Essay Sample on Utopia and Dystopia

Introduction

Utopia refers to an imagined society or community possessing highly desirable qualities for its citizens. Often the citizens' desirable attributes turn out to be near perfect. It is possible to describe utopia as an ideal place, designed so that there are no problems. The ideals of utopian societies often aim at emphasizing the principles of equality in government and economic drive of the societies in which we live.

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The Omelas, turn out as the perfect place that an individual could ever wish to live. The atmosphere is excellent, both from the environmental appeal to the societal view. The writer describes the first morning of summer, and the description paints the perfect picture in the minds of the readers (Le Guin, 275). From the cool winds that blow to the sunshine that lights the place, the Omelas depict a city that everyone would love to live. The writer, further illustrates the Omelas as full of joy, despite here being soldiers to protect the citizens, portraying the absence of worry from the citizens. The illustration of an absence of temples further depicts a society that believes in personal responsibility of each member of the organization (Le Guin, 275). The lack of temples and clergymen paints the picture of the Omelas as consisting of people who never do wrong, therefore, not requiring clergymen to show them right from wrong.

In the picture from The Urgency of Now, the right side of the picture depicts a perfect neighborhood in which to live. The balconies of the building blossom with healthy vegetation, illustrating the abundance of life there. Just before the building is two tennis courts, which symbolically depict the presence of health since tennis is a sport that engages the body to burn calories and keep health in check. Further, towards the top of the picture lies a swimming pool. The pool symbolizes relaxed life for the inhabitants of the premises depicted on the right side of the picture (Green et al., 12).

Notably, the utopian environment might not exist without a dystopian setting, to complement it (Yoran et al.). The fusion of the two kinds of environment perhaps gives the normal environment in which we live. More often than not, the fantasy of having either a utopia or a dystopia revolves around the idea of wanting to solve a problem in the society. The problem-solving crave could be by taking out the society's problems by annihilation or by applying certain sets of rules and prescriptions that would end up having everyone in the society happy. While utopias motivate individuals to think of rules to better the world, dystopias often motivate individuals as well, to look for means of taking away the problems. The bottom line, however, will be that the society lives a comfortable life through either thought.

In the narrative, the writer illustrates the presence of a child, seemingly sacrificed for the Omelas to lead an exemplary lifestyle. The writer notes that perhaps the child was born defective, or maybe it grew imbecile through malnutrition, fear and neglected. Occasionally the malnourished child gets visitors, from around Omelas (Le Guin, 277). It is treated inhumanely, getting kicked to stand up, being fed like an animal and getting locked up, never to seen the light of the sun. Despite plight to change and be good, the child is never answered. The child seemingly serves as an example to parents and their children living out free. The misery of the neglected child is often explained to other children to appreciate the life they live in Omelas. Parents, likewise are often reminded of the kind of life led by the imprisoned child as a reminder to always treat their children well (Le Guin, 280).

Similarly, in the picture from the Urgency Now, the left side depicts the favelas. The housing is as poor as it gets, with no arrangement whatsoever. The housing standard depicts poverty at its worst (Green et al., 12). From the aerial view of the favelas, the picture depicts disorderliness, from the way the houses are arranged to how their roofing has been done, with small pieces of iron sheets placed together to cover larger parts of the roof. Apart from disorganization on the left of the picture, it lacks indicators of the abundance of life. Unlike the right side of the image, the left does not have vegetation to depict plenty of life. Further, unlike the right side of the picture, the left seems to lack water as well, depicting difficulty in health for the residence in that section of the residential (Green et al., 12). Generally, the favelas, as the left side of the picture seem to represent, depicts economic strain among its residents as well as difficult in accessing services such as medication and healthy foods.

More often than not utopian and dystopian societies seem to be two sides of the same coin. While everything could be running perfectly smooth in utopian settings, the contrast is true for dystopian settings. In the latter setting, the whole society could be rundown (Claeys et al., 108). The sun may be shining in the utopian society while there will only dull skies for the dystopian societies. As earlier noted, perhaps, the fusion between the utopian societies and the dystopian counterparts produce normalcy that we enjoy in day-to-day settings.

From the picture, it is practically notable that the two societies exist side by side as the only thing separating the two neighborhoods is a concrete fence. Even if there is no direct contact between members of both societies, the members cannot take for granted being neighbors. From the narrative, the writer notes that the residents of Omelas were aware of the suffering of the little, malnourished child locked in the darkness of the separate room. Some of the residents believe that they enjoy their pleasant lives because of the suffering that the child endures while others choose to ignore. The believers prefer that the child never experiences a satisfying life. They believe that if the child could be freed from the bondage, to experience the life that they live, then that day all the prosperity, delight and beauty of Omelas would wither and be destroyed (Le Guin, 283).

Unfortunately, most residents of high profile premises today think the same way as the residents of Omelas. They often witness the hardships experienced by their destitute neighbors but choose to do nothing about it. Perhaps they fear that the impoverished individuals may learn a few tricks to come from their positions and occupy better positions in the society, thus causing them discomfort (Yoran et al.). Perhaps, they enjoy offering the destitute neighbors the metaphorical fish so that they can always come back begging for help each day and acting as their subjects. A few of the privileged individuals often have the heart to do something about the condition of their destitute neighbors. Similarly, in the narrative, the writer notes a few individuals, both youthful and elderly, who decide to move out of the Omelas after an encounter with the bound child.

Looking at the picture, the section representing utopian societies has a story building. The building depicts a high living standard for the residents and which allows them to have a glimpse of what is happening down in the dystopian neighborhood. Symbolically, it represents the ability of wealthy individuals to know the sufferings of the destitute, but be in unreachable positions to help (Liu et al., 252). Similarly, in the narrative, the writer speaks of visitors always leaving the scene angry and disgusted, but there is nothing that they do. Initially, before their visit, the visitors often think that they are superior to the thought of feeling sympathy for the child, only to feel disgusted by the treatment that it receives when they visit. They, further feel helpless for not being able to rescue that child from the vile setting. In one way or the other, residents of both utopian and dystopian societies often end up becoming prisoners to the setting. In the narrative, the writer reveals the fate of both residents, of a utopian society and dystopian society. He writes that the tears of the residents of Omelas dry out when they begin to perceive the injustice of reality and begin accepting. That the other supposedly free residents, finally turn out as caged as the child locked in the vile room.

Despite being considered contrasts of each other dystopian settings can sometimes be stated to be similar to a utopian setting. It's only that, further immersion reveals excessive control, abuse, and repression. The description of a dystopian society depicts similarities to certain institutions and communities, such as police states where excessive power is applied to controlling citizens (Claeys et al., 107). However, instead of applying dystopian settings in day-to-day settings in the society, it would be beneficial to try and adopt utopian settings and improve our lives.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the narrative and the picture depict the relationship between utopia and dystopia, and it illustrates that the presence of one cannot occur alone without highlighting the other. Therefore, in the world we live in today, the best environments often end up neighbouring the worst ones. But until we learn to harmonize the two environments, there will never cease to be divisions in the social classes just like the concrete wall separating the favelas from the five-star premises, depicted in the picture. Harmony is the key to improving the favelas to a better environment and having its residents living a better life than before.

Work Cited

Le Guin, Ursula K. "The ones who walk away from Omelas." (1973): 275-84.

Green, Duncan, and Isobel Allen. The Urgency of Now. Oxfam, (2008): 12.

Yoran, Hanan. Between utopia and dystopia: Erasmus, Thomas More, and the humanist Republic of Letters. Lexington Books, 2010.

Claeys, Gregory. "The origins of dystopia: Wells, Huxley and Orwell." The Cambridge companion to utopian literature (2010): 107-134.

Liu, Hugo. "Social network profiles as taste performances." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1 (2007): 252-275.