LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2005

Robert D. Ausmus

June 16, 2005

Utopia: Futile Failures or Worthy Endeavors?

            Utopias in history and literature form a complex genre.  Although utopias often introduce ideal lifestyles, they rarely succeed in that which they intend to propose.  Several prototypes of utopias have been described throughout history and literature; and the characteristics that define utopias—as opposed to dystopias or satirical utopias—indicate cultural expectations, and in some cases they introduce cultural anticipations.  I intend to define the concept of utopia and show examples of utopian endeavors throughout history and literature.  I further intend to deal with the claim of literary utopias and their idealistic futility and why historical utopian movements have such short life spans. 

            However, in order for one to more fully understand the complexities of utopias, one must possess knowledge about utopias and know the characteristics that define them.  Sir Thomas More coined the term utopia in a book he wrote in 1516 entitled Utopia.  The word utopia can be broken down into Greek components meaning either no place or good place.  When one considers utopian endeavors in history and literature, one will find that utopias typically tend to be good, but they also tend to be nowhere since they rarely, if ever, exist.  In any case, most utopias describe a society of people.  These people separate themselves from other people.  This separation occurs most often physically, but it can also occur intellectually or spiritually as well.  Utopias epitomize ideal living conditions and practices unique to their particular culture.  And finally, utopias promote greater and more universal conditions of peace, happiness, fulfillment, and harmony between people, other sentient beings, and nature.

            Some of literature’s most popular utopias exist in Sir Thomas More’s book published in 1516 entitled Utopia and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s book published in 1915 entitled Herland.  One of literature’s most famous dystopias—the antithesis of a utopia in which corrupt governments often enforce living conditions that leave much to be desired—exists in Ayn Rand’s book published in 1938 entitled Anthem.  All these books thoroughly describe utopian or anti-utopian worlds from a literary perspective.  These books describe three distinct groups of people living apart from others.  These three groups of people live in separation from others not only in a physical sense, but their worldviews are vastly different from their contemporaries as well.  In More’s Utopia, for example, the Utopians lived on an island complex thousands of miles away from their nearest European neighbors.  More further illustrates the ideas of separateness when he describes one of the early exploits of Utopus.  More indicated that, “he [Utopus] designed to separate them from the continent” (More 28).  To accomplish this, a channel was built that made Utopia an island apart from the mother continent. 

            Gilman’s Herland is another good example of how a utopian society existed far away from other people.  The text indicated that Jeff, Terry, and Van traveled extensively by plane and ship to the borders of Herland.  Following the flight and voyage of these men, they hiked for several days before they arrived at the first of many cities in Herland.  The text does not specifically indicate the exact position of Herland, but it does indicate the vastness of the men’s travels.  Gilman indicated on page 10 that the men endured an ocean voyage.  The point here is that in both of these examples, the utopian civilizations existed far away from other people.

            Furthermore, Rand’s Anthem describes a society separated from others in a physical sense and in an intellectual and spiritual sense.  Equality 7-2521 is a man living among a repressed and brainwashed people.  These people live away from others, but they at least know there are other people in the world.  Their community is physically shielded by an Uncharted Forest.  But more important to the story though, they are shielded from knowledge, ambitions, and individualism through a vast and controlling collectivist ideology.  These people are kept aloof from almost everything normal people take for granted.  Although these people lack the leisure and pleasantries of other civilizations, they are well taken care of and provided for.

            Another example of the concept of separatist collectivism exists in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Often in the early history of the Church, the LDS lived among themselves and in partial isolation from others.  During the Ohio and Missouri periods, the LDS migrated in mass and built their own communities, often alienating their neighbors to the point that they retaliated through persecution.  Eventually, they migrated west to a valley now known as the Great Salt Lake Valley.  They left their homes and intentionally left the borders of the United States so they could practice their religion and their way of life in peace.  In these three examples—two from literature and one from history—the utopians desired a separate place to live.  They needed a form of insulation from the outside world in order to preserve their unique and ideal conditions.

            When one considers the unique and ideal conditions of utopian endeavors, several good examples exist in literature and history.  More’s Utopia and Gilman’s Herland describe many innovative and interesting practices.  These utopians regulated all aspects of their life—their clothing, their working conditions, their education, and among other things, their families in order to ensure a life of equality and moderation for all the inhabitants.  This method of living nearly eliminated pride, crime, and worldly distinctions among themselves.  The result of this type of living encouraged people to view themselves as a large and collective family.  They completely discouraged things that brought differences to people.  They simply lived as a unified people.  The early history of the Latter-day Saints is an example from history that encouraged this type of living as well.  The LDS practiced the Law of Consecration, which, in theory, kept all things common among those who lived it.  Pride and class distinctions were and still are repudiated by faithful LDS, and they look forward to the time when they can live their lifestyle in its fullness.  Time doesn’t permit a thorough analysis of many of the unique practices and ideal conditions of utopian movements, but suffice it to say that these two characteristics comprise very meaningful and distinctive components to utopian lifestyles.

            One of the most important aspects to utopian movements is their lack of longevity.  From a literary perspective, utopias are accused of being idealistically futile.  Moreover, historical utopian movements rarely occur, and when they do, they have extremely short life spans.  The main reason utopias fail is because they deal with humans.  Humans do not exemplify utopian characteristics.  Humans rarely treat others with respect, with dignity, and with fairness.  Of course some of them do, and they are to be praised for it; but for the most part, humans are not capable of sustaining utopian relations for lengthy periods of time.  In the literary examples of Utopia and Herland, the longevity of these civilizations is idealistic.       

            From a historical perspective, utopian movements have failed due to the same reason literary utopias remain idealistic.  In essence, they deal with humans.  The Oneida and Latter-day Saint movements in nineteenth-century America prove that no matter how reasonable, egalitarian, and worthy their lifestyles attempt to be, they are practiced by real people with real faults.  It is very difficult for people to avoid individualism, personal property, and other traits of this nature.  The questions remain, are these types of lifestyles worth attempting?  Are utopian movements a justifiable type of living?  I believe they are worth the attempt because they are a justifiable type of living.  Utopian movements, in one degree or another, motivate people to live a nobler way.  The fact that they may be idealistically futile and usually lack longevity does not mean that they cannot be practical and enduring.  The unpredictable and unreliable variable is not in the system itself, but it is in those who carry the system out.

            One cannot truly comprehend the various dimensions of utopian studies without at least coming to a basic understanding of how satirical utopias and dystopias relate to utopias.  Similar to the word utopia, the word dystopia can be broken down to its Greek roots to mean a bad place.  A dystopia differs from a utopia in that the dystopia usually refers to a negative place where the people are exploited by a ruthlessly repressive government.  An excellent literary example of a dystopia occurs in Rand’s Anthem.  Contrary to the plots of other utopian works, Anthem celebrates individualism and non-conformity to the lifestyle or societal system.  In dystopian works such as Anthem, the society under question inhibited their people instead of exalted them.  Therefore, the traits condemned in utopian works, such as individualism, ownership, and personal pride become hailed as worthy endeavors in most dystopian works.

            As I mentioned earlier, utopias in history and literature form a complex genre.  Many expressions of utopias have been described, but one thing remains the same: they intend to elevate humanity, but unfortunately they ultimately fail in the process.  The reason they fail is because they deal with human variables.  Humans have always been unpredictable beings, and no matter how good a lifestyle or system is, we humans will mess it up.  We cannot help it.  However, people should still attempt to elevate themselves, and they should never shirk from the possibility of progression (especially if those people live in a dystopia).