Dystopia – The Anti-Perfect Future
Essential Question
In a perfect world, is fair equal?
Goals
By the end of this lesson, you will:
- understand the concept of dystopia through providing textual evidence to support understanding of and your response to a dystopian novel.
- examine major social problems by identifying and discussing common themes of dystopias.
- interpret social and political messages of cartoons with a dystopian themes.
- recognize bias and propaganda.
- compose reflective texts that give the audience an understanding of social, political, or philosophical implications of dystopias.
To Do's
Take the following survey.
Explore the Differences Between Utopias and Dystopias
Utopia:
A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.
Dystopia:
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. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society:
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson926/DefinitionCharacteristics.pdf
A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.
Dystopia:
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. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society:
- Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
- Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
- A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
- Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
- Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
- Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
- The natural world is banished and distrusted.
- Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
- The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:
- Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report and Running Man.
- Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
- Technological control: Society is controlled by technology through computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix, The Terminator, and I, Robot.
- Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson926/DefinitionCharacteristics.pdf
Self-Quiz: Types of Dystopias through an analysis of Political Cartoons
The Language of Dystopias - 1984 Macintosh Commercial Analysis
View and complete the 1984 Macintosh Commercial Analysis:
View and complete the 1984 Macintosh Commercial Analysis:
- Complete the interactive analysis http://interactives.mped.org/preview_mg.aspx?id=755&title
Read Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron at http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html
- Write or draw reactions to this story - and upload your images and/or written reaction into your blog.
- Extension - PE Activity: Play dodgeball or basketball. The teacher will act in the role of handicap judge and give the students backpacks or pillow cases with different weighted bags of sand.
Watch the Twilight Zone Episode: Number 12 Looks Just Like You
Consider the following questions while you watch the video - later you will blog about them and/or discuss them in a small group:
Consider the following questions while you watch the video - later you will blog about them and/or discuss them in a small group:
- At first, did you hope Marilyn would get the operation? When did you change your mind? (Or did you?)
- Do you think the world would be better if everyone were pretty? Or do you think that this sort of surgery is dangerous to identity (like Marilyn argues)? Did you ever agree with both ideas? Or neither?
- Have you ever found yourself trusting someone more or paying more attention to what they said not because they deserved it, but just because of their looks?
- If you had the chance to be made pretty, would you take it? What if everyone was being turned pretty—would you still want (or not want) to be made pretty?
- When do characters sacrifice in this story?
- Would you give up your ability to think independently in exchange for being happy, beautiful, perpetually healthy, and rich?
- Other than the pretty operation, what are the main differences between the pretty society and our own? (Are there any ways in which the pretty society is healthier than ours?)
Independent Choice Reading: A Novel of Dysopia
Read one of the following novels of a dystopia:
Read one of the following novels of a dystopia:
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (RL – 10)
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (RL – 10)
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (RL – 9)
- 1984 by George Orwell (RL - 8.2)
- The Giver by Lois Lowry (RL – 6.8)
- Feed by M. T. Anderson (RL – 6.7)
- Star Split by Kathryn Lasky (RL – 6.1)
- Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (RL – 5.9)
- REM World by Rodman Philbrick (RL – 5.9)
- Others can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/ya-dystopian
- What feelings and/or thoughts does reading the novel evoke? What characters are you particularly drawn to or not drawn to? Why or why not?
- Place yourself in the shoes of any character at any point during your reading, write about how you feel as that character.
- Choose a particularly moving passage or scene and tell why you find it compelling.
- Which characters (if any) feel powerless? Why or Why not?
- Do you see any ways that any of the characters feel alienated? Can you think of any incidents in your own life in which you felt on the outer rim of your own social world? What placed you there?
- What parallels can you make between the text and the society in which you live?
- What themes are emerging in your reading? Why are they relevant to you?
A Literature Circle: Discussing Your Selected Novel
Literature circles are small, temporary discussion groups who have chosen to read the same book.The circles have regular meetings, with discussion roles rotating each session. When they finish a book, the circle members plan a way to share highlights of their reading with the wider community.
Directions:
Here is the grading rubric that provides the criteria for this Literature Circle about Dystopian novels.
Literature circles are small, temporary discussion groups who have chosen to read the same book.The circles have regular meetings, with discussion roles rotating each session. When they finish a book, the circle members plan a way to share highlights of their reading with the wider community.
Directions:
- Find at least one other student who selected and read the same Dysotpian novel as you.
- Decide on at least five (5) times when you'll have a real-time chat to discuss the book and the related discussion questions.
- Decide on a method, project, etc., by which you will share the highlights of your reading with the wider community.
Here is the grading rubric that provides the criteria for this Literature Circle about Dystopian novels.
timeandawe2012_workingpaper.pdf | |
File Size: | 64 kb |
File Type: |
Extra, Extra: Join a Dystopian Reading Challenge