Munira Omari

June 26, 2013

Teaching and Understanding Utopia and Dystopia

 Since my childhood, I have always dreamt of a perfect life like the ones seen in movies, TV shows or novels. It is the thought of having a perfect life where racism and inequality do not exist that made it all the more exciting and wonderful. However, as I grew older, I realized that life is not what it seems. I have lived my childhood believing in something that did not exist, hoping that someday I would be able to achieve it. But since taking this class, I have become obsessed with the thought of utopia only being a controlling and hopeless land with no chance for change or improvement. A barbaric place where your opinion is not valued; however, there are many other utopias that are aspiring and growing, such as Herland, where the lack of many necessities caused the population to adapt and create a perfect world of their own. Although utopian literature may serve as a solution to many societal problems, it continues to prove to be ineffective in many cases.

Through my reading of former essays, I have found that many students shared my views. For one, Katie Parnian’s midterm “The Perfect Utopia: a Contradiction in Terms,” was fascinating because her opinions contradicted some values of a utopia. Parnian points out in her midterm that “utopias are developed to serve as a remedy to a particular culture and age’s social, religious, political and economic needs.” They supposedly happen in order to make a better life with better values. However, if they are not fulfilled in the best way possible, that utopia would most likely become a dystopia. As hard as it seems, it is impossible to achieve perfection because “perfection is only for God.” What I also thought was interesting about her essay is, “Second, utopian ideals are not achievable for the same reasons Western notions of idealized notions of love, the ‘and they live happily ever after’ notion of marriage are not sustainable.” Reading Katie’s idea about utopia opened my eyes to many things that I had believed in prior to reading her essay. For example, I always thought that marriage life was “a fairytale”; however, there are problems and misunderstanding that happens. Life is not perfect, and that applies to utopias as well.

While Katie’s argument has some validity, another student, Chrissie Johnston views utopia as an effective establishment for a society. Chrissie Johnston’s midterm, “The Attraction of Perfection,” connects her ideas of learning about utopias with classroom needs. She has an optimistic view on utopias, whereas Parnian had a pessimistic view on utopias and did not approve of them. While reading Johnston’s midterm, I have learnt new ideas and benefits that a utopian society can possess. For one, I was concentrating on the controlling aspect of utopia and the laws that I have not thought of the education that was applied in utopian societies. In all the utopian novels I have read in the class, education was a main concern.  The educational system’s main concern was equality and diversity. For one, in Herland, the children were being taught about everything indirectly. In Utopia by Thomas More, he gave education a high honor in his utopia. He also encouraged women as well as men to pursue it.  In another idea, she points out the money aspect of utopias and its effectiveness, especially in Looking Backward.  She says that having a specific amount of money given to you to use as you please is a great idea because everyone is equal and they could buy what they please. On the other hand, I would not recommend it because it does not give a chance for people to work harder to achieve more, or to obtain individuality and competition, even though utopias do not approve of it as seen in many novels Herland, Utopia, and Ecotopia.Thus in this case, I believe that this is where utopia fails. Competition is what makes people talented and motivated to become our best. And if no one is the best, then how does a community grow.

 With the previous being said, it led me to another point that Johnston pointed out in her midterm. She argues the teaching of dystopias in high school. Her thought on the matter caught my interest. I always believed that teaching children about dystopia would cause them to lose hope in life. It would also give them a sense of insecurity about their own life. However, she points out that teaching dystopias helps students’ individuality and self esteem. Dystopias help the student relate to the protagonist and gives them a sense of security and freedom. Students can always relate to a hero.

For my last reviewed essay, I read Courtney Heintzelman’s research post, “Utopias, Dystopias and The Lottery.” I have never read that novel before, but I was fascinated with the plot. The idea of sacrificing a person every year for good harvest is something so barbaric and dystopian. It seemed to me that this novel is a perfect candidate for dystopian novels as she answered in her post. Although this society might be considered as a utopia for the villagers and the family of the victim, it is a dystopia for Tessie, who feels betrayed by the belief of a good harvest after being picked to be sacrificed. This notion follows the idea that Katie mentioned in her midterm with a little twist, utopias are created as a cure for a specific culture to provide certain requirements needed by the community, and in this case, the need is vegetation.

In sum, I believe that these three articles are connected somehow by the idea of a utopia and a dystopia. In Katie and Chrissie’s midterms, they discuss their thoughts on utopia and dystopia; whereas, in Courtney’s research post, the ideas are connected to make it complete. As utopias are always created for a reason “to make life better,” they somehow become a dystopia. In this case, Courtney’s research post united both ideas. And by teaching both in schools, students are expanding their knowledge and learning.