Literary Utopian Societies Essays - 1747 Words

Literary Utopian Societies â€Å"The vision of one century is often the reality of the next†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Nelson 108). Throughout time, great minds have constructed their own visions of utopia. Through the study of utopias, one finds that these â€Å"perfect† societies have many flaws. For example, most utopias tend to have an authoritarian nature (Manuel 3). Also, another obvious imperfection found in the majority of utopias is that of a faulty social class system (Thomas 94). But one must realized that the flaws found in utopian societies serve a specific purpose. These faults are used to indicate problems in contemporary society (Eurich 5, Targowski 1). Over the years, utopian societies have been beneficial in setting improved standards for society. By†¦show more content†¦Speaking out against the State was made an unthinkable action (Adams 253). The government of More’s Utopia was so centralized, that it was unable to adapt to changes and face problems (Mumford 4). This Utopia turn ed out to have a number of underlying problems. Aldous Huxley’s a Brave New World was another utopia with many imperfections. In the novel, the characters living in utopia were under complete control of the government. They were exposed to propaganda beginning at birth and continued to be exposed to it throughout their lives. The course a person’s life would take was already determined before he was born. Basically, the citizens of this utopia were robots. They did as they were told, and they had no accurate knowledge of what was going on around them (26). Only the elite class of Controllers had an unobstructed view of the world (235). Another theme that was put forth throughout the novel was that of the class system. In Huxley’s utopia, the quality of one’s genes determined his social class. No person had a chance of leaving his caste, and his conditioning had programmed his mind into believing that this was all acceptable (66). When looking at utopian literature as a whole, one realizes that utopias are merely a way that man uses to improve himself and the environment in which he lives (Eurich 7). The purpose of texts written about utopian societies is to inform the public of currentShow MoreRelatedEssay Lois Lowrys Use of Allusion Throughout The Giver575 Words   |  3 Pagesduring her junior high years. One of her literary works later in her life is, The Giver, which had won a Newbery Award. In The Giver, the setting is a utopian society where the characters have no feelings, no memories, and no choices that they are able to make on their own. The names of the characters also have hidden meanings and relations behind them using allusion to recreate a religous matter along with how the novel percives morals. Lowry uses the literary elements allusion and setting to expressRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Utopia By Thomas More1195 Words   |  5 Pagesbook Utopia, Thomas More utilizes several different rhet orical devices to not only describe Utopia as a place, but also to compare the commonwealth of Utopia to the current state of Europe at the time. One literary device used throughout the novel is tone. While there are several other literary devices that contribute to the reading of Utopia, tone is one of the most useful in determining the views of More as an author. 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The narrator depicts a society that appears to simulate the Garden of Eden. The citizens of Omelas are seen to have a euphoric state of mind, which helps describe them as a happy society, which appears to be almost Utopian. However, the narrator deceivesRead MoreUtopia, by Thomas More: Your Wost Nightmare Essay1419 Words   |  6 Pagesscholars fail to appreciate the significance of Utopian religious freedom because it stands in the shadow of communism, the other great founding principle of Mores fictional republic. Raphael Hythlodaeus, Utopias main character, describes Utopian communism in great detail, contrasting its virtues at length to the vices of private property in Europe. Indeed, he asserts that the abolition of private property is the key to European as well as Utopi an political health† (Kessler and Sandford) Read MoreAnalysis Of Aldous Huxley s Brave New World 1250 Words   |  5 PagesAldous Huxley published a Brave New World in 1932 in which he depicts a society in which babies are born in bottles, the concept of an individual cell does not matter as people do not believe in intimacy, science is used as a form of control, subjugation and conditioning, and drugs as well as sex are forms of escaping the horrors of reality. Or as Laurence Brander (1970) put it, â€Å"Affection and loyalty are unnecessary, beauty is a synthetic product, truth is arranged in a test tube, hope is suppliedRead MoreThomas Mores Utopia and its impact on English society during the Renaissance.1433 Words   |  6 Pagescolloquial language but a deeper look into his irony hints at deep dissatisfaction with the current thought and desire for change. Utopia (which in Greek means nowhere) is the name of Mores fictional island of perfected society. Thomas Mores U topia was the first literary work in which the ideas of Communism appeared and was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in Mores time. More uses the main character, Hythlodaeus, as a fictional front to express his own feelings he may have fearedRead More The American Renaissance Essay1168 Words   |  5 PagesRenaissance produced major influential literary works from some of the most brilliant minds in U.S. history, including Ralph Waldo Emersons the Representative Man (1850), Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlett Letter (1850) and The House of Seven Gables (1851), Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Henry David Thoreaus Walden (1854), and Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass (1855). American Renaissance Literary Masterpieces The American Renaissance, a literary and cultural period circa extending fromRead MoreKirstie Williams. Benson. English 271 Distance Education.1481 Words   |  6 PagesThomas More’s Utopia are drastically different from the society in which he lived. B. Thus, More spent most of his lifetime scrutinizing and paying considerable amounts of attention to the England’s common place and common law. C. Utopia and England have a few additional odd similarities worth mentioning. III. Religious Freedoms A. More wanted to unite his Catholic church. B. He based Utopia solely on rational principle. IV. More designed Utopian religious freedom as a model for Europe. He favored religiousRead MoreEssay on Kubla Khan: A Miracle of Rare Device1330 Words   |  6 Pagesambiguity; from its inception to its meaning. â€Å"Kubla Khan† is a poem of abundant literary devices; most notably these devices include metaphors, allusions, internal rhyme, anthropomorphism, simile, alliteration, and perhaps most of all structure. But the devices that Coleridge used to create â€Å"Kubla Khan† is at the very least what makes this poem provocative; Coleridge’s opium induced vision and utopian ideals combined with his literary genius form a subjective yet imaginative dreamscape of a pleasure-dome