In my first blog post I defined a dystopia as a place in which people suffer severely and may be treated in an inhumane way. I still consider this a good definition of a dystopia, but with all the new knowledge I have of a dystopia, that definition seems broad. My new definition of a dystopia is an imagined place in which a group of people are oppressed and controlled by the government or something similar to it. A dystopia also usually tends to “begin” because of some sort of catastrophic event. Then, somebody decides they have what it takes to be a leader and try to “fix” everything. This new leader usually has a group of soldiers below him to help him maintain order within the society, and these soldiers usually have a high status in society. My new definition may look exactly like my old one, just with bigger words, but I believe my new definition shows emphasis on how some or all citizens in a society are treated as if they are not human.
I chose to describe the group of people in a dystopia as oppressed because of Young’s five faces of oppression. I think powerlessness is crucial in a dystopian society. Powerlessness is shown when a powerless group is dominated by a powerful group. The powerful group tends to give orders and the powerless usually have to obey these orders or else suffer consequences. Also, the powerless don’t really have freedom or privacy. Powerlessness is shown in, if not all, almost all of the books we’ve read and movies we’ve watched during the course. For example, in the Handmaids Tale, there are different classes with different roles assigned to each class. The higher classes are the most powerful and the lower classes are powerless. We also see powerlessness in Planet of the Apes. The apes are the powerful and the humans are powerless.
