Alicia Costello

A1: Dramatic Pretenses in Utopian Fiction

Utopian fiction, as literature, gets very much dismissed in education and by the populace at large.  Literature majors scorn the books for what they conceive as sub-par literature, and students of other fields mostly scorn serious reading as a whole.  By exploring in depth the literary aspects of utopian fiction and by looking at these aspects across a wide variety of utopian books, one is rewarded with the merit hidden in all the utopian texts.  In accordance with Objective 1a, One such aspect that has turned into something of a convention in utopian fiction is the character of the traveler.  The traveler has many important duties within the story: he is the voice or representation of the audience, he experiences the only change in the novel, and he usually is the only character that changes within the course of the book, giving utopian fiction a bit of what it is so often criticized as lacking—drama. 

Perhaps the most important role of the traveler is that he acts as a voice for the audience.  If utopian fiction is primarily a literature of ideas as I explored in my midterm, then the primary focus of the fiction narrative is to put forth the non-fiction idea the author wants the reader to understand.   This dichotomy is the heart of what some readers consider strange about the narrative. In literature of ideas, the narrative, the fiction, is simply a tool to highlight the non-fiction idea. The traveler is the one character to bridge the non-fiction idea and the fiction of the narrative.  As the utopian ideals are revealed to him, so they are also revealed to the reader.  They take the same journey as the reader: they are exposed to new ideas and must react against them or in favor of them.  Authors realize this fact.  Authors purposely write the traveler’s journey as the same journey they wish the reader to experience. The author’s goal is to turn the reader, however apprehensive, to his opinion. After all, what would a utopian novel be if the main character experiences, then rejects, the ideas the author puts forth?  Studying the ideas in the utopia are important enough, but equally worth studying is the reaction the author wishes the reader to experience, as told through the traveler’s character.  It is for this reason that no utopian novel can be properly expounded upon until an extensive study of the traveler’s journey has been made. 

Character development in utopias depends on the traveler. The characters in a utopian fiction are of two kinds: those who are from the utopia, and those who travel to the utopia (usually just a single character, but in novels like Herland, can be a group, each traveler with different reactions.) The characters who are from the utopia do not change—in fact, one of the great things about most utopias is control and consistency.  People in the utopia are generally happy and carefree.  This is nice, but it does not make for very good character development.  Readers learn all about Dr. Leete’s life, but it is Julian who seems real; we see him under stress and confusion.  Character development is one of the most important literary aspects of any book, and the traveler is generally the only character(s) in the utopia who experience enough drama to show the reader development of their character.  Travelers, for the most part, do not leave the utopia the same way they came—this is certainly true of all our texts except Terry in Herland and More’s character in Utopia (perhaps since he did not physically go.) Certainly West in Looking Backward and William West in Ecotopia are the most drastically changed. Katie Vitek mentions in her final exam that, “at the same time, it makes both the writer and the readers question what types of conflict are internal and external, helping to engage the reader through empathy.”  She makes an important point: the authors intend to drive home that the crisis they want to happen is in the traveler and the reader—not the utopia. The element that makes a country into a utopia in the first place is the happiness of the citizens.  Therefore, one could never write such a good character inside a utopia. Utopia-dwelling characters are by default, static, therefore, aren’t very good drama. 

Utopias are so perfect, they do not change.  Like fine wines, they only become better, happier, with age.  The reader can become frustrated because everything in utopias are so happy—they have little, if any, problems.  The lack of drama throughout the narrative plagues what readers expect to be a creative, deep dramatic story.  Objective 2b highlights this problem.  Since the traveler is the only character that experiences any kind of change, he is essential to the story’s dynamics.  He alone can create the drama in a place that, by definition, has none.  One of the most thrilling experiences throughout the five major texts we read are Julian West’s psychotic breakdown on the streets of modern-day Boston and his conversion at the end of the book.  All of these are internal and provide some much-needed drama to what essentially is a book-length Dr. Leete monologue.  Whenever there are tensions between the traveler and the utopia, the traveler always starts it with some cultural gaffe. Instances of this include nearly all of Terry’s experiences in Herland and a few embarrassing encounters of William Weston in Ecotopia.  Speaking of Ecotopia, one might argue that the “egg incident” in the diner and the couple’s argument in the hallway are examples of drama, but it is momentary drama that automatically ends in the fighting characters’ reconciliation.  No one ever goes to bed mad in utopias.  The drama between those characters is only perceived as drama by Weston—everyone in Ecotopia considers such things normal and not part of any particular drama.  Even if Weston did not start the drama, he invented the drama by calling attention to normal Ecotopian practices.

A close study of the traveler and his physical and emotional journey throughout his trip to the utopia is essential to understanding the fictional aspects of the novels.  As a character, he creates and experiences drama, he brings conflict to an otherwise perfect story, and he gives readers a clue into the author’s pretenses for writing the book.