper that had the dot on it, and Mrs. Hutchinson reacted, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you! It wasn’t fair!”. In this scene, Mrs. Hutchinson displayed the perfect textual evidence to represent the dystopian society where people are expected to conform to expectations. When Mrs. Hutchinson realized that her family was at risk, she “realized” the wrong in what they were doing; she couldn’t stop talking about the unfairness of it all. When Mrs. Hutchinson’s death is imminent she recognizes the reader’s perspective as a matter of basic human nature to be concerned with random violence. “It isn’t fair. It isn’t right.” Even though people realize it's wrong, everyone knows of the folly involved in trying to stop this tradition of stoning one person a year to death. Tradition and superstition seem to make sense, even if people cannot articulate why. In the story “The Lottery”, as you read on, you come across extra examples on every other line. In this unfair, unjust, and unthinkable dystopian society, you can see plenty examples of the dystopian attribute of people being expected to conform to the rules of those in power; being an individual is dangerous.

In the song, “Politics”, by the band Korn, the ample dystopian society attribute that is most clearly presented, is people are restricted from thinking independently and from being free. As you travel farther into the song, you start to understand its message of people ignoring that which is wrong, people lying to keep themselves safe, and that people are too scared to talk about certain things; specifically, the first line of the first stanza, and the entire second stanza. “Everyone’s corrupt, you should just shut up.” The second stanza you hear, “Don’t wanna talk about politics. Don’t preach or talk about politics. Don’t let me talk about politics. Don’t wanna talk about politics.” In this dreary, ghastly, dystopian society, you may abridge that, if you are aware of the corrupt people around you, you won’t talk at all because you value your life. Within this dystopian society, you can gather that you want to be very careful when speaking about anything, directly proving the attribute of people being restricted from being free and from being free-thinking. This song explains the corrupt nature of the society as a whole, not just those in power. In “Politics”, you fall upon a colossal amount of evidence representing the dystopian society of people being restricted from thinking independently and from being free.

The various dystopian society attributes present within our media can be found in the songs, movies, and stories all around us. When evaluated, one can find that it is always a very oppressing society to be in. A dystopia is a very dangerous theme that is heavily present throughout our world. You can discover almost every dystopian attribute within one song. Sometimes you find a dystopian society you never could have imagined. Dystopias are shown in many different medias as explained above. Our media displays many gruesome dystopian societies and their attributes in various ways.

By Devin Avery on Unsplash

humanity
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About the Creator

Beige Shell Writings

Just pieces from my brain and some short stories! Hope you enjoy 😊

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