LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Final Exam Submission 2005

Robert Ausmus

June 30, 2005

Topic: 1

Objective: 1A

Separation as a Catalyst for Utopian Ideology and Practice

            Utopias are experiential communities intended to improve or perfect human society (White).  Fictional utopias have been written about for hundreds of years.  Writers and theorists have speculated about the ideal conditions humans should live in, but utopias have been sought after in other ways as well.  Throughout history, religious and social movements have been initiated in an effort to take the theoretical approach a step further.  Utopias may have or may not have ever actually existed, but that is irrelevant because it is the intent within the human that makes the utopia and not the performance of the human.  In all the texts and movements studied throughout the semester, no human or society was perfect.  In the literary and historical movements studied in Literature 5737, it was the intent toward perfection that was the goal. 

But what really is a utopia?  When one considers the definition cited above, one desires more information.  For example, my family and I intend to perfect humanity everyday.  We do so by learning all we can about the world we live in, by treating other people with respect and kindness, and among other things, by obeying the law of the land and of our morals.  However noble our intents are, they do not constitute utopian efforts.  So, what is lacking?  In this essay, I intend to show some of the necessary components of utopias and how these components relate to each other.  I will use examples from texts and from historical movements to illustrate my points.

The first component in defining a utopia is a community’s separation from others.  Separation is important because it shows that a community is serious in their intent to live how they feel they should.  By intermingling with people who do not practice the same way of life, a utopian can possibly lose their identity, and their higher way of life can become lost.  Examples of separation are replete in utopian literature.  For instance, in More’s Utopia, the Utopians lived far away from most other people, and they built a deep channel to keep themselves isolated from the island’s natives.  In Gilman’s Herland, the women lived on a remote island in an uncharted region.  Natural barriers hindered contact with others as well.  In Rand’s Anthem, a forbidding forest separated the community from others.  Later in the text, Equality 7-2521 utilized the same forest and a mountain range as a shield from those whom he left behind.  Lauren Olamina’s family lived in a walled community in Butler’s Parable of the Sower.  And finally, the citizens of Ecotopia seceded from the United States of America and lived in self-imposed isolation in Callenbach’s Ecotopia. 

In all of these instances, separation is a tangible and physical thing.  But more important, the ideology these groups possessed separated themselves from others as well.  The peculiar practices of the utopians made them unique and insulated them from contact and infiltration from others.  Had the utopians not been physically separated from others, they would not have been in a position to live their way of life.  This separation enabled the emergence and perpetuation of practices such as collectivism, less pronounced gender roles and problems, and a reverence for nature.

Collectivism is a common practice among utopian movements because it instills in people distaste for individuality, property, and selfishness.  Individuality is detrimental to utopian movements because it hinders peoples’ ability to truly care about the welfare of their neighbors.  Individuality leads to the possession of property.  Personal property is constantly repudiated in utopian literature because it leads to pride and selfishness.  A person who is proud and selfish loses their ability to care for those less fortunate than themselves.  So, collectivism eliminates a lot of problems and promotes an egalitarian society where all people rely on each other and provide better for each other.  Examples of this occur in More’s Utopia, Gilman’s Herland, and Callenbach’s Ecotopia. 

In Utopia, everybody wears the same type of clothing, no money exists, women fight alongside men, and children are the property of the community as a whole instead of the parents.  These practices encourage cooperation instead of competition.  People live with their neighbors as opposed to among their neighbors.  In Herland, the women all live in similar rooms, they wear similar clothes, and they all care for each others’ children.  In essence, all things are common among the women.  That type of living promotes collectivism and unity instead of differences which lead to problems.  In Ecotopia, everybody works the same amount of hours during the week, they all have to go through the same procedure to procure resources for a home, and although competition does occur, it is regulated to the war games.  People live together in a communalistic way as opposed to living in a class system.  The ideals of collectivism work well for these utopian communities, and they discourage people from focusing on differences and competition.  These practices can be seen throughout the history of the Latter-day Saints.  They prize equality and caring for people by contributing to the poor and needy.

Utopian communities often promote equality among genders.  This is especially true in Callenbach’s Ecotopia.  Ecotopia has a female president.  Even in the United States—a country celebrated for providing equal opportunities for both genders—women in reality do not share the same privileges as men.  Men and women share the same types of employment with women performing the same duties for the same wages.  Women are as physically aggressive as men in many instances.  Ecotopia goes to great lengths in demonstrating the sexual equality men and women share.  In dialogues throughout the novel, Weston compares Marissa to Pat and Francine, and in all instances, Marissa is shown to be superior to their superficial ways.

The separation of the women in Gilman’s Herland is an example of female assertion.  Although no men except the travelers live in Herland, this novel shows that women treat men with respect, once they have earned it of course.  The one-sided gender composition can be seen by some to be anti-male.  However, I do not see it that way.  I do not interpret Herland so much as a commentary on gender relations as I do about how an isolated group deals with the other and with change.  In any case, the women in Herland eventually trust the three men and encourage their daughters to marry them and adopt their lifestyle in an attempt to usher in positive changes.  In two of the cases this is successful.  In the instance of Terry, he did not live up to his part of the deal, so he was banished.  I saw this as an acceptable punishment.  It meant that the women were conducive to maleness as long as maleness did not usurp femaleness.

The final descriptive point about utopias I want to discuss deals with the ideal of reverence for nature.  A group of people who have isolated themselves from others is more apt to demonstrate reverence for nature; especially a group that favors population control and repudiates pollution.  This is certainly the case in Ecotopia.  This is also seen in the description of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Genesis declares that the Lord created the heavens and the earth, all the plants and animals that reside thereon, and men and women as well.  The Lord indicated that all his creations were good, and he commanded Adam to dress and keep the garden.  Following Adam and Eve’s transgression, the Lord indicated that the ground would be cursed.  This seems to indicate that at one time at least the earth was blessed and Adam and Eve were disciplined because they did not respect it as the Lord had commanded. 

The women in Herland had a respect for the earth as well Equality 7-2521 in Anthem.  Equality 7-2521’s respect for nature began as a fear for what he called the Uncharted Forest.  To him, it was a place that was to be feared.  However, upon his escape, the Uncharted Forest became his salvation.  It shielded him from the negative live he lived before his escape.  A similar theme can be seen in The Parable of the Sower.  Throughout the novel, the earth and its natural inhabitants were constantly abused with fire and other disasters.  Most of them seem to have been instigated by evil humans.  The much anticipated ushering in of the millennial reign would solve these types of problems.  The twenty-second chapter of John’s Revelation tells of the redemptive power of the Lord and how he will heal the world and nature.  It is an event—a restoration of the earth’s paradisiacal state—that is anticipated by millions.

The practices of collectivism, gender equality, and a reverence for nature are components of utopian thought.  These practices could not be experienced successfully without some form of separation.  Without the separation, the utopian movement would lose its identity and become muddled through the infiltration of polluting practices.

Topic: 2

Objective: 2C

The Influence of Millennialism on Utopia

            The concept of utopia is broad and deals with several subtopics.  Millennialism is one of the subtopics affiliated with utopianism, and millennialism, separatist fundamentalism, or apocalyptic studies—however one chooses to describe the issue—form an interesting component of utopianism.  These subtopics make utopianism more interesting because they add complex dimensions and depth to the issue as a whole.  These subtopics also change the concept of utopia and alter its dynamics as well.  Generally, I will discuss how millennialism changes the concept of utopianism.  Specifically, I will refer to several examples throughout the semester to describe how millennialism affects the formal literary components of a work and the advantages and disadvantages that occur.

            In order to comprehend how millennialism affects utopian works, one must understand what millennialism actually is.  Millennialism itself is a highly complex topic that can be broken down into several other and more specific topics.  Although I will not discuss all the various topics within millennialism, I will point out the distinction between pre-millennialism and post-millennialism.  Pre-millennialism refers to the climactic emergence of a deity preceding the time of regeneration.  Post-millennialism refers to the time of regeneration preceding the climactic emergence of a deity.  These two variations serve to describe human involvement in regeneration.  Pre-millennialism asserts the human incapability of regeneration and how they must rely on the deity to initiate it.  Post-millennialism, on the other hand, asserts the human capability of regeneration that culminates in the presence of the divine. Generally speaking though, millennialism is a period of peace and happiness that follows a period of degradation, turmoil, and suffering.  The injection of millennialism into utopian works occurs rather frequently and adds interesting insights to utopian studies.

            One of the ways one can study how millennialism transforms utopian works is through an analysis of formal literary components such as plot and characterization.  Utopian plots—if and when such works actually have plots—have often relied on narrative dialogue in their descriptions, and they have been uneventful with little or no real conflict.  Examples of utopian works of this type include More’s Utopia and Bellamy’s Looking Backward.  However, utopian or dystopian works that have injected a lot of millennialism into their storylines succeed in having more developed plots.  A work that has a clearly defined plot tends to be more interesting.  These works tend to captivate the reader more and cause them to become more engrossed in what happens throughout the work.  An author that develops a sophisticated plot also develops characters more fully.  Readers become concerned for characters or become angry at them.  In any case, plot development and characterization gets the reader more involved, and millennial injections serve as a catalyst for this since the topic deals with conflicts arising.

            Butler’s Parable of the Sower is an excellent example of this.  Lauren Olamina lives in Los Angeles among deplorable conditions during the twenty-first century.  Early in the novel, she lives in relative peace when she stays within the walls of her community.  However, a terrible series of events forces her out of her secured area and into the depraved world around her.  Her home is destroyed, and her family is murdered.  She embarks on a trek with a small band of devotees in order to find a better and more suitable life.  Her hyperempathy and prophetic skills serve her well throughout the novel.  Parable of the Sower has a fascinating plot that captures the reader’s attention, and at the same time it explains through dialogue and characterization the anticipatory conditions of utopia.  The injection of millennialism is the catalyst that makes this occur.

            Another example of millennialism is in the writings of The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.  This book of the Holy Bible—when read along with and compared to The First Book of Moses, called Genesis—describes a multifaceted series of events that form a complex plot.  In order to understand the plot, these two books must be read together.  Genesis describes the innocent and virgin beginnings of the earth and humanity.  It also describes how the earth and humanity fell from such a position.  Several thousand years later, Revelation describes the depravity and loathsome conditions the earth and humanity sunk into.  Near the end of the text, however, Revelation describes the coming of the Lord and his army of angels and how they overcame the forces of evil that brought about these conditions.  Although utopian conditions are determined largely through conjecture—since these conditions are not described while they are actually participated in—the injection of millennialism is the tool that instigates these discussions in the first place.  Humanity’s fall from innocence is hardly relevant without an ultimate fall and a subsequent regeneration.

            Other instances of millennialism have been described in the texts we read this semester.  For example, in Gilman’s Herland and Rand’s Anthem, a series of catastrophic events occurred in the past histories of these people that left indelible marks upon their identities.  In Herland, the ladies on the island were living in a time of peace that followed corruption, pain, and suffering.  These women had risen above the destruction and had developed a higher civilization.  Although Anthem describes the Dawn of the Great Rebirth, the rebirth that occurred was hardly a time of regeneration.  It was in fact a time of degeneration.  Rand’s description of a dystopian society—formed within the framework of a former millennium and the ushering in of a forthcoming millennium by Equality 7-2521—serves as a catalyst in describing what a utopian society should consist of.  The concept of millennialism aids in the development of these themes.

            The Latter-day Saints are an excellent example in history of the issue of millennialism.  Latter-day Saints believe that a millennial reign presided over by Jesus Christ will occur someday in the future.  They also believe that prior to the millennium worldly conditions will degenerate to the point of extreme poverty, illness, and suffering on a universal scale.  Jesus will come, He will destroy the forces of evil, and reign triumphant over a world of peace and happiness.  Latter-day Saints moved from place to place in order to practice their religion as they saw fit.  They fully expected and do yet expect to the Lord to make known to their prophet the time and place to gather to in preparation for the millennial reign.  The westward migration of the Latter-day Saints is very similar to the rosebush parable told by Mr. Barton in his sermon in Bellamy’s Looking Backward.  Barton tells of the relocation of a rosebush from an unprofitable location to one in which encouraged the bush to bloom.  This is more than a change in livelihood; it is an ideology.  Barton’s analogy deals with a new birth following a period of stagnation.  Latter-day Saints feel this has happened to them, and they feel this will happen on a larger scale to all of humanity.  Millennialism instigates the discussion of these themes in literature and history.

            In conclusion, millennialism transforms utopian works and movements.  Plots are transformed, characters come to life, and readers and observers become more aware and involved in these processes.  A result is that literary works and historical movements become more sophisticated and relevant.  An advantage of millennialism is that it gives a venue for discussing issues as opposed to just learning about them.  On the other hand, a disadvantage of injecting millennialism into utopian works is that it sometimes muddles the utopia into a literature of wishful thinking.  That disadvantage is not so bad though because all utopian literature is wishful thinking.