LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2009
Non-Existence of the Individual in Utopias
We try to understand more about human culture by studying utopias and dystopias in various literary traditions, particularly the more recent ones from England and the United States. The word “utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516 in his frame narrative, Utopia. This Greek derivation from ou (no) + topos (as in topography) means “no place”. In addition, the Greek formation of eu (good, as in euphoria) + topos (place) means a “good place”. Utopia has also been defined by the term “Heaven on Earth”.
Before this seminar, studying utopias and their influence on Western Civilization and in education was rather new to me. What I perceived, was that utopia meant an individualistic freedom of existence. Utopia was Heaven on Earth for the individual. One can exist in their own utopia freely, for what they enjoy in life is readily available and trials and tribulations have spawned serenity. A person’s ethereal happiness on Earth can be achieved only individually, not collectively.
When utopias are discussed in academia, it is often found that the utopias become dystopic in some form or another. Dystopias are societies opposite from utopias, or a utopic society that’s gone dysfunctional. The phrase, “Any utopia is someone else's dystopia” is the general idea about utopias. Although, utopias play a persistent role in Western Civilization, they are reflexively dismissed. But the question asked is “why”? The question remains, “why does society and academia repeatedly dismiss utopias?” The general consensus again is simple, “One man’s heaven can be another man’s hell.” Utopias rely on the notion of conformity. Technically, in order to live harmoniously in any utopian society, you must conform to some type of ideal in order to reach “their” (the community’s) version of perfectionism. Your individualism is dismissed and you must agree to give up any individualist way of thinking.
A slew of novels have been written on the subject of utopias, including: Utopia, Looking Backwards, Herland and Anthem. All four of these novels sought to fight against the social injustices within their societies. They aimed to find some sort of answer or solace in an existence that worked to strengthen mankind (or womankind) as a whole. We are obviously both attracted and detracted to this field of study, because of what it could mean for our own society. For one, we hold on to the hope and possibility that there may be a way to co-exist harmoniously on Earth as will be done in Heaven; but, in the next breath, we realize that life is meaningless without some sort of chaos and disorder to rectify.
Through chaos and disorder, we learn a great deal about mankind and our infinite possibilities as a culture. People have to find some sort of way to better themselves (which can be referred to as: soul searching). Epiphanies are internally sought. An epiphany is the sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. One cannot reach the utopia they seek without some sort of unhappiness in their life. One must be in dire distress before epiphanies happen; but, if everyone is eating, provided for, healthy, and un-wanting for anything, then how can we show our greatest strengths as human beings to overcome obstacles?
The purpose utopias play in helping us understand our culture is significant. Utopias pose the question, “what if?” What if everything were grand and serene, then how would it be for all of us. We as a culture hope to create a utopia out of a dystopia. We currently live in a dystopia, but if one really thinks about it, it is rather a utopian society that we live in. This is my new objective in the study of utopias. Let me elaborate, if utopia means “good place” then Western Civilization is the land of a good place. Why? Well take this theory into consideration. There is poverty, hunger and financial distress in our civilization, but a counsel is employed to think critically to handle such a travesty. We employ a slew of citizens that work for our culture to protect us and strive to help protect others in their country as well. These people are able to provide financially for their families. We have diseases that plague our community, but we employ doctors, nurses and other occupational assistants that aim to find cures for diseases, and help families get through difficulties.
Crime is prevalent, and we have people who break laws; yet, we have a policing structure that employs officers to take care of us and help to right the wrongs done against society. Without crime there would be no need for police officers; therefore, all officers would be without a job (and without a purpose in life). I could go on further, but hopefully the point was made in saying that what we think is a utopia is really a dystopian society working collectively to solve major crisis.
Although, what I have learned in this seminar, is that utopian theory and communities focus on the importance of the whole rather than individual achievements; but, do we not as well in our societies focus on the whole rather than the individual? It takes each person to individually decide that their efforts joined with another’s efforts can help to solve our injustices. Therefore, I introduce the theory that utopias aren’t really utopian, but mirror our own societal aims toward perfection.
In Herland, Utopia, Looking Backward and Anthem, these authors have created utopias that reinforced social norms of their time and reacted against them; but, we learn that in utopian communities, ideal social and political states are constructed through collective efforts, and there is no said existence for “the individual” in these pieces. This ideal goes against what is taught in any religion. In all religions, the basic demise of any society or people stems from the individual becoming enlightened in order to make a positive change.
In Christianity, Christians uphold the Ten Commandments that can theologically, be seen as life objectives that individuals must follow to live not only a utopian life, but master in order to reach Heaven, the real utopia. In Daoism and Taoism, the greatest sin is desire. Desire, if one compares to Christianity’s Ten Commandments, is the underlying principal for all the commandments: do not desire after another’s wife, do not desire to take another’s wife, and do not desire to steal things that are not yours. Your desire to do such things creates a reason for people to react negatively and harshly to rectify such wrongs. But, utopias do not believe that individualism is appropriate, and the use of individualism, creates a dystopian community.
Utopian narratives attempt to describe an ideal utopian community. A utopian community’s focus is on the importance of the group rather than the individual. For example, in More’s Utopia the narrator speaks of the Persians as a happy nation that has no wars:
“Thus they have no wars among them; they live rather conveniently than with splendor, and may be rather called a happy nation, than either eminent or famous; for I do not think that they are known so much as by name to any but their neighbours” (Utopia, Book 2).
For More, Giles, and Hythloday, Utopia was home to the greatest social order in the known world. Everyone is able to eat, work and raise their family without worry. No family is viewed as greater than the next family. "Everywhere else people talk about the public good but pay attention to their own private interests. In Utopia, where there is no private property, everyone is seriously concerned with pursuing the public welfare." (Utopia, Book 2). Furthermore, More affirms that true wisdom and goodness of a man is a reflection of how such a man cares more for others than himself. “They think it is an evidence of true wisdom for a man to pursue his own advantage as far as the laws allow it . . . on the contrary, they think it a sign of a gentle and good soul for a man to dispense with his own advantage for the good of others, and that by this means a good man finds as much pleasure one way as he parts with another . . .” (Utopia, Book 2).
In response, do we not in dystopian societies care about the well being of others too? In church we pay tithes and offerings to help others. Our taxes, paid to the government, are so that we can help our country thrive through the fruits of our labor. We place our money in banks instead of keeping it locked somewhere safely in our homes, because if we place it in the bank, we know the banks will use it to offer personal loans to our citizens. Do we really need credit cards? Of course not, but we apply for credit to give banks a way to create more money for our country, and thus our citizens.
Utopia, being the first utopian novels, paved the way for other novels and real-life communities aimed at creating social balance and equality. More’s Utopia was not intended as blueprint to creating an ideal society, but has become the framework for seeking solutions for avoiding modern and fictionalized dystopias.
In Herland, a novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the ideal community was one which lacked the existence of men. For decades, their community thrived on existing harmoniously without the domination and competitive nature of man. For the women of Herland, their ideal community is one that idealized the survival of the fittest theory. During the first thousandth year of their history, the men had died in battle. With this battle, “the tradition of men as guardians and protectors had quite died out” (Herland, p.57). This subsequently left only a plethora of women. The Herland community was a collective effort. It was achieved through growing together as one, not through individualistic competition (which was subsequently the root of their new way of life), but through unified actions of the group.
Herland is a direct reflection of Objective 3, The Historical/Cultural Objective in our seminar. This objective questions how utopian forms mirror, parallel, or reinforce social norms or react against them. Herland was written during a time of social reform. The early 20th century was a time when women fought for equality. It is no question that Herland’s compilation reacted against the social norms of the Western Civilization during the early 20th century. A Woman’s role in Western society during this time was not ideal. The role of women was one that was inferior to men. The role of the woman was to maintain a home for the family which included: washing, cooking, cleaning, birthing offspring, and submitting sexually to men.
Women were not viewed as strong and determined, but rather delicate, unlearned, catty, and chaotic. This view is evident in the novel through one of the central characters, Terry. Terry refuses to believe that only women inhabit Herland, and that there must be men somewhere hidden from view, because the place is so well organized, civilized and ideal. This idea of woman, as evident since the beginning of time, was relevant during the woman’s social reform of the early 20th century when Perkins wrote the novel.
The women’s role in the narrator’s Western Civilization is one only because their women express a need for their men. In their homeland, men confuse the meaning of being womanly and feminine. In Herland, Vandyck learns that these highly civilized women are womanly and are feminine, but as Vandyck points out, “feminine charms” we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity―developed to please us because they had to please us, and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of their great process” (Herland, p. 59).
Additionally, Gilman aimed to reinforce social norms through literature and reacted against such norms. Women were long thought to be naturally weaker than men. Women were viewed as prudish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development equal to that of men. For example, in preindustrial societies, domestic chores were relegated to women. Labors such as: hunting, building, working, and plowing were for men. Yet, in Herland, women are the cultivators of this utopian society, and they perform all of the tasks mentioned above without the need for men.
Motherhood is the major social role of women in Western Civilization. The women of Herland are able to reproduce asexually; although, Vandyck points out that, “These women, whose essential distinction of motherhood was the dominant note of their whole
culture . . .” (Herland, p. 58). In the men’s civilization, the brunt of femininity, womanhood and motherhood is forced upon women. Women are designed to believe that their expected duty is to the home, the children and their husband, and there is no room for alternatives. Yet, in this society of all women, they stumbled upon their real purpose. After the battle took their men, their job as women in life was to be the mother of all things. This theory is supported by their once polytheistic views towards once having gods and goddesses, which switched to a monotheistic view of having one god, the Goddess of Motherhood.
Gilman’s creation aimed to create a greater understanding for the roles women played in society in Western Civilization. She created this utopia that disproved everything that men thought they knew about women. Gilman displayed beautifully the capabilities and intellectual capacities of a woman where. She highlighted that women, were the creators of all living things and hold a position that should be celebrated by men.
Looking Backward as written by Edward Bellamy created a fictitious new 21st century America aimed to rectify the social and economic injustice of the 19th century. During the 19th century most capital was privately owned. In addition, the gap between the rich and the poor was substantial. In the real 21st century, majority of the capital is still privately owned, but due to the recent recession, the government has responded in an effort to oust the inhumane business practices that keep the poor, poor and the rich, richer.
The utopian concept in Looking Backwards is different than Herland in a sense. While in Herland you have a community-built structure focused on togetherness and motherhood, but lacks equality for all the sexes. The male species of animals such as cats were treated very differently than felines. Male birds were important, but they didn’t contribute as much as lady birds. Looking Backwards focuses on the prosperity and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens of the Western Civilization. The wealth in the 21st century in this utopian novel was not inherited by the wealthy and few, but divided equally. Every citizen was able to obtain a college education and enlist in the profession of their choice; but, unlike our real 21st century society, the pay was no different between a doctor and a teacher. Every family was afforded as much as the next family. Everyone was equal and there were no such things as social statuses anymore.
Tish Wallace, a student in Utopias in 2007, wrote the Exposure and Frustration of the Individual essay. Her essay states that: “perfectionism, a utopian ideal, saw man, as reaching a state of perfection or sinlessness at conversion” Wallace also notes that John Humphrey Noyes led the Perfectionist movement founded from the Holiness movement and the Adventism movement. Through this movement, “members are supposed to follow distinctive norms of behavior to create a better people and bring about a better world.” In Bellamy’s Looking Backward, his 21st century idea mirrors the Perfectionist’s movement. Every citizen is to follow a conformed set of rules, and through such social regulations, better people and communities are built. Although, there is a lack of dissension in Bellamy’s piece. There is a lack of disagreement and difference in the 21st century society. It is assumed that this society is ideal, and that all people within this society care not for individualistic conquests.
It is assumed that Utopia, Herland, Looking Backwards and other utopias ignore the “one man’s heaven is another man’s hell” theory. What’s more, in some-way or another, perfectionism is limited to conformity. For example, in Looking Backwards the progress of the new 21st century was successful because people lost their individualistic ideals. Every member of the Western Society, between the years of 1888 and 2000, just woke up one day and said “Hey, the hard work I put in is no greater than my neighbor who does no contribute as much as I do.” The “others” theory is superior to the “I” theory spawned from the notion of perfectionism. Even though the common goal for most of us in the world is that all people should have a right to liberty and equality, the notion that one must conform to the ideas of others to reach such a goal is farfetched. Although, in these utopias, people have decided that this idea is not farfetched, and in order to build a greater society, the “others” theory must be implemented.
Equality 2521 furthers my argument concerning epiphanies, and the human desire to experience them. When the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word is publicly executed for using the word “I,” he locks eyes with Equality 2521 as he is burning. During this exact moment, Equality 2521 experiences an epiphany. He feels as if this act by the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word anointed him with a personal crusade to seek individualism and uphold supremacy of the personal ego.
What’s more, in this society personal thoughts are forbidden, because everyone must work for the good of his or her brothers. Any thought that occurs in private is necessarily evil. But, it seems that the society punishes people for things that are not controllable. Equality 2521, although done alone, was working for the benefit of the greater good of his brothers and sisters. Light and electricity being brought to their community would have benefited their culture tremendously. The reaction to the light being evil assumes that they feared it spawning individualism. Next, you would have had other members of the society wanting to invent things too. We all know that light, even metaphorically, evokes thought and perception; but, in this community the very idea of thought and perception was forbidden. This view, in the least, is not an ideal utopian society like that of Herland, Utopia and the 21st century new Boston.
In academia, we are taught that Anthem is a utopic society, but ideally it doesn’t match other utopias such as Utopia, Herland and Looking Backwards at all. Ideas about what could bring their communities together were welcomed. In Herland, Jeff, Vandyck and Terry were welcomed although they were men. They were welcomed because of the knowledge of the unknown world that they could bring to the women’s country. Looking Backward was the same, where Julian West was welcomed by Dr. Leete and his family. West was able to highlight the seemingly dysfunctional late 1800’s with Dr. Leete in a manner that made sense of the changes that were employed to reach a greater good for the year 2000.
In Utopia, More and his confidants are welcomed because they too bring word from the outside world. The country of Utopia loves literature as it helps them to understand the human condition. Hythloday, being a great philosopher and world traveler, offers insight into other communities that inhabit the world. This in retrospect offers more knowledge to the country of Utopia and it is welcomed.
Anthem however, turns their community from what is thought to be a utopia into a real dystopia. “Many men in the Homes of the Scholars have had strange new ideas in the past . . . but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must” (Anthem, Ch. VII). What is a utopic community that rejects the ideas not held by all of their brothers? How can this community advance for the greater good when they make accommodations for complacency?
If utopias are supposed to be a “good place” built and strengthened on the existence of brotherhood and conformity, Anthem surely creates a dystopian society. Yet, what I found in Anthem was that this community went against the norms of a unified utopia. Of course there is a lack of individualism that is prevalent in all utopias. No utopia condoned egotistical individualism, but they honored the ideas about reform from members of their society and those from foreign lands.
In conclusion, we study utopias to learn more about the human culture. People favor dystopias rather that utopias, because there is no room for individualism in utopias. There is also a widespread belief that “one man’s heaven is another man’s hell”, or “one man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia”. In addition, no one wants to conform into something which inevitably will force them to give up who they are. Utopias react against the social norms of a community and react against them. This objective can be implied as the real reason why Utopia, Herland, Looking Backwards and Anthem were written.
Utopias do not work if one must give up their individualism. Also, I believe that utopias are no more than real dystopias. The people of these communities banded together to rectify social injustices together. Every person in a utopian story has a purpose, but the same is true for people in dystopias. Utopias do not work because utopia in itself is a personal conquest that cannot be achieved through mere collective efforts. Just because we agree to follow the same rules, regulations and constructs doesn’t mean that everyone is happy about it. Even if people follow the social norms and rules because they chose to abide by conformity, still internally, that person isn’t in a utopic place, because they are unhappy mentally. This is one reason why we are all both attracted and detracted to the study of utopias. We are interested in different methods used to reach utopias, but we detract against them because the highest entity, individualism, is avoided; although, individualism is the only way to reach a utopic society.