Dystopia: “An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.” –Google definitions.

Dys- bad (Greek); Topia- place (Greek).

So now that is has been established that a dystopia is a no good place, what is the purpose of it? Why is it significant?

You may remember a book by George Orwell entitled 1984, or his novel Animal Farm. You probably read them your senior year in high school, or used Sparknotes.com to pretend to read it. I actually read 1984 for the first time in seventh grade and had to write a ten page essay on it, so cheating wasn’t exactly an option. You probably tried getting into it, as you do with every book, but Orwell’s language is best describe as a little, well, dull. I have to tell you, you really missed out. Though Orwell’s writing can be a tough read, it was my favorite book until recently because the very structure of a dystopian culture was so marvelous, so tantalizing that even a seventh-grader could not resist its enticing charms!

That’s all very well, but what is a dystopian?

I’m glad you asked. In 1984, the nation of Oceania is ruled by Big Brother, a figurehead of the totalitarian society. He sees and hears everything you do, and if even a thought is out of place, the Thought Police come to get you. Women wear sashes as a physical showing of their celibacy and everyone works in large departments that serve their country.

It is all about control. Totalitarianism is all about one political person or group imposing their beliefs on a system and controlling every part of every person’s life. This is the basic principle of dystopian novels. Brave New World, The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, it tends to go on. In each of these novels, one government rules them all. (Yes, that Lord of the Rings reference does belong here.) Even though LOTR isn’t technically dystopian literature, you can see that motif sprinkled into the plot with that darn “precious” ring. If Sauron had gotten the ring, this story most likely would have become dystopian. Unfortunately, our society will never realize that incredible masterpiece of the collision of dystopian and fantasy.

So, why are dystopias important?

You have to decide that one for yourself. What is the author using the setting of totalitarianism for? I feel, generally, that dystopias are useful for reminding society that radical government control is, for lack of a better phrase, not good. It is timeless because every generation experiences political strain of some sort; someone is always trying to gain power. Otherwise, using a dystopia in literature can aid to theme, tone, and any number of things. Just remember, that the presence of a dystopia as a motif (as in LOTR) is slight, but still there and, therefore, still important. Just because a novel is not classified as dystopian doesn’t mean that its main idea will not be shaped by the idea of totalitarianism, and by identifying that in the work can shape your knowledge of it greatly.