Utopia and dystopia are closely related to each other. Utopia is an ideal state where all the social problems affecting us now have been resolved. It is society where poverty and injustice are not present and if they do come up from time to time there is a quick action to take care of them. Dystopia on the other hand is the exact opposite. Where utopia is a dreamland dystopia is nightmare. This is where poverty and misery reigns supreme. All the people are so ignorant that they don’t even know better.
Like what I have mentioned utopia and dystopia are closely related. In works of fiction these two themes are tied together. A book that is supposed to be dystopian in nature can present a warning for us. It shows the possible results of the choices that we are making today. In the books 1984 and Brave New World we see societies that has been geared and reared towards the suppression of individual thoughts and feelings.
Often a book that’s is supposed to be utopian in nature can have strong dystopian themes to it. In Gulliver’s Travels for example, the protagonist visits several lands where the inhabitants have achieved a high degree of development as compared with European society at the time of the publication of the book, but each of those societies that he visits has a major flaw. In an ironical twist Swift makes the society of horses the most ideal of all the lands that Gulliver has visited.
Dystopia and Science Fiction- Since dystopian novels must be set in the future or in an alternate world other than the one that we are living in, many of the works published in it fall under science fiction or speculative fiction. Most of the science thought up by the writers of this form of fiction has something to do with the suppression of society. The speculation mostly centres on the way that society is general organized.
Dystopia and Humour- While the topics tackled on dystopian novels are serious matters, there are those who have dared to write dystopian novels in a humorous way. A prime example of this kind of writing is Kurt Vonnegut. In his novel The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut describes a whole Martian society geared at on and one thing only, and that is to invade Earth. The inhabitants were all mind controlled and those who were not were too stupid to ask questions anyway. Vonnegut explored a lot of other variations for this theme.
Famous Dystopian Poems- Dystopian poetry is not that fully developed. There has been some writing in poetry that dared to tackle the problems of society in a dystopian was. There are some pieces of poetry as well that can be interpreted as dystopian in nature. Some of the poetry of Langston Hughes for example are dystopian by nature as well as some of the poems written by Margaret Atwood.
These are just some of the things that are related to dystopian works of literature.