At the beginning of the semester I said that a dystopia is the opposite of a utopia where a society or community of people endure immense suffering and unideal living situations, but after taking this class I don’t fully agree with that statement. I don’t think that a dystopia is the opposite of utopia anymore after reading Robinson’s essay “Dystopias Now” because I wasn’t considering the anti-concept. Before I knew that a dystopia was immense suffering and injustice, but I also knew that the better alternative didn’t necessarily have to be a perfect society based on various novels and movies I’ve watched. I’m glad that this essay brought up the idea of an anti-utopia because while a dystopia is the worst possible version of a society, the opposite doesn’t necessarily have to be the best version of society because not everyone has the same opinion of what a better society is. Therefore, I think that my revised definition of dystopia would be a society or community of people who endure immense suffering and unideal living situations which coexists with a utopia and anti-utopia, usually due to political pressure.
Young’s Five Faces of Oppression backs this up because her segment on violence talks about how violence is systemic and a social practice. My definition of dystopia backs this up because people usually don’t move from a dystopian society to a utopian society, though it’s possible, but people are usually born into their respective “class system”. In the Hunger Games trilogy specifically, the Capitol members were born and raised in that utopian society and the district members were born and raised in the districts. While the members of the districts who won the games were treated better than before, they were never really true members of the Capitol. It was seen as a form of entertainment to watch the children of the people who’s labor supported the lifestyle of the members of the Capitol be put in an arena to fight to death. This example is why I think that some, if not most, of the unjust suffering of the people living in a dystopian society is due to unfair politics. I also don’t think that a utopia is the direct opposite of a dystopia because the Capitol was in no way a perfect society.
