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LITR 4632: Literature of the Future  |
Final Exam Essays 2013 Sample answers
for Essay 1:
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Rachel Jungklaus
Does Utopia Exist?
Does Utopia exist? Can a utopia exist in this world? This is the question that
we ask and we hope for every time election year comes around. We all get to the
polls, (okay, maybe not, but we should) we punch the hole or click the select
button at the electronic polls, and we pray that this time we will not regret
our choices and they will not screw everything up. These four years will be
better than the last four. This president will be better than the last one. This
time everything will be better; it has to be. Sometimes it is better, sometimes
not. It really all depends on which side of the aisle you are sitting on and
which side they are sitting on, as to whether or not things are better or worse.
I am not telling you to vote right or left, but rather making a point that it
all depends on where you sit. The quote that has haunted me for the last five
weeks is “every utopia is someone else's dystopia.”
The reverse is true, as well; every dystopia is someone else’s utopia. The one
cannot exist without the other. Every utopia has an underbelly or an outside
where those who do not cooperate go.
In “the Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle,” the main character lives
in a whole and complete cyberworld, but he is not satisfied. Pryer decides to
build a violin and is ridiculed for it. Why would one make a real violin when
they could make a cyberfiddle? To all of his “friends” the cyber world is
enough, but for Pryer something is missing. Pryer lives on the other side of the
aisle, but not in the outside, which is where he finds the Bummer. Bummers being
those who refused to cooperate when society went cyber. Pryer visits the outside
as a part of his project which is a common theme with those who are dissatisfied
with utopia.
The same situation occurs in “the Onion and I,” except it is the narrator’s
mother who lives in and loves the cyberworld and his father who misses the real
world where he can grow onions. While Mother happily spends all her time in
cyberspace, Father escapes outside to think because he cannot think in
cyberspace. It is not real to him. Father had grown up outside and to spend all
day, every day, inside was taxing. It was not the perfect place for him, and
eventually the narrator realized it was not a whole and complete place for
himself.
“Drapes and Folds” is set in a utopian society where individualism was taken
away, along with food and taste, clothes, and even memories. This perfect world
could only happen if everyone looked the same way, ate the same things, and
acted the same. It could only work if everyone believed that the governing
system was perfect, which is why Diana’s mind was swept and her memories
tampered with. The underbelly in this story lies with the protagonist and her
formerly unswept friend who started a rebellion in protest of foods and in the
end helped Pearl and Xera hide some cloth for Pearl to keep for memory’s sake.
The thing is that some people, like Diana after her mind sweep, and Xera with
her programming, could be perfectly happy in a society where everyone stood on
even ground with their clothes and such, just not Pearl who loves her drapes and
folds.
In “Stone Lives” the reader experiences both the utopia and the dystopia that
was created because of the utopia. Stone starts out blind in the Bungle where
there is no hope of a life, but rather a goal of just trying to make it until
tomorrow. He later moves up in the world to take a job in this place where he
learns not only did bad things not have to happen to him, but that bad things do
not have to happen to other people. There is enough money and food and people to
clear out the Bungle and make it a better place, but the rich people cannot
decide who should do it. In that way, the Bungle would not exist if the upper
class did not live the way they do.
Parable of the Sower
and “Speech Sounds” have the same idea working behind them so what I say here
applies to both. They are dystopian, post-apocalyptic societies where everything
has changed and has been changed for a while in a not-so-distant future. Why
they are dystopian needs no explanation, but they are utopia, or just what is
wanted, for some of the characters. Keith in Parable found the outside
world to his liking right up until he died. He killed and stole what he wanted
and lived just fine for a while. The way Butler describes him gives the idea
that he was always like this and finally finds his element when he leaves home.
In “Speech Sounds” the world has changed to make people angrier, but some people
clearly were taking advantage of the situation, raping and pillaging. Were they
doing it because of the disease? Maybe, maybe not, but does that really even
matter. Things just kind of turned out that way and some people seemed to like
it that way. It this sense every dystopia is another’s utopia.
The theme that every utopia is someone else’s dystopia does not stop with the
literature we read in Literature of the Future, but also carries to other texts
as a warning to us that perfection is not always what it is cracked up to be.
Matched by Allie Condie has a utopian society that matches each person with
their most compatible mate, but does not make allowances for love. The Giver
by Lois Lowry has a utopian society that does not allow its people to experience
strong emotions or colors and kills those who are old or sickly. Running Out
of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix has a society created for those who
liked the “good ole days” before the advance of technology, but the people are
trapped there by the company who created the community and introduced a virus to
the children living there. Among the Hidden, also by Haddix, has a
society that will allow only two children to each family and the hero or the
story is a third who finds a way to survive in a world that wants to kill him.
In all of these stories, most of the people were happy, even if it was in
ignorance, and just few select few were bothered by the way things were. It all
comes down to which side they were sitting on; it’s just a matter of
circumstance.
The warning is clear in each of these stories and was best stated by Veronica
Nadalin in her 2009 essay “One and the Same,” “Thinking that there is one utopia
that would make everyone happy is far-fetched and, with the reading of this
course, impossible. No matter how hard a person, group, or government
tries, not everyone can be pleased.” What are we willing to sacrifice in order
to attempt the impossible?
