The Unbiased In Utopia, By Thomas More

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The book Utopia written by Thomas More in the early 16th century provides an unreliable narrator named Hythlodaeus. Not only does his name translate to “speaker of nonsense” in Greek, but within the book, Utopia, Hythlodaeus forgets the location of this mysterious island, and even then explains that he has forgotten much of his trip. The work is intended to serve as a serious commentary on Europe and England at the time, which can be seen here, “After all, those fine clothes were once worn by a sheep, and they never turned into anything better than a sheep” (658, para. 9). There, More is referencing the demand for wool in England at the time, causing peasants to become evicted from their land, in order to provide adequate room for sheep herding.