Dystopia

A dystopia is an imaginary wretched place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives, it is the opposite of a Utopia. "A dystopia is any society considered to be undesirable, for any of a number of reasons. The term was coined as a converse to a Utopia, and is most usually used to refer to a fictional (often near-future) society where current social trends are taken to nightmarish extremes. Often the difference between a Utopia and a Dystopia is in the author's point of view. Dystopias are frequently written as warning, or as satires, showing current trends extrapolated to a nightmarish conclusion. A dystopia is all too closely connected to current day society." (Dystopia.)

One Dystopian community was the Nazi concentration camps. They were horrific communities for the people that were put in there. The first Nazi camps were used for work and were called "work camps." The camps included millions of Jews, Soviet prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies and other groups of people that were seen as perfect in the eyes of Hitler. Millions of concentration camp prisoners were killed in through mistreatment, disease, starvation and overwork. It was not until 1941 until the Germans created death camps or extermination camps. They were made for one reason, and that reason was to murder as many Jews as they could. They were murdered mostly by poison gas, in huge "gas chambers." They were also killed in mass shootings, starvation, and overwork. The concentration camps did not end until towards the end of WWII when the Americans invaded Germany and discovered what the Nazis have been doing. Eisenhower realized that it was essential for the soldiers to at least understand what they were fighting against. He wanted the world to know of the conditions at Ohrdruf. He wrote a message to Washington that said: "We are constantly finding German camps in which they have placed political prisoners where unspeakable conditions exist. From my own personal observation, I can state unequivocally that all written statements up to now do not paint the full horrors." (Cambell)

Lord of the Flies is an extremely good example of a dystopia. Schoolboys are trapped on a deserted island. In the beginning they set up order and try to follow the rules they have made. After a while some of the boys do not like how things are ran, they turn on half of the other school boys and set up their own little tribe. After a while the majority of the boy's are in the tribe that dress and act like savages. In the end the boys get so insane that they turn on each other and try to kill Ralph who is one of boys that never joined the tribe. In the beginning the island was almost a Utopia. The boys on the island could not agree with one another and decided to fight one another. "The book chronicles the children's gradual transition from uniformed school boys to primal savages. Within this story lies a strong commentary on human nature, and the potential for monstrosity that lies buried within the individual and society," (Lord of the Flies) It then became a Dystopia because the boys were killing one another and life for Ralph was extremely hard.

The book Frankenstein was also a dystopia. Frankenstein tried to create a man from different body parts and pieces. He wanted to create a man that he could teach things to and that he could treat as a human and who would treat other people as humans. Instead he created a monster that was not meant for the world. T

he monster ends up killing Frankenstein's closest friends and family. "Koontz effectively merges science fiction and horror conventions with Judeo-Christian traditions." (Cheeks) This is an example of how a Utopia turned into Dystopia. Frankenstein tried to create a perfect human being but instead he created the exact opposite.

In Brave New World, they