...Current Research on Fear of Darkness The fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, of adults. Fear of the dark is usually not fear of darkness itself, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development. Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years. When fear of the dark reaches a degree that is severe enough to be considered pathological, it is sometimes called achluophobia. Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of dark as a manifestation of separation anxiety disorder. An alternate theory was posited in the 1960s, when scientists conducted experiments in a search for molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment, rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance called scotophobin was supposedly extracted from the rats brain, this substance was claimed to be responsible for remembering this fear. Subsequently, these findings were debunked A survey of 2000 adults conducted this year by Go Glow found that forty percent of us are scared when walking around the house with the lights off. One in ten admitted they were too terrified to even get up for a bathroom trip in the darkness. It’s something Katie Johns, 39, a Londoner who works in communication, knows well- she can still vividly recall what prompted her lifelong...
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...Some people may argue that our global society is not a perfect utopian society but it hasn’t reached the values of a perfect dystopian society. One way that our global society is not a perfect utopian society is North Korea. The people of North Korea have no control over their thoughts and actions just like those in the novel. In North Korea, they have public executions. In 1984, their government also applies public executions. In 1984, “Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged in the Park that evening, Winston remembered. This happened about once a month and was a popular spectacle.”(p.23) Another society that is not a perfect utopia is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo...
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...An utopian society is seen as the ultimate goal of any society. There are varying degrees of what a utopian society can look like and how successful the society is. Unfortunately, The state of the world is moving further away from an utopian society and closer to a dystopian society. While there are many actions to try to make the world a better place, it has been harder and harder to reach the ideal society. There are many problems in the world that show the falling into a dystopian world. The increasing amount of crime is an obvious and prominent issue. In a perfect world, there would be no crime, and in a real world it is incredibly hard to eliminate. Over the last decade, there have been numerous amounts of terrorist attacks including the September 11th attack, the Boston Marathon bombing, and attacks and threats by Isis. In addition to terrorist attacks, there are also murders, rapes, violent crimes, and less severe crimes that happen everyday....
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...just a lie. They couldn't actually afford to pay for it to happen. In The Giver, there are also quotes which exhibit how the figurehead use propaganda to control people's action. “He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realising” (Lowry 150). People in this community were given false information about what release meant. They all thought it was a good thing when really, it meant being killed. Propaganda is used in dystopian societies very commonly. The quotes exhibited how the Government used propaganda to control the actions of the whole community. Given misleading information also relates to the fact of how the outer world was being banished and driven away. When what is given to them is limited, people know nothing about the outside world. Consequently, they wouldn't refuse or create any conflict amongst the society when they are given misleading information, they are controlled and paranoid. So, these quotes are associated with the use of misleading information in the two dystopian...
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...The Giver Essay Imagine living in a community lacking color, emotions, and differences, or where choices are banned. Imagine being tricked into believing you’re living in a perfect world, but really, your community is hiding both life changing secrets and terrifying truths from all its people. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, the characters have to take on these problems and limitations. The setting is takes place in a community that the characters believe to be a utopian society but is actually a dystopian society. The community is run by a council and the Chief Elder who make all the decisions. The main character, Jonas, is an eleven year old boy who undergoes a series of changes after he is selected to be the Receiver of Memory during the Ceremony...
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...Harrison lives in a society with individuals that have various characteristics. These individuals are smart, strong, over intelligent, and athletic people. individuals living in the dystopian society have a hard life as they have no personal freedom and are usually oppressed by political beliefs. Harrison, the main character is strong, 7 feet tall, genius, athletic and he escaped from jail yet he followed like many others how an individual show be within the society. He was a very talented person who was strong and athletic but he could not show his strength because the government wanted everyone to be weak so, if there was any individual that was strong like Harrison they would order them to carry three hundred pounds. The government...
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...In modern society, there is freedom of choice, opinions, but in the dystopian society of Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver, everything is chosen for you for instance career, opinion on society. Compared to The Giver the modern world seems like a utopia such as being able to choose your career, having an opinion, and choice. In the novel careers are chosen when you turn twelve, by the Committee of Elders by observations and stay there until you get to the house of the old at age fifty. In modern society, there is freedom to choose what career and when, even when to quit and choose another job or retire. Even though, some of the qualities of having your career chosen for you may seem pleasant, the idea of having that same career until you cannot...
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...1. What is a Dystopian Society? How is Panem a Dystopian Society? Cite specific evidence from the text that demonstrates at least one feature of a dystopian society. A dystopia is an imaginary community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated as "not-good place", an antonym of utopia. Panem is characterized as a dystopia. Panem is a dystopia, because most of all the districts in Panem are struggling agaisnt hunger. In order to have more to eat for your family. You have to go in an arena and fight to the death. The only place in Panem that enjoys watching the Hunger Games is the Captiol. All the districts has to watch it, even though they hated it. The dystopian theme is furthered when we learn the reason the Hunger Games were created. They were created as a reminder of the Capitol’s power and what it will do if anyone tries to disrupt the status quo. Any attempt at overthrowing the government will be met with a harsh, lasting punishment. “The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.” (Chapter 1, Paragraph...
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...Equality Everywhere Imagine two societies where in one, the manes of all people are normal and in another, they aren’t. Now, imagine how they would both focus on the term “equality”. Harrison Bergeron is about a dystopian society and a lone man who questions society. Anthem is about an anti-dystopian society and has a lone man who also questions society. Both Harrison Bergeron and Anthem have societies focused on equality, but a big difference between the two are the character names. The names of each character differs as to what the audience is reading. In Harrison Bergeron, the names are specifically stated and are normal, unlike in Anthem. Everywhere in the book can be proof of this, for example, George, Hazel, and Harrison Bergeron have...
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...Gilead is not a place where most people would want to live. It is a rather apocalyptic world with a very strict social ladder that is followed religiously. Everybody in this dystopian society is assigned to a certain social class and they must live up, or down, to their expectations. Gilead is a completely male dominated society. The only females with any sort of freedoms are called Aunts, and they are not a large group. Most women in this society are barley considered citizens in Gilead. Women cannot have jobs or property. Along with this they must obey everything the men in their society demand of them. As mentioned before everyone in Gilead is given the responsibility to fulfill a certain role. With Gilead being a male dominated society...
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...advantages, there are disadvantages associated with these developments as well. No doubt, technology is moving our world into the future; which I believe is heading towards a combination of a utopian and dystopian society. In the reading by Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, McLuhan makes the argument that humans participate in “hot” and “cold” media, which are described as scale measuring the extent that people interact with media, with “hot” requiring less participation compared to “cold” which requires more effort and participation on the part of the consumer. I believe that “hot and...
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...generations, society has always tried to lead people away from doing crime in the best way that they could. People who commit crimes don’t usually just commit crimes for the sake of doing so. Most people usually have a reason. However in modern day society, acts of breaking the law have become more normalized than they once were. Criminal activity has gone up and it’s coming from very unlikely sources. The unlikely sources are committing criminal activity are doing so not because of need but because of greed. They are choosing to engage in the activity despite the warnings and consequences they may face when doing so. These individuals have decided to commit these...
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...Both 1984 and We depict a dystopian world where everything is controlled and everyone is watched. These books present societies where, no matter what, the governments can never entirely control the sexual desire of its citizens; although they are written 25 years apart, they both contain an ill-fated affair between an orthodox male character, who in the case of D-503 in We, fully believes in the regime, or like Winston Smith in 1984 who does not necessarily agree with the ruling party, but has surrendered to it, and a rebellious female character who eventually manages to sway the political beliefs of the orthodox male and make them seemingly more radical than the female. In both novels, the male characters are suddenly overpowered with emotion...
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...feelings the brain leads a person to alter the thoughts, beliefs or attitudes that are in disagreement with the rest, restoring the brain to harmony. When we humans have a thought or commit an atrocity that goes against our morals or long standing beliefs we either apologize or justify the action, telling ourselves that the person we hurt deserved it and brought it upon themselves. We continue to search for justification until we no longer view ourselves as in the wrong. This mental capability has, in my opinion, been the leading agent in nationś wars and oppression against others. The most prominent being attempts to stamp out races because of their so called ¨inferior race/ heritage¨. Mental dissonance is also an ingredient in many dystopian societies...
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...can see individual or groups of young adults having to unite to achieve a certain goal. In class Professor Walker discussed how rebellious many young adults become as they reach their mid-teens and twenties. Becoming rebellious as a young adult is often seen by our parents as a reckless, impulsive eruption of emotions from within that allow rash decisions to be made. However, in each of the young adult, dystopian novels being reviewed, the main characters are considered rebellious by the law makers and rulers even though they are pushing for change in their unjust society. This essay will discuss three dystopian young adult novels, Divergent, The Hunger Games and Unwind and how each of them reflects on possible futures for humanity and the way young people are called to respond to the changes in the worlds they live in. Before getting started with the novels themselves, getting a brief overview of dystopian societies in Young Adult fiction is necessary. In, Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers, the authors examine young adult dystopian societies, “YA dystopias can uphold that tradition of optimism, embrace a more cynical vision, or oscillate between the two. All these questions underscore the negotiation between often conflicting literary influences, political ideologies, and intended audiences that these texts must undertake.”...
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