Dystopia- “an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives” (definition given by Merriam- Webster dictionary)
Oftentimes dystopia, in books and movies, is introduced with a government regime that tends to single-handedly control and brainwash the entirety of a country/population. We might meet a few people that tend to see issues with what the government is doing and forcing, but most of the time the people are in too deep and blindly follow what they are told. Most of the books and movies that I grew up watching and reading introduced a horrible set of government, laws, and power and always left me thinking about what I would do if a government like this actually came to be one day. Reading this genre heavily in school confirmed the idea behind dystopia and could be seen in books like the Divergent series, the Hunger Games series, Brave New World, The Giver, and even Fahrenheit 451.
It’s easy to brush off a future where dystopia becomes our reality when we constantly see made-up governments and bizarre laws, but that is not always the case. A favorite book of mine from this genre is Fahrenheit 451 because of how it changes the perception of the “evil government regime” as current governments all around the world. Banning books and the idea of censorship, in general, was a heavy theme in this book and has been occurring by governments across the globe including the US. In fact, a good handful of classics that we read in school or at least heard of were once banned. As a matter of fact, the book Fahrenheit 451 was once banned as well. It’s too ironic to even think about banning a book that talks about a reality where books are banned.
Dystopia is often portrayed as being an advanced society with robots and top-of-the-grade weapons and restrictions. While that might become an unfortunate reality in the future, as of right now I think it’s safe to argue that we live in somewhat of a dystopia too. The definition above might be a perfect understanding of how the characters in a book or movie live, but can also be applied on a smaller scale for people around the country too.
