Dystopian Literature & Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

1. Dystopian Literature & Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

2. Dystopia • A dystopia is a community or society, usually fictional, that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. It is the opposite of a utopia. • Such societies appear in many works of fiction, particularly in stories set in a speculative future. • Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. • Elements of dystopias may vary from environmental to political and social issues. Dystopian societies have culminated in a broad series of sub-genres of fiction and are often used to raise real-world issues regarding society, environment, politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or technology that may become present in the future. For this reason, dystopias have taken the form of a multitude of speculations, such as pollution, poverty, societal collapse, political repression, or totalitarianism.

3. Post Apocalyptic • The Apocalypse – a revelation , end of an age , In the Revelation of John, John writes about the "revelation" of Jesus Christ as Messiah, and about present tribulations leading to the ending of this age and the coming of God's Kingdom. Hence the term 'apocalypse' has come to be used, very loosely, for the end of the world.

4. Dystopian Literature • 1984 - George Orwell , Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people’s history and language • Brave New World – Aldous Huxley , The novel opens in the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre, where the Director of the Hatchery and one of his assistants, Henry Foster, are giving a tour to a group of boys. The boys learn about the Bokanovsky and Podsnap Processes that allow the Hatchery to produce thousands of nearly identical human embryos. During the gestation period the embryos travel in bottles along a conveyor belt through a factory-like building, and are conditioned to belong to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Each of the succeeding castes is conditioned to be slightly less physically and intellectually impressive. The Epsilons, stunted and stupefied by oxygen deprivation and chemical treatments, are destined to perform menial labor.

5. Dystopian Literature • Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury , Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a futuristic American city. In Montag’s world, firemen start fires rather than putting them out. The people in this society do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio” sets attached to their ears • The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins , written in the voice of 16-year-old KatnissEverdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

6. Dystopian Literature • Matched – Ally Condie , Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow

7. Dystopian Literature • Unwind – Neal Shusterman , After a civil war—known as the Second Civil War or the Heartland War—is fought over abortian , a compromise was reached, allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old to be unwound—taken to "harvest camps" and having their body parts harvested for later use. The reasoning was that, since 100% (actually 99.44% taking into account the appendix and "useless" organs) was required to be used, unwinds did not technically "die", because their individual body parts lived on. In addition to unwinding, parents who are unable to raise their children to age thirteen for retroactive abortion have the option to "stork" their child by leaving it on another family's porch. If they don't get caught, the "storked" baby then becomes the other family's responsibility.

8. Dystopian Films • I Robot • Soylent Green • Total Recall • Mad Max • V for Vendetta • Planet of the Apes • Minority Report • I am Legend • A Clockwork Orange http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heAVOA8iyCw

9. The Road Cormac McCarthy

10. The Road • American writer – CormacMcarthy (2006) • It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. • Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007 • Written with very little punctuation and no chapters.

11. Characters • Most of the characters are unnamed • The Father • The Son • Wife/Mother • Man with the Gas Mask • The Boy in the Window • Old Man Ely • Thief • Bowman • The Bowman’s Wife • The Man with the Rifle

12. Themes and Motifs • Death • Survival • Father Son Relationship • Good vs. Evil • Humanity • Compassion and Forgiveness • Morality • Spirituality

13. Objects / Places • The Binoculars • The Cart • The Pistol • The Tarp • The Road • Shoes • The Flare Gun • The Refuge • The Father’s House • The Beach

14. Creative Writing Prompt • Using a clean sheet of paper, write a three paragraph journal entry for any character of your choice on the date January 7, 2113 (100 years from today) . • Create a vivid description of: • Future government • Society • Landscape • Customary behavior Turn in your journal entry to the class drawer.