Melissa Bray

17 February 2019

The Irony of High School Dystopias and Their Appeal

            As English Language Arts educators, my colleagues and I are always using dystopian novels in the planning of our curriculum, from George Orwell’s 1984 to Ayn Rand’s Anthem to more contemporary works such as Suzanne Collnin’s The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogies. In our role of mentors and teachers, we use these novels in order to help students identify common literary themes. Many of the themes that adolescents identify in these novels are those of expressing individuality and fighting for what one believes in; however, in “For Teens, Dystopian Fiction Seems Pretty Real—And That’s Why They Like It,” Elissa Nadworny points out that, “Teen readers themselves are characters in a strange land. Rules don’t make sense. School doesn’t always make sense. And they don’t have a ton of power.” Dystopian novels are so ironically appealing to teenagers because they relate to them, and essentially view themselves as citizens of a dystopian society because of their lack of power and control when it comes to their lives, especially when they are being forced into institutions such as education.

            High school is a complicated time for most adolescents. Their workloads increase, their hormones are going crazy, their bodies are changing, they are trying to find out how and where they fit in, plus they have to start planning for what they will do with the rest of their lives once they graduate. There are a lot of new pressures and stimuli for teenagers today, and it is increasingly made complicated by outside factors such as: familial issues, social media, the fear of school shooters, etc. In “Breaking Down the ‘System’,” popular, young-adult, dystopian writer Scott Westerfeld addresses how teenagers deal with a lot of “almost adult responsibilities—and yet they haven’t been granted many adult powers or respect.” Westerfeld goes on to discuss how high schools even resemble dystopias because they “are places where teens are subject to dress codes, have few free speech rights, and are constantly surveilled, where they rise and sit at the sound of a bell.” Just as Prometheus in Anthem or Jonas in The Giver, teenagers are told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. To me, now there is no surprise that teenagers relate to and enjoy dystopian novels so much and would prefer them to other genres I have tried to introduce in my classes. Especially in most contemporary dystopian novels, the protagonists are teenagers or young adults themselves who are trying to find their way in life or escape oppressive “utopias.”

            Jenna Zucha used a wonderful quote by Lois Lowry, author of The Giver, in her research post (2011): “Young people handle dystopia every day: in their lives, their dysfunctional families, and their violence-ridden schools. They watch dystopian television and movies about the real world where firearms bring about explosive conclusions to conflict. Yes, I think they need to see some hope for such a world.” Lowry’s quote relates directly back to what Westerfeld says in his article about teenagers coming into contact with dystopian-like features in their lives on a daily basis, and how what we call “dystopian novels” are relevant and helpful for young adults. As an avid reader myself, I know that the main drive for someone to pick up and persevere through a novel is that is has to be interesting, and what readers find most interesting is when the characters or situations in a novel relate to the reader’s own life. As Dr. White has said in several classes, the purposes of literature are to entertain and instruct, and dystopian novels offer fast-paced, unexpected storylines that weave in those instructional themes that so many students identify, such as the importance of individuality or fighting for what is right or what they believe in.

            What started me down this path of research is because I realized the irony of teaching dystopias to students who think they are living in one, and how even though we tell them to “be an individual” or “fight for what they believe in,” teenagers ultimately have little power to do so because they are under their parents’ and teachers’ authority and rules. We tell them to be an individual, but then make rules about how they are required to dress. We tell them to fight for what they believe in, yet often shut them down and accuse them of “causing trouble.” Here as a teacher I am giving them these wonderful, literary role-models, but besides relating to the character’s struggles, students are unable to follow in that character’s footsteps. Since I am a secondary, literature educator, I would be interested in either continuing this thread of research, or I have even thought of looking into why utopias are not taught in an average, secondary curriculum, and what themes and appeals utopias would contribute for teenagers that are essentially trapped in their own definition of “dystopia”: high school.

Works Cited

Nadworny, Elissa. “For Teens, Dystopian Fiction Seems Pretty Real—And That’s Why They Like It.” NPR Ed. 5 July 2018.

Westerfeld, Scott. “Breaking Down the ‘System’.” The Darker Side of Young Adult Fiction. The New York Times. 27 Dec. 2010.

White, Craig: UHCL literature professor.

Zucha, Jenna. “Young Adult Literature’s Shift in Popularity from Fantasy to Dystopia or Speculative Literature: Deserving of Literary Merit or Just Another ‘Teenage Wasteland?’.” UHCL Coursesite. 2011.