A Utopia Sounds Like A Wonderful Thing - 1433 Words

FYS Final A utopia sounds like a wonderful thing. The Oxford English Dictionary defines â€Å"utopia† as an â€Å"imagined or hypothetical place, system, or state of existence in which everything is perfect, esp. in respect of social structure, laws, and politics.† (OED, 2015, entry 2) But what happens when someone tries to bring this imagined land of perfection into reality? Both in fictional literature and in real life applications, utopian dreams destroy societies. The word utopia originates from Sir Thomas More’s novel of the same name, Utopia. Sir Thomas More created the term as an intentional homophone of the word â€Å"eutopia†, which is a Greek word meaning â€Å"good place†. (Sterling, 2015) â€Å"Utopia†, on the other hand, means â€Å"no place†, which implies either an impossibility of existence or the results of attempting to bring about such existence. The reasons why a utopia is so destructive to societies are that each person has their own vision of perfection and it is impossible to make everyone agree; if everyone made their own utopias there would be conflict between their objectives. Also, human nature is flawed and cannot accommodate perfection. Every person has their own personal vision of utopia. My utopia may be filled with libraries and cats, while yours would probably look very different. In Frankenstein, Shelley gives us Victor Frankenstein, a man who envisions a world where he will never feel the pain of losing someone he loves again. He devises a way to cheatShow MoreRelatedThe Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin838 Words   |  3 Pagessocietal settings. Both of the stories contain a false display of utopia, the following of traditions, and foul treatment. For example, in â€Å"The Lottery† every year a person’s name is drawn from a box and the â€Å"winner† is stoned to death, and the townsfolk are fine with it and keep coming back. And in â€Å"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas† Omelas is described as being a perfect society where everyone is happy, but in order for the utopia to thrive a young child is being detained and torture d and the peopleRead MoreOrigins Of The Mormon Pioneers901 Words   |  4 Pagescommunity of approximately 15 million members and faithful followers (Utopia and Dystopia). Today, with over seven million members in the United States alone, Mormonism is among the fastest growing of the world s religious movements. What is most noteworthy and historically accurate about Mormonism is that it was not merely another group or denomination, but was the only new religious tradition founded in nineteenth-century America (Utopia and Dystopia). Mormons were organized, culturally, and their communityRead MoreThe Ones Who Walk Away From The By Ursula Le Guin1570 Words   |  7 Pagesaround how people are often willing to excuse awful things if it’s for their own gain. The first element that led me to the theme is the tone of the story. Specifically, the clashing of the tones between the narrator is describing the city of Omelas and when they are describing the child and the room he/she is kept in. When describing the city, the tone is very bright and exultant; the narrator tries their best to make this place sound like the utopia it supposedly is: â€Å"With a clamor of bells that setRead MoreEssay on Drugs: How Danagerous Is It?1180 Words   |  5 PagesDrugs: How Danagerous Is It? Drugs have infiltrated our cities, our towns and our lives. Though a small percentage of people use drugs, they do attempt to spread their plague among others. But, how dangerous are these mind suppressors? Do they kill like the statistics show, or is it a coverup to stop people from having a good time? Even in Franklin County, there are drugs. How bad is the problem? It is worse then most people think, but what can we do about it? Can we do anything about it? MarijuanaRead More Women on the Edge of Time Essay1519 Words   |  7 Pagessame circumstances. When Connie was transported through her mind to a new place with the help of Luciente the first thing she saw was a river. â€Å"Little no account buildings, strange structures like long-legged birds†¦a few large terracotta and yellow buildings†¦irregular buildings†¦no skyscrapers, no spaceports, and no traffic jam in the sky†, (60). Connie saw a place that looked like villages and did not have big cities because Luciente said that big cities did not work. Connie also saw bicycles andRead MoreAnalysis Of Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.1242 Words   |  5 Pages If you were to live in a society in which citizens are literally equal in every aspect of their lives, would you consider this kind of society a utopia or dystopia? The science-fiction short story, â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. depicts the future of a world where the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America is interpreted and executed literally, where every man is believed to be created equal. If you happened to have been born strong, beautiful, intelligentRead MoreThe Influence Of Gothic Literature On The Human Condition1283 Words   |  6 Pageswith the concept of violent and inclusive change in the human condition† (The Romantic Period). This new style was a response to the revolution going on in France. The Romantics believed that this time of violence and revolt would lead to a universal utopia. Even after this failed, the Romantics continued trying to reform society through the arts. Gothic style writing also came out of this era. Gothic literature was dark, violent, and the main characters were often considered to be evil. In 1818, theRead MoreEric Blair, Under The Pen Name George Orwell, Once Said,1462 Words   |  6 PagesEric Blair, under the pen name George Orwell,   once said, â€Å"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand†. In May of 1946, Orwell liberated himself to the islands of the Hebrides with the desperate hope to expose himself to all the creative demons that crawled within his mind. His masterpiece struck the world with the waking fear ofRead MoreYeats Essay2604 Words   |  11 Pagesâ€Å"The Lake Isle of Innisfree† and â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium†. â€Å"The Lake Isle of Innisfree† expresses Yeats’ longing to return home as he was in London at the time when he wrote it. The p oet desires to escape from the world of grim reality to a pastoral utopia. In â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium†, Yeats’ once more is longing to escape but in contrast to â€Å"The Lake Isle of Innisfree†, he longs to escape the process of ageing as opposed to escaping from a physical place. The poet’s desire to return home is made clearRead More A Dystopian Future in Brave New World Essay examples4100 Words   |  17 Pagesrace of beings who are clones devoid of identity only able to worship the three things they have been preconditioned to love:   Henry Ford, their idol; Soma, a wonder drug; and sex (Dusterhoof, Guynn, Patterson, Shaw, Wroten and Yuhasz   1).   The misuse of perfected technologies, especially those allowing the manipulation of the human brain and genes, have created a pleasure-seeking world where there is no such thing as spiritual experience, just pleasures of the flesh.   In the face of a transcendent