...The Main Characteristics of the YA Dystopian Fiction Novels and the Reasons Why Teenagers Find It So Appealing Although dystopian fiction is not a new subgenre with its famous masterpieces such as 1984 by George Orwell or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, it can be stated to be new in Young Adult Literature since House of Stairs by William Sleator in 1974 and The Giver by Lois Lowry in 1993 (article 1 and 5). However, the incredible success of The Hunger Games and Divergent as best sellers on bookshops and movie adaptations on theatres seems undeniable. Especially The Hunger Games has been on the best-seller list of the New York Times for 180 consecutive weeks (article 5) and the opening week of the motion picture adaptation had box office...
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...Some pieces of literature portray a society of utopia and others may portray a society of dystopia. A utopian society is a place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics,laws, customs, and conditions. A dystopian society is a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. In both Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games, citizens live in a society with a fear of the outside world, individuality compressed, and the illusion of a perfect utopia life. The two are set in a realistic futuristic society that shares numerous similarities. The citizens of Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games share a fear of the outside world. In Fahrenheit 451, no one has the desire to go outside or be apart of it. Citizens in The Hunger Games are gated into their communities by electric fences to keep them from going beyond the boundaries. Though the circumstances keeping each from leaving are different, neither are often questioned. The outside world is kept as a segregated part of society in both Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games....
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...At a Glance Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her sister’s place when Prim is selected in District 12’s annual “reaping” to fight to the death in the country’s televised Hunger Games. Katniss and the male tribute Peeta are taken to the country’s wealthy and controlling Capitol, where they interview, compete for a ranking, and meet the competition. As part of a strategy devised with District 12 mentor Haymitch, Peeta admits on camera that he has feelings for Katniss; the “star-crossed lovers” win massive fan support. In the arena, Peeta pretends to join the group of violent and practiced “career” tributes, while Katniss befriends young Rue. Rue is killed and Peeta injured; Katniss finds and nurses him. The other contestants die one by one until only Katniss and Peeta are left. They pretend to take poison berries in a suicide pact. The Capitol halts the game so both tributes win. - allie-draper. Synopsis print Print document PDF list Cite link Link The Hunger Games After writing the fantasy series The Underland Chronicles, Suzanne Collins departed from the world of fantasy and stepped into a harsh, dystopian creation in The Hunger Games. Published in 2008, The Hunger Games is the first novel in a projected trilogy, and introduces readers to a futuristic dystopian society where an overpowering government controls the lives and resources in twelve different districts. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, of District 12, is the main character of the story. Each year...
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...Do you have high hopes for the future? Having the dream of great technology, and “flawless” governments. However, have you ever wondered about how bad the future society can turn out to be? Dystopian literature gives you an idea of what can happen in the future, which usually involves flaws in the society and lies from the government. Studying dystopian literature helps us understand that we need to change our views on equality, make sure we have less government control (let everyone have a voice), and start watching and controlling our impact on the government. To start off with, studying dystopian literature helps us understand that we need to accept diversity and improve or change our views on equality. To illustrate, Harrison Bergeron tells the story about a teen boy named Harrison who fights against the government to start a revolution that will allow people to use their unique strengths. When the text introduced...
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...Dystopian Societies In the book Anthem, it is a dystopian society just like the movie The Hunger Games. In Anthem they have their names picked out, and don’t get choose their jobs. In The Hunger Games they live where their parents live. They are also selected to go to war and not die. There is not much difference between these two subjects. Anthem and The Hunger Games are popular among teens because they can relate to them. In Anthem when the people are old enough they get special jobs picked. For instance, Equality 7-2521 wanted to work as a scholar but instead he was chosen to be a road sweeper. Their names are picked for them like Equality and liberty. They have to go to work they can’t just pretend that they are sick, they are forced to go. During one month and special day they have to go to this place and have their mates picked for the night so that they can try to make another...
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...In cinematography and literature, dystopia is definitely not a new genre. In different novels, dystopian worlds have been elaborated, such novels include; ‘1984’ by George Orwell, ‘We’ by Zamyatin Yevgeny whose known for his stylistic and ideological contemporary dystopias, and ‘The Time Machine’ by Herbert Wells – the novel demonstrates the weird symbiosis of Eloi and Morlocks. In the side of cinematography, films/movies such as 12 monkeys, V for Vendetta, The Matrix and Brasilia have demonstrated the dystopia genre. However, dystopia has regrettably turned into a popular genre over the years. This is as a result of the one-dimensional, flat and simplified state in characters, storylines and style in the present dystopian movies. The Hunger...
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...In the series of the Hunger Games and Divergent the two main characters Katniss and Tris are two different kind of girls in these novel unlike other girls in other novels because they are the hero’s in the novel and in other novels guys are usually the hero or the tuff person and the girls are sweet and scared of most things but not these novels because these two girls have a lot of people that are against them and little bit people with them. Katniss from Hunger games is a girl that knows how to survive in the games and she’s not really a people person and at first she gets everyone to love her than after she gets everyone to hate her and she even hates herself throughout the novels. Tris from the Divergent series in also kind in the same...
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...models to strike a balance between making profits, satisfying customers, and achieving stakeholder’s needs, movie directors continue to identify the right combinations of ethical decisions that main characters have to follow through their actions and scripts to foster ethical conduct. Ethical decisions made have causes and effects, consequences, framed in context of how a movie with different scripts can achieve its highest-priority themes and guarantee positive ratings. A 2012 film, The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross and 2014 film, Divergent, directed by Neil Burger presents two ideal films focusing on the ethical decisions made by the main characters. This essay aims at identifying the causes and effects of ethical decisions made by the main characters, the impacts of these decisions, how these decisions affect the society. The movie, Divergent, revolves around a society with five different factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and the Erudite. Members of ultramodern dystopian Chicago join any of the five groups based on their fondness but are, at first, given a proposition by an aptitude test. The group that controls the government, Abnegation, has brought up Beatrice Prior, the main character. Andrew, Prior’s father, is one of the ruling council heading Abnegation. During the Choosing Ceremony, Prior chooses Dauntless whereas his brother chooses Erudite. Choosing the Dauntless signifies Beatrice’s ethical decision. Beatrice has always been fascinated by Dauntless...
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...The three different forms of Dystopian texts we have looked at in class have definitely had an impact on my understanding of this genre. We are able to visualize how the dystopian society reflects our own society and are able to connect the genre to the social issues in our present world. In the article “How Dystopian Futures Are Merely Mirrors Into Our Own Society” the author comments: “After our appetite was recently satiated on Hunger Games, we are diverging our fingers to the next tasty literature meal: The Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Again we sink our teeth into a dystopian society and a bleak prediction of our future Earth. What these books never fail to dish up are the faults with society, humans and their failure to actually...
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...“The Family” is a story set in a dystopian society, much like “The Hunger Games.” Therefore, the best way to promote “The Family” is to use some of the same promotion strategies that “The Hunger Games” used in order to create enough buzz for “The Family” movie premiere. “The Family” would have to place advertising for its movie on a number of different outlets. Similar to “The Hunger Games,” we would place advertisements on billboards and bus shelters (Barnes, 2012). The movie’s cast would also have to feature on multiple different magazine covers (Barnes, 2012), that way readers can relate to the movie through their favorite actor’s perspective which would entice the reader to want to go see the movie in theaters. Placing advertisements most people would see them would provide a solid foundation to the marketing campaign, since more people would become familiar with the movie as they continue to see its advertisements. A crucial step in promoting the movie would be to create a website for “The Family.” A website would allow movie details to be available to the public on one database, which would make it easy...
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...The media is use the primary means of mass communication regarded collectively. At best they are means to figure out the errors of society and the government. At their worst, they are tools used to dumb down society. George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games present an iconic vision of a dystopian future, where the media has an unprecedented amount of control of the masses. Those who control the media, controlled what the citizens know about history and current events. In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four, the media was seen as a tool of oppressor, spreading the propaganda necessary to keep the totalitarian state alive and the party in power. The media worked by withholding information from its citizens....
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...Harrison Bergeron Analysis Harrison Bergeron is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut. The story is a about the society in America in 2081, a man called George and his wife, Hazel, and the way the society is controlling people, so they can fit into what the government call “average”, and thereby achieve the goal of being ‘equal’. In today’s society everybody strikes to be the best, better looking and smarter than anybody else, and therefore the thought about living in a society where everyone is equal might sound tempting, if you find the race of being the best tiring. A lot of the things that most young people are struggling with right now might disappear. No more jealousy and at best no more war. There is often created a dystopian world, when humans are trying to make it a utopian one. The story about Harrison Bergeron concerns this issue. Everybody is equal, which might sound like a utopian world but in fact is a dystopian society to be living in. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the Law. They were equal in every which way. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else” The meaning of the word ‘equal’ has been taking to a whole new level and it is supposed to be making the society a better place, but in fact the thing it is doing, is controlling the citizens and taking away their freedom of thought, intellectual ability and their individual beauty and strength. An...
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...unachievable standards of society. This struggle to find yourself is becoming increasingly popular in Young Adult books and movies, as teenagers are able to relate to this struggle more and more. The films The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and the novels The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky all, in different ways, portray the struggles that teenagers go through whilst they are undertaking the journey to find themselves. The two significant connections that I have made using these texts is the fact that strong, independent woman have a hard time being able to express themselves, and that your past, whether you like it or not, affects who you are today. The Hunger Games is the story of a head-strong, independent young girl who lives in a dystopian North America called Panem, which is split into 13 Districts. 74 years ago, the 13 Districts rebelled against the government Capitol, but it ended horribly for the Districts, with the result of District 13 being bombed to the ground. Ever since then, the 12 Districts have each had to supply one boy and one girl between the ages of 12-18 to compete in the annual Hunger Games. These children are pitted against each other to fight to the death in an arena, until only one Victor remains. The story follows a 16-year old girl named Katniss, who volunteers for the games in place of her sister, who’s name was drawn at the Reaping for the Games. In the process of prepping...
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...The Running Man and The Handmaid’s Tale offer perspective on dystopian societies. The Running Man, by Stephen King, is set in 2025 where society crumbles economically and TV networks now run society. They show sadistic game shows that are popular with the masses. The most popular is The Running Man, a show where a contestant is hunted by Hunters and the entire population for the grand prize of a billion dollars. The Handmaid’s Tale explores a dystopian society through the eyes of a woman who has to adapt to her new way of life. Both these novels have universal praise. Their innovation, thematic concepts, and perspective will be analyzed thoroughly. Observing both their protagonists and societies they live in. Both authors explored the themes of their respective novels mostly differently. The Handmaid’s Tale sees resistance against their oppressive society more internally than externally. Offred constantly battles internal...
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...What’s a world without love? Love is around us all day; love is the reason why 1most of us were born. Name one person who doesn’t love another, it is not possible. In the novel, The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta survived off love while sent to the hunger games arena to fight for their lives .Also, in another novel, Anthem by Any Rand Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 lived in a dystopian society where love was forbidden where they lived. In the novels The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Anthem by Ayn Rand readers will see the main characters differences and similarities of how love bought them together. Have you ever heard the saying “love will make you do crazy things?” In both novels Katniss and Equality 7-2521 love made them do crazy things. “And you find yourself rooting for lovers who literally kill themselves to stay alive” Katniss and Peeta fought against twelve other districts just to stay alive. Katniss and Peeta were both from the same district, but was love enough to keep them both alive? Equality was born in a dystopian society everything was meant to be “perfect” so apart of their perfect life love wasn’t in it. Equality 7-2521 was a different boy. He was always smarter than the others but since everyone was the same he hid his advance knowledge that he had. “We wish to write this name. We wish to break but we dare not speak it above whisper.” For men is forbidden to take notice in woman.” This is the type of world characters from Anthem lived in. “I...
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