LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2007
Carlos Castillo
June 18, 2007
Utopia or Dystopia? Perspective is Everything
Utopia, in practice is an attempt at creating an ideally perfect place, one that creates a social, political, religious and moral paradise that serves as the model for other societies. The problem that arises with this definition is the same one that has plagued all of the literary as well as historical utopias we have looked at in class, namely, that one person's Utopia, is another's dystopia. The term Utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More, in his book Utopia. In his novel which described a perfect society free of poverty, governmental oppression, and social injustice, a leader arose named Utopus. Utopus created this utopian society that was isolated from the rest of the world but through communal sharing, had flourished as a society that thought of itself as ideal.
This historical ideal of Utopias as an ideal community is what makes it appealing to many people. The belief that perhaps our communities could run more efficiently, justly, and for the enjoyment of everyone in it is something that keeps the dream for a working Utopia alive. The driving force for them can be political as in Communism or Socialism, or religious, as in Mormons and Jehovah's Witness disciples. There are also social or cultural Utopian societies that attempt to create equality through disbanding the individual, focusing instead on the community as the main priority.
The appeal that Utopias have is obvious. As Gloria Sisneros pointed out in her 2005 midterm, it is "mankind's desire for what John Lennon sang wistfully in his piece, 'Imagine . . . a world where everyone could be as one.'" This is of course a good description of what any Utopia or Dystopia has as its primary goal. The blending of people of all races, social classes, and genders into one single cohesive "family" unit. The utopian ideal seems to be one that reduces the problems of everyday life for those which exist within it. But this ideal is plagued with problems. If we look at More's Utopia, we see that although there is no social class, there is a work structure, which is regulated by Syphogrants. These overseers "chief, and almost the only business of the Syphogrants, is to take care that no man may live idle, but that every one may follow his trade diligently: yet that they do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil, from a heavy slavery" (34). The sheer position of the Syphogrants, creates a social class system of workers and managers and it also raises the issue of whether or not individuals are free to choose their occupation or the quality of their work. Since the Syphogrants have the authority to judge the "diligence" of the work of their fellow citizens, the social inequality becomes a factor that More is unable to counter.
More's Utopia challenges the traditional way society is run, but keeps some of the patriarchal systems in place. A society where monetary gain is not used, but because of outside influences must be utilized is one problem that is evident in More's novel. The importance of the family unit diminishes, at least in regards to child rearing, but a woman's place in this society is still in subjugation to that of her spouse. The concept of a Utopia to More is one of equality, social justice, and moral superiority. But all of these ideals are for the most part only partial departures from the structures that were already in place during his time period. The lack of equality for women in his community, the obvious social class structures that were predestined by birth, and the unrealistic belief that individual disposition would not affect social order in regards to moral codes in place are just some of the discrepancies More is unable to account for in his novel.
Another challenge, and one of the main ones that we have seen in class in regards to literary utopias is one of gender roles. In both Utopia and Looking Backward, the women in each of the societies have limited autonomy when compared to the men in their respective societies. The utopian societies in each of these novels mirrors for the most part, the gender roles and expectations that are evident outside of the utopian environment in which they take place.
Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, attempts to encompass women in its ideal for a utopian society. More states " Our women as well as our men, are members of the industrial army, and leave it only when maternal duties claim them" (173). This statement seems to show an equality with men when it comes to being a part of this idealized community of the future. But later in the same chapter, Bellamy backs off this assertion of equality stating that "Under no circumstances is a woman permitted to follow any employment not perfectly adapted, both as to kind and degree of labor, to her sex" (173). This stipulation is of course the throwback to the patriarchal society where women must be protected, sheltered from what men might see as "unnatural" gender practices. Bellamy retreats further into the depths of patriarchal thinking when he states "Women are a very happy race nowadays, as compared with what they ever were before in the world's history, and their power of giving happiness to men has been of course increased in proportion" (175). More almost seems to describe women as a separate race from men in the preceding passage and then propagates the male doctrine in what was supposed to be a community of equality and gender indifference.
Utopia, by Sir Thomas More, makes little attempts to hide its patriarchal hierarchy. More states that "Husbands have power to correct their wives" (60) which shows that even in this utopian community, it is the men that have the authority, while the women are categorized as loyal followers to the male counterparts in their lives. But More does make it a point to say that when it comes to warfare, "they do not hinder those women that are willing to go along with their husbands; on the contrary they encourage and praise them, and they stand often next their husbands in front of the army" (68-69). This inconsistency of equality is rare in Utopia because it shows women as equals on the battlefield, while under the rules of men at home. More makes this clear later stating "before they go to the temple, both wives and children fall on their knees before their husband or parents, and confess everything in which they have either erred or failed in their duty, and beg pardon for it" (79). This categorization of women with children further shows that although More's utopia claims to be equal, it actually is just a cover for a male dominated community.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland approaches this inequality of gender roles differently than More or Bellamy. In her utopia, the ideal community is made up of androgynous women, that are able to bear children by parthenogenesis. According to Fran Baines discussion of the novel, who thinks that Gilman could be comparing gender roles to the possibility that perhaps gender is something that is socially constructed rather than a concept that is definitive and unchanging. Since the women of Herland are for the most part androgynous from their clothing, to their appearance, it seems that she makes a valuable argument. Of course, with the absence of men in this society, it makes it difficult to compare differences between other social structures because there is nothing to compare the gender roles of a society where there is only one gender. The only comparison comes from the three men that infiltrate the society, and they quickly begin to see that although genetically the inhabitants are women, their social structure makes it impossible for them to say whether they are more male than female or vice versa. This novel makes an attempt to show that perhaps a woman's lack of progress in the past is directly based upon the social structure in which they are a part of and in the case of the men's societies in many ways oppressed.
The attractions that utopians bring to the table are ones that most people see as important to their own quality of life. Namely, and these vary with the type of utopia, and for the most part with the type of community that the group of utopians are "escaping" from are: equality, communality, religious ideation, and the universal feeling that perhaps things could be better than what they are in their current situation. The old society that becomes the catalyst for the utopian idea for the most part becomes the dystopia of the current community. Whether you see the new community as the utopia or dystopia largely depends from which side of the fence your observation comes from in relation to it.
This is the great distraction of utopian communities, the distraction of each individual's viewpoint of the society. This was developed wonderfully in Ayn Rand's Anthem. The dystopian novel takes a utopian ideal of communalism to the extreme, stunting the free will and individuality of its members for the "good of the whole" and it is the protagonist of this novel that breaks free to form a new society, a utopian alternative, one that promotes the individual and places the importance back on free will.
In conclusion, the idea of utopias is important not only in literature, but historically as well. The United States was founded with a utopian ideal of freedom from religious persecution, and despite some setbacks and mistakes managed to alter the ideal enough to prosper. There have been travesties such as slavery and religious persecutions abolished. Women have gained the same unalienable rights as men. And although all of us would argue we still have work to do, the ideals of a utopia are definitely in place. There are dystopian aspects that also arise, as we have seen in not only religious utopian societies but in communal ones that push the envelope further. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and even social utopian experiments like the Oneida community make us step back and look at our own society. It is this self reflective process that guides us in future decisions within our own society. This is the single most important reason why utopian societies are important not only in our literature, but as a part of our history and culture as well.
References:
Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward. 2000-1887. New York: Signet Classic,
2000.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. New York: Pantheon Books, 1979.
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1997.
Rand, Ayn. Anthem. New York: Signet, 1995.
Sisnersos, Gloria. "Imaginary and Real Utopias: Their Ideals and Missteps." 2005 Midterm essay. LITR 5737. UHCL.