Umaymah Shahid

July 11, 2015

Teaching About an Almost Perfect Society

Most everyone would love to live in a perfect world devoid of jealousy, racism, crime, and greed. Instinctively mankind conjures the worst-case scenario to the chaotic life he finds himself in (dystopia), instead of trying to remedy the problems (utopia).  Dystopias are therefore more appealing to the masses because they manifest man’s greatest fears such the famous dystopian apocalypse.  Although reading utopian literature was a tough journey I am extremely grateful for the experience and am convinced that it should be introduced to students at a younger age, alongside dystopian literature. This essay will explore the purpose of utopias read in class to better understand their importance and the positives and negatives of the utopian genre compared with dystopian conventions.   

In order to teach Utopias, students must understand the background of the narrative to make it more relatable. More’s Utopia tackles the problems of a tyrannical government, poverty, crime, and punishment. Utopia becomes a land where there is democratic rule, people live communally, slavery is the usual punishment for crime and everyone is well off resulting in an almost elimination of theft, murder, and such crimes. Gilman’s Herland presents a matriarchal society where women create their own civilization. Women have made progress in the areas of technology and agriculture, and have fostered an environment with motherhood as the nucleus and are devoid of prisons, hierarchies, crime, and emotional distress. Herland is created as a society because the women in Gilman’s time were fighting for their rights and overcoming the stereotype of being the weaker sex. Through Herland, Gilman demonstrates to society that women are independent of men and are more than able to advance in all areas of life, even childbirth. Callenbach’s Ecotopia serves as an alternative to the polluted, overpopulated, and crime driven future America. Ecotopians secede from the United States to create their own country (North West U.S.) where man is in touch with Nature and everything from their eating to their mating is organic. Last but not least, Atwood’s Oryx and Crake warns of the dangers of having science without ethics. Atwood paints a gruesome future where technology becomes integral to man’s existence and the merciless marketing industry is devoid of any regard for people, resulting in an apocalypse. Each text provides profound insight into various societies and attempts to be an impetus for change in its community.

When students see that authors of utopias are not old men and women who smoke a pipe in front of a fireplace in a cabin in the woods, but are social reformers who stand up for their ideas and against a corrupt society, it helps them develop an awe for the literature they are about to read. It shows students that when certain policies or traditions of culture conflict with their belief, one way they can challenge society is through literature. Showing examples of real utopian societies will also help make utopias more real and relevant for the readers and show them what utopian communities historically worked, which did not, and what were the causes of their success or failure. Intentional communities such as the Oneida community, Twin Oaks, Celebration, and Kibbutzim give students a holistic understanding of the way utopias work outside of ink on a page. 

Gardens and roses, however, are not all that encompass the utopian genre. Utopian literature, though theoretically groundbreaking, has its shortcomings. The greatest shortcoming of utopian literature is the dry and drawn out writing style. This type of writing style is employed in the literature because the first and foremost goal is to inform, and entertainment is not a guaranteed by-product. Utopia is a very dry read, written like a tract with no dynamic characters or elements of plot, just the guide Raphael Hythloday narrating his visit of Utopia. Through the narration, the reader becomes familiar with the political, social, and economic spheres of life on the island. Without any action however, the reader finds himself nodding to sleep. Fast-forward to Ecotopia and the reading becomes a little easier on the mind. This hybrid novel combines the informative essay-style writing and journal writing. Articles are written by Weston to inform America about Ecotopia, and Weston’s sexual escapades, war games, social observations and conversions to the Ecotopian lifestyle are recorded in his journal entries. Consequently, the reader is both entertained as well as informed of Ecotopia. One point to bear in mind, however, is that although the reading is dry and sometimes excruciatingly painful, the discussions in class after reading are rich with analysis and comparisons between the text and modern day (obj. 1e). Prone to incite such fruitful discussion, it is incumbent on educators to hold many classroom discussions where students have a forum to discuss the text with others and share their thoughts of these established historical and literary utopian communities.

Due to the writing style of utopian texts, aside from the main character, characters are not developed to the point where the reader feels a vested interest in them. The purpose of the utopian genre is to inform us of a perfect world, and in the process some narratives succeed to both inform and entertain the reader. An instance of the lack of character development can be seen in Ecotopia where Marissa, Weston’s lover, is only described to the reader by Weston but not observed by the reader as an individual character. All the reader knows about Marissa is that she might be Italian, has a brother, and loves trees and sex. Yet we do not get a glimpse of Marissa’s past, her likes, dislikes, passions, thoughts, etc. Everything we know is from another character who lists her down just like he lists his findings in Ecotopia. Likewise in Herland, Terry is the only character that really develops because he fights against the utopia he is ‘prisoner’ to, while Jeff and Van become absorbed into the culture and people of Herland. It is an important lesson for students to learn, while reading utopias, that when people stand up for themselves they become an individual and separate themselves from the collective.

Unlike utopian texts, dystopian literature is much more readable because of the dynamic characters, tantalizing love triangles, and social conflicts. Anthem by Ayn Rand perfectly contrasts the other utopian fictions because it depicts a society steeped in chaos and technologically functioning at the Stone Age. In Anthem the reader is introduced to the society through Equality 7- 2521, a prisoner in a supposed utopia, but his dystopia. As the reader we experience Equality 7- 2521’s lust for knowledge, defiance against the law, and eventual freedom from the constraints of society. Equality 7- 2521 challenges his surroundings and that makes reading Anthem all the more fun for both young adults and adults. Not many enjoy reading a novel in which they cannot identify with the characters. Had I not been introduced to the texts read in class, I would have never picked them up on my own accord because I would think that the storyline of utopias were too boring. Dystopian literature naturally invites readers to open their covers with promises of dreams and adventure, but utopias only promise a perfect society, something not very appealing to many readers. When discussing teen inclinations, dystopias are more appealing not only because of the writing style, but because of the parallel to teenage issues of rebellion, nonconformity, and identity crisis, among the many issues. Their world is hodge-podge of bad decision, authoritative figures, risks, and chaos, which they see reflected in dystopian novels. Anthem for example, deals with Equality 7-2521’s bad decision or rebellion when he stumbles upon a remnant of the Unmentionable Times and discovers electricity. He deals with an identity crisis when he discovers the word “I” and wrestles down his given name for his own chosen one, Prometheus. Hence, in order to motivate students to read utopian texts, educators need to prep them for the type of writing that occurs. Studying a utopian and dystopian novel one after the other might also help students distinguish between the two and spark their interest in the oxymoron.

Although humans seem to be more inclined towards death, destruction, and chaos, utopian novels provide a road to home in a dark, sunless prison. Just the mere treasures found in utopian literature should push educators to incorporate utopias within the curriculum and expose students to the genre before taking it in college.