Utopia vs Dystopia

Click here to read the text! Someone Might Be Watching — An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction Vocabulary: Match the word to the sentence it best completes: His goal is to _ poverty in his community. eradicate The odd camera angle _ her figure in the photograph. distorted I gave in to my _ and ordered the chocolate dessert. compulsion We tried to _ the soil in the garden before the county enacted the summer water restrictions. saturate The small child is easily _ by an animated movie, able to focus in for many hours. transfixed PART A: Which of the following identifies the author’s main claim in the text? Dystopian fiction exaggerates existing problems in our reality to show readers what could happen if society continues down a certain path. Both utopian and dystopian fiction are used to warn readers about the risks of attempting to alter a society in any way. While dystopian fiction is entertaining to read, it doesn’t reflect realistic concerns with our current society, or a possible future society. Both Utopian and dystopian fiction are used to distort reality to the point in which it is no longer recognizable or realistic. PART B: Which detail from the text best supports the answer to Part A? “Walking through carnivals, we love to laugh at the versions of ourselves that appear in the funhouse mirror.” (Paragraph 1) “The perfection that More, and other philosophers who wrote about utopias, imagined was never intended to be real.” (Paragraph 3) “Dystopian authors argued that the pursuit of perfection will inevitably lead not to ‘no place’ but to a ‘bad place’, because of flaws within the system.” (Paragraph 6) “Women are forced to wear outfits that correspond to their class, and no one is given any choice. In some dystopias, the lack of choice is enforced by the government.” (Paragraph 11) How does the author’s discussion of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four contribute to the text (Paragraph 8)? It proves how unrealistically dystopian fiction portrays social and political issues. It gives examples of how dystopian fiction is based on what the author observed in reality. It shows how our society can avoid becoming the world depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four. It stresses how inevitable it is for our society to become the society depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.