Based on my experience with different books, movies and realities, I believe a dystopia is an imaginary society where the leaders believe they are doing what they think is necessary for the community to thrive but in actuality their actions and decisions are hurting the people physically and mentally. Over the past years, I’ve read many books and have seen numerous movies about dystopian society. Majority of them are the way they are because of their government system. Whether it’s a single person in charge or a group of leaders, they seem to be the ones making the decisions for the rest of society.
In the Maze Runner trilogy, a company called Wicked led by a woman named Ava Paige took thousands of children and placed them in mazes to study their behavior “for the greater good” of all people. She believes that putting these children through the trauma of what they went through was for the purpose of finding a cure for all people. In The Giver, the council of elders keep certain feelings, memories and emotions from all the people in their community. The elders truly believed that keeping essential things from the members of their community is doing them more good than harm.
Based on the examples given from these two dystopian novels, I believe that a dystopian society is a society where its people undergo great trauma, suffering and injustice because of their leaders believing they are doing it for the right purpose. They believe sacrificing the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of their people will help keep balance throughout the community even though that know it is hurting them.
