Since the 19th century, dystopian discourse has always been a medium for societal criticisms. This genre sparked interest once again in 1921 when Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote We, a novel depicting a totalitarian society ruled over by a ‘Benefactor’, where the citizens of live their lives devoid of passion and creativity – until a mathematician makes a discovery that he has an individual soul. This novel was heavily focused on providing commentary of the existing political system of Russia, while touching on other ideas of personal discovery and the importance of art.
At that time, most dystopian texts remained adult themed while reflecting the ideas presented in We, until 1993. Lois Lowry, a Newberry Medal author, wrote The Giver, which reflected most of the tropes and themes of We, and was one of the first dystopian novels to be introduced as a young adult genre, while expanding the themes of self-discovery in her work. After 1993, the dystopian genre was targeted at a young adult audience, and paved the way for current dystopian texts.
The Hunger Games and Divergent are accomplished examples of contemporary dystopian texts which incorporate the common motifs of dystopian discourse first introduced in We. Since these texts are aimed at a younger audience, it is crucial to understand that this age group is more susceptible to the negative impacts of these texts on their psychological state, which directly impacts their emotional and social expression.
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There are several motifs which come together to create the discourse of a dystopian society, most commonly an oppressive authority and the regulation of thought, which leads to the creation of the Discourse of a protagonist. Suzanne Collins incorporates these motifs to create a society composed of 13 Districts and The Capitol in her book The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a novel centered on a 16 year-old girl, Katniss Everdeen, and her struggle of survival in a dystopian world. An oppressive authority, Panem, is immediately introduced in the text; it is referred to in the book as the “Capitol”, named after the ruling city. The audience is told that because of a rebellion, the Capitol divided the people into separated districts to prevent another uprising.
Much like other dystopian texts, the society as a whole lives in fear of the forces that controls them, much due to the existence of the Hunger Games itself. This is where one boy and girl is chosen from each of the 12 Districts to fight to the death in a tournament. This is another form of oppression by the government, by keeping everyone afraid that they might have to fight in the Hunger Games against people they know. Besides the Hunger Games, the Capitol also instills a pressing control on all the districts by economic control. The districts are described as being poor, with a significant distinction between the districts and the ruling force which reside in Panem. This can be seen in that fact that Katniss, the main protagonist, must break government laws and hunt outside the grounds of her district just to feed her mother and her sister (Collins 7).
In The Hunger Games, the motif of regulation of thought is also prevalent through keeping the people in a constant state of fear and work. Each of the 12 Districts are expected to make and send resources to the Capitol, and the abundant amounts asked for keep the people constantly busy and unable to use their time for other personal activities. Furthermore, like governments in other dystopian texts, citizens aren’t allowed to speak against the Capitol. This regulation of expression is seen when Katniss thinks about the Capitol, “When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who ruled our country, Panem, from the far off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood that this would lead up to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and turn my features into an indifferent mask” (Collins 7). This motif is also seen when the audience reads that all TV broadcasting is controlled from the Capitol who only plays propaganda, and televises the Hunger Games.
Like in The Hunger Games, another dystopian text, Divergent, incorporates the motifs of an oppressive authority and the regulation of thought, to create the Discourse of a admirable protagonist. Veronica Roth’s narrative depicts a futuristic community of Chicago, Illinois, where a sixteen year-old girl, Beatrice Prior, starts the fight against the power hungry government that controls everything and everyone in their society. Like The Hunger Games, this world has divisions, called factions, made by the government that are characterized by specific human traits like selflessness, bravery, intelligent, peaceful, and honest.
They are called Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity, and Candor, respectively. The government indirectly has full control on how the people are supposed to express themselves by forcing every citizen to “freely” choose which faction they want to be in during a ceremony based on their Aptitude Test results, “Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in this world” (Roth 42). This deception by the government to make the people believe that they have a choice, when really, they have been brainwashed by taking the test shows just how oppressive the government is on their people.
The motif of restricting personal creativity and thought is also heavily focused on in Divergent through teaching the younger generations in that society about “faction before blood” (Roth 43), it made the citizens believe that the government and the rules they established are more important than their families. The authority in this dystopian society was also paranoid about losing their power by those who conformed to more than one faction. Normally in their society, an individual in their faction had to uphold the morals and standards of that faction, if not, then they were voted out to be “factionless”, equating to homeless in our world. Being classified as a Divergent, like Beatrice, were in danger of being silence because they couldn’t be controlled by the government. If a Divergent wanted to survive they had to remain autonomous with their faction, and restrict their actual personality.
The Discourse of a protagonist, or the “socially-based group convention [which] allows people to enact specific identities” (Gee 89), is then established because of the motifs present in a dystopian discourse. With the foundation of a apocalyptic world with a suppressed and restricted society where majority had to fight and struggle to survive, it was hard for the people to not follow Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior to defeat their oppressive governments. This was due to their circumstances and their struggle with morality to achieve their goal, to help make a place where people are free to express themselves and pursue self-discovery. Their identity as protagonists not only inspired their fictitious worlds but also individuals in our lives today.
Dystopian texts didn’t just make strong and followable role models, but they also reflect the current events of our world. Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and many other dystopian authors admit their books, to a certain extent, show parallelism to what is happening today. They touch on many controversial issues from “school shootings to Middle Eastern women challenging cultural norms” (WHO). The Hunger Games is based on our world with connections to inquality between the poor and rich, limited helathcare, economic instability, media obsession. Divergent also shows connections to conflicting parties and viewpoints, with individuals trying to identify with one group over another, with the text depicting the different viewpoints and political standings of those groups. The purpose of dystopian texts make people more intuitive into today’s society.
With the abundant amount of dystopian discourse, there is no doubt that more young adults are heavily engaged in these texts. “Penguin Random House has seen a 9,500 percent sales increase for George Orwell’s 1984 since Trump’s inauguration; that was enough to propel the book to the top spot on Amazon’s bestseller list” (Freytas). Fighting against a bleak future in empowering, especially when individuals rely on their instincts without conforming to authoritative expectation. Young adults can relate to the carefully formed protagonist in dystopian novels because of their circumstances and how they show courage, bravery and strength. The audience can match the innrer turmoil of the heroic journey of the protagonists. They, like the audience, have to go against multiple problems, like betrayal, friendship, love, and death.
Since these texts are aimed at young adults, they absorb all the factors of dystopian texts and look upto the protagonists. However, the Discourse of the protagonist is based on their morals, values, and actions based on their setting, the apocalyptic world. There is a “phenomenon known as the cultivation theory, which depicts how long term immersion within a media environment leads to the cultivation of shared beliefs about the world around us” (UNI DO TWNETA?). The discourse of a dystopian society is shown through the violence and oppression the ficticious world faces, and young adults are consuming this media more than ever before. The continouous immersion in this genre affects the perceptions of our reality.
There is more desensitization towards crime and violence to comfort the unprepared fear when faced that the world could be a more scarier place than imagined. While dystopian discourse can be inspiring, too much repetitive exposure to it can lead to desensitization, the thoughts are “embedded it into your brain and it becomes a habit or you ignore it” (Mrug). The daily news is an example of this idea, where individuals watch periodically people go missing, natural disaster aftermaths, riots and rebels protestings, more tragedies. The dystopian discourse is creating a society of people to arent as empathetic to the world around them as they could have been without this genre.
A study was done by a psychologist from the National Institute of Health, Sylvie Mrug, to find the long term impacts of violence from media on young adults. “This study examined emotional desensitization to violence, together with externalizing problems, as mediators of the relationship between exposure to violence in pre-adolescence and violent behavior in late adolescence” (Mrug). They found that exposure to violence was an important factor in impacting the outward expression of internalized conflict. With multiple mediums for dystopian discourse, the expression of internalized conflict is a problem young adults and teenagers can face.
Dystopian discourse can positively develop the personalities of the younger generation in society, and can give hope for a better future than the one those dystopian societies could have had. It can also help people connect socially about topics and stories they are interested in. However, to keep this genre as a ficticious medium which stays off when the television is shut down, individuals will have to decrease the amount of texts they engage in to limit the lasting effects of dystopian discourse.
