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More handpicked essays just for you.
Contrast utopia and dystopia
Contrast utopia and dystopia
Contrast utopia and dystopia
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A Utopia, a perfect society is something everybody dreams about but it is not easy to achieve. There have been many groups that have tried to achieve it. Many of these groups put in everything they can to try and create a utopia for their people and it still doesn’t work out. Trying to create a utopia would be extremely difficult for even the smartest people.
Pleasantville is a movie about two siblings who find their true colors with the help of others. David and Jennifer fight all the time, and when they fought over the TV remote it broke. Out of nowhere a TV repairman gives them a special remote, allowing them to be teleported into David’s favorite show Pleasantville. Pleasantville takes place in the 50s and is a black and white program. There everyone is happy, life is simple, and there are no conflicts.
In the 1950’s the American economy was booming due to the conclusion of World War II. Economic prosperity transformed family life and people put more emphasis on the individual. Television programs represented how people should live the ideal life. With many changes in culture people began to have a different perspective on life. In the 1998 film, “Pleasantville” directed by Gary Ross and the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D. Salinger both depict teenage culture of the 1950s.
Pleasantville is a very interesting movie. It deals with nearly everything we have gone over in the past few sections of our learning. It is a great portrayal of sociological subjects including norms, subcultures, social change, resistance to social change, traditional vs modern values, individuality, etc. The eight traditional values of the United States are very prevalent in Pleasantville.
By doing so they are fighting the past identities they had created and once known themselves to be, and creating new ones. The choice to do this was forced upon them and changed their perceptions of who they once knew themselves to be. Originally the people in Pleasantville were living in a town where they didn’t have much choice or freedom and everyone had the same views. However through the choices they were forced to make to change the town they realised that who they had always known themselves to be was not an accurate representation of who they were. This led to them trying
Or Weber, who theorised the relation between “the Protestant Ethic” and the capitalistic attitude in America. The 1950s American society is still viewed as the ideal by them and we see Donald Trump conveniently using it to his advantage. Marxist theory highlights the alienation faced by Betty in her house / of the women in that period of time or the whole point in the movie where everyone realizes the foolhardiness of following the ethos of “Chamber of Commerce” which is congruent to the haves who are in power because of being industrialists. It is also very interesting that the director has shown that there are no homeless people in “ Pleasantville” which explains why any deviance is a thorough struggle for the people when it happens due to Mary Sue and her wish to explore her sexuality. It is so new ,its unfathomable.
Making Connections Black and white compared to what's really right? Even though both the novel 1984 and the film Pleasantville are made in different times, they share the same ideals. The novel 1984 was written by george orwell and the film Pleasantville was written and directed by gary ross. In both 1894 and Pleasantville the ideas of conformity, intimacy, and leadership are challenged.
Gary Ross uses many features to reveal the harmful and toxic destruction of a conforming society. In Pleasantville, the audience is exposed to an alternate reality of the mid-1900’s, where patriarchal hierarchy is visible. In the film Pleasantville, director Gary Ross illustrates that when an individual comes to term with their identity, ones initial desire to conform dissipates, with expulsion from society, leading them to acknowledge their characteristics. Gary Ross establishes the perspective that love and passion will generate life as an amalgamation of creativity and a realization of external lifestyles. The desire of knowledge derives an individual to question their contemporary way of life.
Brave New World, a novel written by Aldous Huxley explores an utopian future where embryos are chemically engineered to fit in a certain class and soma suppresses negative feelings providing its captor with spurts of energy. The people living in this “new world” are born into different castes such as alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons. The alphas are the highest ranking people in the world state while the epsilons are the lowest ranking members and do all the jobs no one wants to do. This book is relevant today in the society in which we live. From relationships to technology, to economy many of the ideas and struggles in this novel have very much translated into our society today.
Conformity is gradually oppressing the world in which we live in. This ideal is prominently illustrated in the film Pleasantville which is directed, and produced by Gary Ross. Pleasantville is a great demonstration of the dangers of abiding by society’s expectations, and the freedoms that come with rebelling to these expectations and embracing change. Gary Ross uses several literary techniques such as; colour (symbolism), and character development to indicate the lack of creativity, and originality in society. Throughout the film, Ross illustrates how obstructive conformity can be to society, and how rewarding rebelling to societal norms can be for not only self growth, but societal advancement as well.
Abby Livingston Ms. Muir English 12 December 2022 Hopedale: a Utopian Society Imagine you live in a society where practical christianity is the only acceptable way of life. This was the way the Hopedale people lived. Hopedale was a utopian society located in Eastern Massachusetts.
Kyla Buchanan Reading 12-15-16 Period:8 Compare and Contrast Jonas”s dystopian society was irregular and judgemental. In this essay I’m going to compare and contrast his dystopian society with modern day. There are many ways they were alike and different in the text. In the first paragraph, I’m going to contrast Jonas’s society with modern day. Then, In the second paragraph I’m going to contrast modern day with Jonas’s.
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you 'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It 's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. ”(Bradbury 82).
This short story is mainly about equality for everyone and it’s a Utopian society that becomes a Dystopian society. A Utopian society is, “an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens”(“Utopia”). On the other hand, a Dystopian society is, “an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible”(Dystopian). The setting of “Harrison Bergeron”
In the passage “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury it appears to be a utopia when the text states, “There was a good crystal frost in the air…” (Bradbury pg 1). When the passage says, “...crime was ebbing…” (Bradbury pg 1) it shows an utopian place because there was little crime, but when the passage says, “... lone car turned a corner quite suddenly and flashed a fierce white cone of light upon him. ’’(Bradbury pg 1), it shows how the attempts to get control is making a dystopia.