A utopia is considered a perfect place or state in which all of one's choices are chosen specifically by the person and for the person. In the short story “Survival Ship” by Judith Merril, a group of engineers are seeking this perfect world. Similarly, in the novella Anthem written by Ayn Rand, the setting here is also a utopian society where they follow the rules and don’t share uniqueness. Throughout both stories, similar themes are shared.
Utopias are Dystopias To what lengths will people go to create the “perfect” society? In the novel Anthem Equality 7-2521 (main character) lives in a society where the government controls everything from school to technology. Speaking of technology, the latest technological achievement is the candle. While the rest of the world outside of the society is way past the candle. Another weird thing about Anthem’s society is that it is totally equal…But how?
Did you know Utopias pose as nice and peaceful places but under the surface there is upsetting and controlling problems that Affect their lives? In the book Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) MS Phelps has been acting happy but after Montag read a poem her real feelings started to flow and she starting to cry. Ms. Phelps was posing as a carefree, happy person but she was actually hurting and in pain. The state is not a utopia because the citizens are covering up their pain by posing as untroubled people.
The idea of a utopia, a state or place where everything is perfect, is one that has been fantasized and described by many authors in several different ways. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a perfect society can appear very different to different people. Two books that both attempt to illustrate the idea of a perfect society but with stark contrasts are Anthem by Ayn Rand and The Giver by Lois Lowry. Both encourage the idea of prioritizing one’s community, and duty to said community, over oneself in order to maintain a perfect and peaceful society. However, utopian societies are usually shown to not be as perfect as they seem when analyzed in literature.
This is the catch to having a Utopian society, it is too good to be true. There will always be poverty, there will always be violence. This can be seen also be seen in Fahrenheit 451. Although, to most living under this Utopian society, it seems like everything is perfect and that everyone is happy, no one is able to think for themselves, even to the extent that they are overdosing on pills and staring at a screen all day watching what ever the government airs on the TV. Another problem with the Utopian society set up in Fahrenheit 451 is the fact that they are constantly going into war with other countries.
Utopia is a common topic among writers and philosphers because of its inability to exist. First mentioned in 1516 in Sir Thomas More’s book titled Utopia, the concept has overtaken many books and plotlines (Wikipedia). In a world of imperfection, individuals search for answers to uncover if happiness for all could ever be achieved. The irony of Utopia is the faultiness in what appears to be a perfect society.
In a perfect world or universe, everyone would be treated with equality with no discrimination of any kind, like racism or sexism. There would be a fair government, and everyone would have access to health care plans, education, and employment. More importantly, there would be no war or conflict. This is what a utopia looks like. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect and life can be an everyday struggle.
Utopia, a word that has been known to mean a perfect world filled with everything you want it to be. This is not entirely the definition of Fahrenheit 451, for instance, a ‘perfect’ world doesn’t cause people sadness, doesn’t cause people to hide, which are some of the things that are happening in Fahrenheit 451 just so they can keep their books. Citizens must hide their books because if they were found, their books would be burned, and they would be forced to burn along with them. Therefor this is not a utopia because knowledge is what everyone wants and what would make people happy, Montag is an example because he states that nobody was happy because their happiness was trapped inside the books, that happiness being the knowledge written on the pages.
Utopia is Impossible Many people want to build an utopian society, but nobody succeed. So we need to know why that can not be successed. At this point, I found that in a book called written by Lois Lowry, people wanted to build an utopian community. They thought this is utopia, but in fact this is dystopia because people in the community have to follow tons of rules, they cannot see colors and they don’t know what is love.
But what is a Utopia exactly? The term “Utopia” was first coined from a man named Thomas More around 1516 as it bears the same name of his novel.
For an utopian society to exist, there needs to be a merging of conformity and individualism in the society. Pure individualism or pure conformity in a society leads to a lopsided and corrupted society; they need to exist in synchrony. In Merry Mount, the people follow an ideology of complete freedom of thought and of individualism. The Puritan’s society shows what happens when everyone conforms and no one expresses their individual beliefs. When the ideologies of conformity and individualism merge it combines into a greater society as a whole, better than either of the individual half’s.
“Unless private property is entirely done away with, there can be no fair distribution of goods, nor can the world be happily governed” states Thomas More in his essay, Utopia (1516). By all means, abolishing private ownership will provide happiness and government functionality. To certify, More presents various drawbacks of private property ownership. With this in mind, both modern examples and More’s observations validate the benefits of communal property ownership, as well as the flaws of private ownership. More validates how ownership of private property contains drawbacks.
Universal Goals for Charles Fourier’s Utopian Society Many of the utopian writers have themes that we can see in their writings. In Selections Describing the Phalanstery, it can be seen that Charles Fourier’s ideal utopian land focuses on the unity of its people and the efficiency of the society. He believes to be a functioning successful society everything structured within it can be broken into three categories.
The city of Amuarot serves as the capital city sitting at the top of a tidal river near the center of the island so that many may access it. From each city, a magistrate is chosen to represent them and among these magistrates a higher magistrate is chosen to represent this secondary group. Utopians enjoy a democratic government and vote in a prince to serve for life as long as he does not commit treason or any unforgiveable sin. Thomas More’s Utopia attempts to do away with class systems through equality and seemingly achieves this goal.
Throughout Utopia, Thomas More’s opinion regarding the relationship between humankind and animals was prevalent through Hythloday’s perspective. Particularly, this correlation was seen in instances surrounding war, and crimes. Although humans were seen as the superior, more intelligent animal, More believed that humans often reverted back to and were considered animals when they gave into their vices (More). For example, in Utopia, Hythloday brought up his view in regards to punishment for crimes.
