Jessica Myers

07/11/2015

The Pages

While causing us to question our worldview, literature creates memorable characters, exciting action sequences, budding romance, insurmountable conflict, and riveting dialogue. Without these crucial elements, the piece becomes another sermon, essay, or tract telling people how they should live. A literature of ideas is “writing that serves thought more than pleasure.” Here, we are not only looking for a good story to entertain and allow us to escape from the doldrums of the world for a time, but we are allowing the ideas being presented to inform our thinking. It causes us to question, “What if society continues to move in this particular direction?” It gives us the opportunity to explore the potentials mankind could reach. It challenges people’s ideas and beliefs, yet entertains. Through valuing the literary elements of a piece, utopian literature is not only viewed as a good story, but an opportunity to question the “what ifs” and expose society’s current problems.

One benefit of writing fiction is that the setting can be unrealistic. This is particularly beneficial for utopian literature since a utopia has never existed. In this new land, new rules and social structures can be created without forcing anyone to actually live in that world. This allows the reader to suspend reality, while they explore the benefits or outcomes of a perfect society (and vice versa for a dystopia). This element is crucial for Ecotopia, which gives the reader a familiar territory to work with, yet is set in a way that allows them to question what would happen if a part of America seceded. It looks at the benefits of restructuring your mindset of human-centered thinking to earth-centered. This thinking leads to a potential prolonging of humanity on the earth, since they are better at being self-sustainable, rather than haphazardly using up resources wastefully. These ideas help people to question the way they treat the environment and the potential consequences of continuing to misuse resources.   

It is important for the story’s location to be either set in an undiscovered land or one that is far, far away. This makes it easier for the reader to think about the “what if,” since they are exploring and questioning the “new world” along with the narrator. Although this is untrue of Ecotopia, Thomas More’s Utopia and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland are both set in nonexistent locations. This allowed More to criticize issues he saw in English government from the safety of the America’s. However, since America was a real place, this gave More the opportunity to show what kind of society could be created in this unformed nation across the ocean. Gilman, on the other hand, needed a location where women could be left to themselves and shown to be self-sufficient. This could only be possible in a place of isolation where the women were cut off from society’s influence and forced to fend for themselves.

A unique function of characterization in utopian literature is the relationship between the narrator and the “all knowing” guide. The narrator character is important because the reader can identify with the narrator and become drawn into the utopia they are exploring. The narrator asks questions of the guide that the reader may have asked. However, this can sometimes become frustrating because there are questions that go unasked. For example in Walden 2, when Frazier is describing how they train the children to have self-control, I wanted to ask how they account for individual learning styles in this type of behavior training. Another relationship that develops is between the “all knowing” guide and the antagonistic friend who questions the society’s rules or philosophies and creates comparisons between current culture and the culture of the utopia. This occurs most obviously in Herland, when Terry brings up any objection. This objection is normally neutralized by simple explanation or a question on the part of the guide. Both of these characters give the author the ability to show and explain the society they have created through conflict and curiosity without having to write an actual essay about their ideas.

However, one troubling feature of utopian literature is the lack of characterization of most of the characters living in the utopia. Although the guide can explain how their society works, the author merely establishes them as an expert on the subject, but we don’t ever know much about what kind of person they are. Many times this character turns into the narrator’s love interest, but although we learn their name, physical features, and function, not much depth is given. Even in Ecotopia, Marissa is one of the most well developed guides, but she still maintains a flatness that lacks a certain appeal. At least, the narrator or love interest is given a little more flair than the rest of the utopians. They have a “we” mentality forced upon them. Anthem’s ironic use of “we” throughout emphasizes this lack of individuality that can be quite perturbing. It underscores that equality equals sameness. It makes me wonder, does this lack of depth mean that everyone must be the same in order to have perfection? Does this mean individuals would lose depth and uniqueness by living in a utopia? My mind can’t help but flit to the (literally) robotic wives in Stepford Wives.

          It is important to examine why authors made particular choices in their writing. Did they make this choice to keep the character consistent or maintain the reader’s interest, or make a political and/or social comment? Questioning these choices allows the reader to dig deeper instead of just taking the story at face value. For example, why does Gilman make her women parthenogenic? This forces us to explore her purpose for this decision. What effect does it create that her women are independent? What would women be capable of, if they no longer need to rely on men to function in society? Herland was written during the Progressive Era, when women were fighting for the right to vote. Gilman was one of those activists fighting for women’s equality. This knowledge helps us to better see that she is commenting on a male-dominated society, and how women have the ability to function at the same level and aptitude as men, if only they were given the opportunity.

          As someone who is not creatively inclined, it always amazes me how authors utilize literary elements to develop a compelling and thought-provoking story. By having a solid understanding of literary elements, an author can even generate something new. This is particularly true of speculative fiction where the blending of utopian and dystopian literature occurs. This allows for more intricate characters where we are able to explore their psychology and psyche. This is true of Oryx and Crake, when Snowman flashes back to his childhood. As he remembers a moment, he is seeing it not only with the eye of a child, but with the metacognitive understanding of an adult. The location contains this duality as well. There is the beauty and perfection of “the dome,” and yet the world is completely falling apart around it. This creates a place where someone would want to be and yet not want to be. Rather than the conflict between two characters moving the plot forward, the driving force of the novel is to discover what “event” occurred to cause the duality of the location. This has the benefit of explaining how the world becomes this way and cautions the audience about allowing similar mistakes to occur in the real world.

          Examining utopian literature for its stylistic elements helps us better appreciate what the author is trying to communicate. It gives us the chance to look at the whole picture of the worldview they are trying to promote. It produces a “wow factor” that allows us to be amazed by the fictional world they have created. This factor not only includes the inventiveness they have employed to entertain us, but the ability to capture our attention and point out the problems in our society. Their craft enables us to take note of the issues that might be leading to destruction, or areas where society is bogged down by “that’s the way it’s always been” and refuses to push forward into a new way of thinking. It gives us the opportunity to further question society and culture. We then begin having our own discussions and asking our own questions of the world around us. Although it is important to appreciate the new ideas and warnings being presented at face value, we will be more appreciative of what we are reading, if we take the time to examine the author’s style and ability to entertain, inform, and hypothesize, all in one place: the pages of literature.