LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2005

Gloria Sisneros

Imaginary and Real Utopias: Their Ideals and Missteps

Utopian concepts repeatedly emerge in both literature and history as mankind ventures forth in his quixotic attempts to achieve a perfect society.  As illustrated in More’s Utopia, Bellamy’s Looking Forward, Gilman’s Herland, and, to a degree, Rand’s Anthem, the basic elements involve a traveler who arrives in a foreign country, or different time, and who consequently bears witness to a revolutionary, socialistic type of community in which the general good supersedes personal interests.  In America’s history, however, it is the charismatic individual seeking autonomy for a practice of unorthodox religious beliefs who, more often than not, leads utopian movements which champion ideals to create greater happiness and harmony on a material and a spiritual level.  The Latter Day Saint utopian movement of the Ohio and Missouri periods and the Oneida Community are two examples of the 1830s and 1840s.  Both encountered problems in achieving these ideals.  The universal disposition of all the above is the idea that the past was better than the present.  These utopias originate in the Judeo-Christian concept of equality, but they are laced with humanism originating from Greco-Roman concepts.

In More’s seminal genre, Utopia, classical humanism and Judeo-Christianity merge.  Plato’s ideal that nations will be happy, “when either philosophers become kings, or kings become philosophers” are weighed and discussed by Thomas More and Raphael Hythloday of his travel to an isolated country founded by a benevolent ruler.   In this kingdom of Utopia everything is regenerated, complimented, and cross-pollinated; there is no antagonism. Chickens lay eggs, but do not sit and hatch them; towns are architecturally alike having the same number of people; the Prince rules for his entire lifetime unless he tries to enslave his people; nothing is decided by council until it has been debated to exhaustion; everyone is given a vocation—women “deal in wool and flax;” there are no slaves except in matters of crime or unworthiness; and so on.  Oddly, though, the creator of this perfect world absents himself after he makes it, doing nothing to allay the injustices resulting in families being shifted according to the needs of the country.  The idea that children can be separated from their parents in order to accommodate a childless couple is monstrous to the reader.  However, Hythloday reports with equanimity that in Utopia entire families are placed together in war, and that the survival of one is a matter “of great reproach,” because the glory of war is scorned with only “the worst sort of men” used for its consumption.  Misery in this ideal society is either overlooked or ignored.

A man of genteel upbringing in America’s aristocracy, Julian West, the hero of Looking Backward, encounters similar societal and technological improvements in his venture into the future of the year 2000.  In his world of the Gilded Age, the status quo which regulates capital, owns property, and rules society has been displaced in the future by the “human capital” of the labor force.  In this new world which he encounters, due to his awakening from a state of suspended animation, everything is divided equally among the populace as dictated by the government. There is no private property because the nation is a family.  Everyone receives a quota of selected goods that is efficiently distributed through a system of tubes that traverse the country.  Everyone receives an education, has a vocation, and retires at the age of forty-five.  Amazingly, there is no selfishness—even with inheritances because each person has a limited amount of living space in which to store items.  Still, in this utopia there is only room for a patriarchal society as shown by Doctor Leete’s constant, domineering guidance.  Contrast that with the refreshing matriarchy that Gilman’s Herland provides.  With the exception of the explorers who have stumbled into this isolated utopia, there are no men in this society.  There are many gods in Herland, as well as in Utopia, with one God reigning supreme--the Great Mother, Maaia.  Here we see a nature-to-nurture ideal, an eco-feminism, with children being the focus of each woman’s being.  Again there is no private property; capitalism is an unknown quantity.  Atavistic traits of individualism are eliminated with the guilty one being unable to have children of her own.  Hence, a gene pool of women who are altruistic and self-sacrificing has been attained in this isolated country.  They are remarkably even-tempered and capable of handling any situation.  Unfortunately, a blandness results in this all this conformity when the more dynamic women are denied children.  All the competence in their universe cannot make up for its visually dull women who dress alike at all times of the year. 

The world which Ayn Rand’s hero, Equality 7-2521, occupies in Anthem is a bleak dystopia.  Conformity is the universal law for a place where no one is allowed to have an original thought; everyone is always happy but cannot show it; and “we” is the only pronoun for the self.  There is no hope in this society, and people are worked to the brink of exhaustion and retired by the age of forty.  Any spark of individualism means certain death or escape into the Uncharted Forest.  Love does not exist here, only a Time of Mating.  The hero breaks these bonds through the force of his intellect and founds a new world, a new Eden with his Golden One.  He is his own god; ego reigns supreme.  One wonders what new dystopia he will create with his electric fences!

The Latter Day Saints sought a land where they could practice their unorthodox beliefs in a patriarchal, polygamous society.  As outlined in Forth Nephi, everyone would be converted to their Lord and be just in their behavior towards each other with no one being higher or lower in status.  Everyone was free, with peace reigning throughout the land and miracles being performed in the name of Jesus.   This was not to last, unfortunately, as unbelievers left the Church, and people began to horde their possessions.  Economics then began to dictate social status; religious pluralism bubbled to the surface; and the righteous dwindled in numbers.  Mormonism asserts the cosmic view of the Fourth Nephi, but realizes that it is an ideal that can only be encouraged in mortal life with the understanding that the life lived here on earth will be the one in the hereafter.  The uniqueness of the Latter Day Saints is that though the movement began with a charismatic leader, it has managed to survive and thrive after his death.

The Oneida Community, a post-millenialism version of utopian society, began with John Humphrey Noyes as its founder in upstate New York in 1848.  Noyes shared charismatic traits that leaders of revolutionary movements generally possess, a megalomania in his desire for control.  His charisma managed to keep everyone in tight reign.  The community’s unorthodox marital practices made it an isolated one.  Perfectionists practiced group marriage, polyandrous relationships, as its ideal model of family and community.  They were capitalists and founded businesses which thrived long after the group reached its nadir.  Their attempts at farming for self-sustenance were dismal failures because they were city people not accustomed to an agrarian culture.  In addition, the community’s practice of complex marriage and male continence led to its quick demise.  A revolutionary idea for the time, however, was its belief in the equality of the sexes.  Another utopian ideal they shared was economic communism in rejecting personal property and wealth. Ultimately, the Oneida Community was destined for failure because of its dependence on a single, human leader.

Despite all the failures and faults of each society depicted in literature and lived in American history, what all the above utopian examples have shown is mankind’s desire for what John Lennon sang wistfully in his piece, “Imagine . . . a world where everyone could be as one.”

OBJECTIVES

1a.  How to define the literary genre of “utopias”?  What demarcations and difficulties repeatedly appear?

3d. What is the relation of Utopia to America?  What problems does the USA’s cultural context present for discussing utopian issues?  (Especially the ascendance of religious and freemarket fundamentalism and stress on the family?)

3e. What social structures, units, or identities does utopia expose, extend, or frustrate?