1984 Dystopian Society

 The book 1984 by George Orwell follows the idea of a dystopian society. Main character, Winston Smith, is trapped in a world where the "party" whose leader, Big Brother, is always watching him and the low-ranking members of society. Big Brother watches the citizens of Oceana in London through large telescreens. The party, which reminds us of the political parties that has morphed into one, controls everything in Oceana, including the people's history, minds (thoughts) and even their language. No one is free. The party allows no one to rebel, even through their minds. This is a crime called "thoughtcrime" and the most illegal of all rebellious crimes to commit. Thoughtcrime comes from "Newspeak", the new language created by the party.
Winston tries to rebel against Big Brother and the party with their out-of-this-world controlling ways throughout the story. The party catches on to Winston's thoughtcrimes and rebelliousness, and punishes him with his biggest fears for his wrong-doings. In the end, Winston ends up giving into the party and becoming just like everyone else, broken spirited and worshipping Big Brother.
One of the most important part of a utopian society to me is freedom, in all forms. 1984 took the opposite approach of this "utopian" idea by even making society's rebellious thoughts into a crime. The book also goes hand in hand with the definition of a dystopian society as a futuristic look into mankind after something that has gone terribly wrong, apocalyptic or not. This world or city, Oceana, is made up to show what life could be like. No one is free and everything is controlled by this secretive higher power that no one truly knows who or what this higher power is, which is the scariest part. In this world, you can't trust anyone, not even yourself because how easy is it to control your own thoughts? Not very.

1984

1984 is extremely popular for creating one of the best dystopian society stories and achieves this well. It is popular because it makes us think that this can happen. A lot of people have second thoughts about what our government is actually up to. Is it a conspiracy? Since some may have these fearful thoughts in the back of their heads, this book brings up these fears and allows us to think about our own society.

28 blogs later dystopia

So for my dystopia blog I chose the movie "28 Weeks Later".  This movie is the sequel to "28 Days Later".  In the original movie, “28 Days Later”, a group of ignorant scientists start the spread of the rage virus from laboratory test monkeys, the virus spreads across Great Brittain leaving zombie like creatures roaming the streets with a thirst for blood and wanton violence.  “28 Weeks Later” picks up in the post-apocalyptic time period after those infected with the “rage virus” infected have died off.  The U.S. army has secured a small area of London for the 15,000 survivors to repopulate and start again.  However, not everything goes as planned.  They do not have a protocol for minors in their secure zone at this time.  A lack of supervision provides the children an opportunity to embark on an adventure to their old home.  In their home they find their mother who is still alive and “partially” infected.  While she does contract the virus, she remains free of the symptoms associated with the disease.  Upon her arrival to the secured area, the mother undergos a process of decontamination.  She is quarantined to protect the other survivors since she is a carrier of the virus and can infect others.  When her husband learns of his wife's arrival to the facility he is surprised because he thought she had been killed.  His reaction is impulsive and in a lapse of judgement, he kisses his wife.  Unfortunately, this exchange causes him to become infected and then turns on his own wife.  This encounter initiates the spread of infection to the survivors.  The objective is to save the two children whose blood may contain the key to an antidote.  I feel as though dystopia is an interesting concept among audiences who perceive a post-apocalyptic world as both frightening and possible.  Everyday we face risk of infection from diseases that are life threatening and have no cure.  There are constant threats of warfare involving nuclear weapons from foreign nations that have the potential to kill an entire population of people.  A virus that spreads at such a rapid rate and consumes the vast majority of the population is not necessarily a foreign concept.  It provides a glimpse into a world without the structure of rules and laws.  These dystopian movies and stories continue to hold popularity because compared to the world we live in, such chaos would present a survival of the fittest type scenario.  As they say history repeats itself.  So, whether it be a zombie-like apocalypse or a civil revolution, by rendering our government non-existent, we will have to adapt to the lack of structure and laws.