Dystopia In 1984 And Divergent

In more recent years, literature and other forms of media have seen a great resurgence in the dystopian genre. Recently published books such as The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent are all popular examples of dystopian settings marked with tyrannical and powerful organizations and the rebellion of its people; but what exactly is a dystopia? First, think of a utopia, a perfect world free of strife where all live peacefully, and completely reverse that definition. According to Dictionary.com, A dystopia is ”a society characterized as human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding” ("The Definition of Dystopia"). So the picture that these literary works are painting through the use of a dystopian setting is a grim

And in the aftermath of these conflicts arose these dominant entities bent on controlling the populace to prevent such conflicts. In 1984, people saw the birth of Big Brother and its rule over the people of the world through mass surveillance and torture. And in the same spectrum, Divergent saw the rise of the faction system that categorized every human into 5 groups that decided their entire life. Deviation from this idea was met with severe poverty and ostracization by everyone else. No such thing exists in today’s society to the extent that they are in those books, but smaller forms actually exist in the world. It’s not uncommon, however sad it may be, for governments and agencies to spy on citizens without them knowing. If one compares what is happening now to what transpired in 1984 with spying, there is a staggering

And seen in Divergent, this gap led to all out war between the different groups. There’s no such thing as Dauntless and Erudite in today’s society, but instead there are economic classes that group people. Everyone is aware of the classifications of the high, middle, and lower economic classes that everyone is fit into. In its most basic idea, there is a chasm between these classes where some animosity and dislike begins to form, mostly towards the higher class. The views of some of the lower class, and those of liberal background, want to deconstruct the higher class in the name of helping everyone. Looking at Divergent, Erudite supported their actions in the name of helping everyone. Now, no one is here to argue political views, but just to note that there are classes even in today’s society that somewhat influence what they think and how they act to other in different classes. The idea of putting everyone into classes is also tied closely to rebellion just like in Divergent how a group of Dauntless rebelled against Erudite and their plans to supplant the current rule with their own. And even in 1984 existed a rebellion, however real it may have been, to crush the current status quo and the name of freedom. And just like the class system and government surveillance, it applies to the real world. Just recently there was a stand in at a ranch in defiance of government action. And there are hundreds of