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Many people have questioned the importance and production of dystopian novels, along with the overall reality and impact it has on todays society. However to grasp the true importance of dystopian novels, one must know what the term dystopian means. Most people refer to dystopias as a utopia gone wrong, a utopia is an imagined place or society in which everything is perfect. Dystopia is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, and fearful lives. In other terms, it is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic. The overall understanding of both of these definitions is that the word dystopia is negative and describes a life and or society that most people do not want to live in. This is where dystopian novels come into place; Dystopian novels show the fictional future of a society that has gone wrong and bring up controversial issues that take away basic human rights.
Dystopian literature has gained a massive amount of recognition and has increased in popularity as it brings up the attention of many critical issues and or ideas that most people do not want to face in the future. The overall idea is to show that the world is not perfect and that controlling every aspect of a society can cause terrible things to happen. The purpose of a dystopian novel is to highlight and explore the themes and ideas that we do not think about on an everyday basis, whether it be in a social or political sense. Common examples of dystopian themes are a restriction of freedom, constant surveillance, a loss of identity, religious control, and governmental control.
The dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale published by Margaret Atwood in 1985 is a prime example, as it is about a near-future New England, that is now in a totalitarian state which has overthrown the United States government, now called Gilead. The novel is told in first person and is narrated by the main character Offred, who tells her story and challenges she now has to face. This novel resembles a dystopian society by showing a theme of loss of identity and individuality, power, and religious/governmental control.
The theme of identity highlights a dystopian society by showing how basic human rights were stripped away from everyone following the change in government and society. For example, Offred was never the narrators real name however it became her name following the formation of the Gilead society. Offred once lived with her husband and lived a normal life with a normal job and once the Gilead formed her bank account was frozen, her husband was shot, her daughter was taken from her and she was thrown in a prison to be re-educated as a handmaid. Once the new society was formed the life that Offred knew was stripped away from her and she no longer had a name other than what they named all the other handmaids. The narrator shows the mental challenge of not having a real name by stating, My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden, I tell myself it doesn’t matter… but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter in chapter 14. This allows the readers to feel the immoral act of taking away someone’s name and the emptiness of losing one’s identity. However, not only was Offreds name taken away but so were most of everyone else in the society. Names are limited in this novel as the only real names that were mentioned were Rita and Cora who were the kitchen workers but other than that mostly everyone is referred to by their status as the Commander, wife, doctor, and so on. Also as the society was separated into different classes; each class was given a different uniform that was a specific color for instance all handmaids wore the color red and wives wore the color blue. Without a choice of clothing, the individual’s appearances are minimized and they are restrained from wearing clothes that express themselves. This shows dystopia as ones basic rights were swept away from them and the immoral, brutal reality of not having your own identity and individuality from everyone else.
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