DYSTOPIA = an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.

 

- Written by Aldous Huxley in 1932

- Set in  A.F. 632 (2540 CE) in the World State

- Main Character: John, a man that lives in the "Wild Reservation" and get involved into the World State, leaving his freedom

- Important characters are John, Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson and Mustapha Mond

- Themes treated in the novel are individuality, authority and control and the consumer society

Author: George Orwell

Year of Publication: 1945

Context:  USSR between 1917 and 1943

Setting: Manor Farm

Characters: Napoleon, Snowball,  Boxer,  Dogs...

Style: simple, passive voice, language is important

Themes: Equality and Inequality,  Failure of Intellect, Power and Control

AUTHOR: George Orwell

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1949

CONTEXT: The world after WWII

SETTING: A fictional London at some unspecified time in the future

PLOT: Composed by a rising action, a climax and a falling action

CHARACTERS: Winston Smith, Big Brother, O' Brien and Mr Charrington

THEMES: Mind control, manipulation of history, resistance and revolution

SYMBOLS: Big Brother, the glass paperweight, the place where there is no darkness, the telescreens and the red-armed prole woman

 

- Written by Ray Bradbury  in 1953

- Context: the years after WWII.

- Setting: an undefined futuristic town in the U.S.

- Themes of censorship, the importance of culture and technology

- Main characters: Guy Montag, Captain Beatty, Mildred and Clarisse McClellan

- Symbols: fire, Montag's name,

Dystopian Novels

By Andrea Parodi