LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Final Exam Submission 2007
Kristen Bird
July 2, 2007
Topic A3: Finding Balance: The Collective vs. The Individual
Utopian studies offer students an outlet for exploring alternative methods of conducting society. Often, such prodding leads to interdisciplinary studies involving history, psychology, or the sociology of a culture. But literature beckons students back again to the texts, to uncover meaning and invite comparison and contrast. A striking study that is necessarily part of utopian literature is the tug-of-war between the individual and collective.
Utopias seek to maintain a collective conscious devoid of individual abnormalities, but because unique humans comprise the make-up of society, the collective is at times disturbed by the individual. A key characteristic of utopias is that they continually seek this balance. Ayn Rand’s Anthem endorses the ego and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward promotes the good of the whole while Ernest Callenbach’s Ecoptopia stretches for a more balanced approach to society.
When Anthem begins, the collective has become the enemy. The mantra Prometheus repeats to himself offers a summary of the state of affairs in this dystopia. “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.” (21) The continual use of plural pronouns throughout most of Anthem seems disorienting at times, and when the first singular “I” pronoun is used in the end, a sense of accomplishment dawns because the narrator has broken free from the language, customs, and thought-processes of the collective.
The mindset of the collective is best shown when Prometheus brings his invention of electricity before the elders. The World Council of Scholars acts as a unit, as the embodiment of the collective, throughout the interaction. At first, they appear terrified, then indignant that a mere Street Sweeper would desire to be more than the role assigned to him by his brothers. Then, the crux of the matter is brought to center-stage as one question is asked.
“‘You have worked on this alone?’” asked International I-5537.”
‘Yes,’ we answered.
‘What is not done collectively cannot be good,’ said International I-5537.” (73)
As the elders attempt to disparage Prometheus’ invention, he rushes out of the gathering to the seclusion of the forest where he begins a new, individualistic life, secluded not only from the town, but also from the society’s mindset. At the end of the novel, as he settles in his own home, empowered by the use of the singular pronoun “I”, the reader cannot help but feel glad that he broke away from the collective and came into his own self-actualization.
The dystopia (or utopia gone wrong) often includes such breaks from the collective conscious, implying that individualism allows freedom, expression, and ultimate survival. The response is perhaps biological, a survival of the fittest flashback, but utopian novels take the very same idea of the collective and place a positive spin on it. In the utopian novel, the collective becomes the means to a better world in which people are provided for equally, labor is distributed exactly, and citizens have typically risen to a higher way of thinking and living in harmony.
Looking Backward’s Dr. Leete describes the process of citizens coming together during the “industrial evolution.” The terms implies that society rose to a better, more enlightened state, leaving selfish goals behind. (49) Revolution, which came gradually and without violence after many years of protests and riots under the former system, brought about a nation acting as “one great business corporation in which all other corporations were absorbed; it became…the sole employer, the final monopoly…The Great Trust.” (53-54) The irony of the name “The Great Trust” points out the people’s extreme faith in the government that compels them to leave their individual fate in the collective’s hands. The idea of “The Great Trust” seems to be that individual no longer matters unless it is part of the whole.
But even with all Dr. Leete’s verbose speaking of the collective, Julian West only encounters one family -- the Leete family -- during his stay in the new world. This family eats alone, attends religious services alone, and converses without the interaction of the community. And although equality supposedly reigns, Dr. Leete is obviously the head-of-the-household, as evidenced by the way in which the women figuratively bow to him and allow him to do the intellectual talking. One wonders at times if Dr. Leete might merely be spewing propaganda in order to convince himself, as well as his guest, that all is now perfect with the collective conscious in place.
Though the collective mindset is in place in Ecotopia, the mindset seems freer and more willing to accept individual concerns and goals. People are not assigned neat little boxes in which to fit, but are instead encouraged to use their own hands to make or fix things, enjoy their own lives, and help others enjoy their lives. The example of this balanced mindset might best be seen in Marissa’s answer to William’s question of whether or not she is fertile as they make love at the end of the novel. “It’s my body,” she states simply. (180) In Ecotopia, Marissa is allowed such freedom, all the time knowing that she has a support system around her to help raise and nurture a child if she is absent later in life. Although Ecotopia comes across as a large-scale hippie commune at times, the citizens seem to have the best grasp on the balance between the collective and the individual.
Topic B2: Millennial Occurrences as Inevitable Precursors to Utopian Ideals
Genesis opens with a perfect garden scene: the earth is unpolluted, all creatures live together in harmony, and the tree of life buds freely. Revelation concludes in a similar setting as a new heaven and a new earth are introduced, and the tree of life once more grows, offering the certainty of perfection. Yet, somewhere in between the beginning and the end, life, society, and people went wrong. The work of the utopia, therefore, attempts to remedy the distorted world in which citizens are hungering, longing, yearning, grasping for the garden. The unpaved, treacherous road that leads from a chaotic world to this orderly utopia is marked with major events that citizens interpret as millennial occurrences inevitably serving as road-markers to a new, more-perfect society. Millennial undertones are necessarily part of every utopia, as evidenced in Revelation, Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s Herland, Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, and students’ historical presentations.
In order to obtain the most accurate perspective on millennial occurrences, one might first examine the primary text from which the millennialism extends. Revelation 1: 1 sets the tone for most interpretations of millennial events when St. John tells the reader that he is writing “things which must shortly come to pass.” As part of a work that also states that to the LORD a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day, the interpretation of the prophecy is vague at best, leaving an opportunity for different societies to point to an array of supposed signs that they claim as precursors to their utopian world.
As in Revelation, utopian novels inevitably adhere to the idea that a perfect world is not realized without great struggle and perseverance, causing part of the novel’s conflict or backstory to include how the society came into existence. Whether through natural “acts of God” or political upheaval, each story contains an explanation wrought with mayhem and destruction. Herland offers an example of an act of God and political upheaval coexisting as the narrator, Van, describes war followed by a volcanic eruption that closed in the mountain passes. Further disturbances arose as the male slaves overthrew their remaining masters, keeping the young women and girls for themselves until finally the women revolted and become an entire society of women. The story combines God and politics into a traditional millennialism narrative. Even the time frame in which this occurred -- 2,000 years prior – has a millennial ring.
The result of such destruction gives birth to the utopian ideal. For the women of Herland, the result of the destruction brought a world in which the women had no horrible ideas (111), ignored the past, and built daringly for the future. God dwelt among them (112), and the citizens “lived as if God was real and at work within them.” (115) A similar reality is found in Revelation’s new heaven and new earth as St. John describes the glory of God as providing the light for the city. (21:23) However, such references to unity with God stand in contrast to the rote religiosity of the Ecotopians.
The narrator, who is writing an eyewitness account of the environmentally-friendly Ecotopia, observes a disturbing religious rite during the war games of the Ecotopians. The fact that the only blatantly religious moment in the novel occurs as a type of wartime ritual is telling. The combination of war and religion signals a millennial occurrence, and although an actual war is not being fought, the ritual remains in place to point back to an era before the utopia was established. The war hero’s rote tone as he speaks Biblical phrases echoes the tradition of liturgy in high church and causes the war hero to become a type of Christ-figure (although admittedly a distorted Christ-figure) to his fellow citizens. (79) Although the passage seems to make a mockery of religion and sacrifice at moments, the millennial undertone, whether in propriety or in jest, is continually present.
Millennial occurrences are inherent in any utopian text, and after these acts of God or acts by man happen, the goal is that the former society would be made into a new utopia. Revelation 21:5 states the overall purpose of the utopia when God says, “Behold I make all things new.” The newness St. John is writing of in this passage refers to the new heaven and new earth in which sorrow and suffering are absent, and citizens live in communion with God and one another.
In the middle of the Biblical millennial occurrences, the reader encounters a rare scene in utopian literature. St. John beholds “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb...” (Rev. 7:9) Most utopian texts do not offer such a blatant description of multi-culturalism and choose instead to keep to a homogenous society of perfection after the millennial occurrences ensue. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Edward Bellamys’ Looking Backward do not attempt such diversity, and even though Thomas More’s Utopia takes place in a foreign culture, every citizen is still of the same race. Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia is one of the few directly utopian writers who attempts such diversity, and he sadly falls short by demeaning other races in his quest for racial harmony. (107) In contrast, St. John’s text perhaps offers the best picture of the means to a perfect society, encouraging seekers to start with an equality of race, heritage, and even class that can dominate over differences.
Several historical presentations offered accounts of other utopias ushered in by millennial occurrences. Gordon Lewis described the Jewish Kibbutzim in which “early settlers faced a hostile environment, inexperience with physical labor, desolate land neglected for centuries, a scarcity of water, and a shortage of funds.” Out of these difficulties, an economic oasis emerged. Donny Leveston talked about the Mormon movement, which faced intense persecution before members decided to settle in Utah where a thriving community now lives. And class discussion touched on the enslavement of Africans whose ancestors have become indispensable members of the American society.
Utopias such as these communities reach for perfection by being purged in the trials of millennial occurrences. Without such tribulations, ineffective or oppressive societies would maintain power and continue on in the status quo. However, millennialism inevitably leads societies to a state in which all things have been made new and man need no longer grasp for the fruit of the tree of life because perfection surrounds him once again.