Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story: Satirically Exploring American Dystopia - Essay Sample

Introduction

Literary forms are the significant elements that not only resort to entertaining the audience but also educate and provide critical insight to the contemporary socio-cultural, economic, and political trends that many fears to avail or directly expose. Gary Shteyngart, like many American authors, uses his novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” to satirically explore the American dystopic society leaping into massive detachments prompted by the technological advancement like the constant use of media platforms such as GlobalTeen and Apparat to connect online (Shteyngart 55). The author effectively denotes the complexity of technology and its substantial effects on personal human life, social relationship, and advancement. Technology hinders smooth relationships among people like a love story of Lenny, and a young beautiful Korean-American girl, Eunice, which cannot be kept a secret due to the new apparat device that updates and expose every aspect of human existence. Therefore, the investigation acknowledges that Gary Shteyngart depicts technology as an element to dystopia in his novel, citing multimodal instances for its projection.

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In the novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” Gary Shteyngart reveals the dystopian future of America characterized by technological control that subjects many individuals into an illusion of perfect society. Everything about everyone is currently exposed online, with the ordinary citizens actively brainwashed to only think of attaining physical attraction and sexiness to gain the highest ratings (Shteyngart 78). Whether a relative, friend, or stranger, people can easily find information through the internet or post any junk about people (Shteyngart 55). For instance, when Lenny and Eunice met a stranger in a restaurant sipping Coca Cola, they began arguing, “it is so sad to see a Korean man without a wife or girlfriend to tell him not to eat that junk…I don’t think he’s Korean; my apparat says he’s from Shanghai.” (Shteyngart 166). Further, Gary Shteyngart depicts how people prefer the beauty and sexual appeal over intelligence. People are more concerned with the rating they will get on the apparat when their friends view their social accounts rather than human kindness, intelligence, and mental development. For example, reading books is considered to be a queer activity. The technological advancement has also eliminated the little shred of modesty that remained in the society as the most degrading hard-core pornography turn to become the mainstream entertainment while the women prefer obscene undergarments that reveal everything and covers nothing (Shteyngart 46). Social and ethical degradation prompted by uncontrolled advancement in technology significantly dominate Shteyngart’s projection of the future New York and America. For instance, the apparat device only rates people based on sexuality like “fuckability,” “personality,” “anal/oral/vaginal preference” (Shteyngart 89). From media to social platforms, the young generation lacks control of the social environment and are increasingly controlled by the dominant-negative elements in their surroundings.

Additionally, technology remains a platform of instigating an illusion of perfection as people strive to correct and restructure their physical deformities. While the rich easily purchase the life extension and anti-aging products, the middle-class and the poor spend their lives saving for the same. Lenny, a sad, depressed, and exceedingly terrified of old age and death, spend his life trying to save for the expensive anti-aging treatments from nanotechnology, where he works (Shteyngart 5). In a society dominated by technological advancement, possessing deformities such as aging or ugliness is considered a sin against God. Many youths value physical attractiveness, which propels individuals with funds to invest in expensive anti-aging products. For example, Lenny works in a national corporation, Staatling Wapachung, which has been actively prosperous in America through selling its life extension products and anti-aging treatment across the nation (Shteyngart 194). However, unlike in America, the product does not sell in Europe, where Lenny confesses that people in Europe “are not interested and are skeptical about our technology. And some of them want to die” rather than trying to extend their life against God’s will (Shteyngart 69). The technological advancement has prompted a dystopic society dominated by chaos, social injustice, totalitarianism, and loss of individualism. The love for immortality and youthfulness not only drives people to purchase life extension products but also propel youths to fall in love with older individuals. For instance, Eunice cheats on Lenny with Joshie, his boss, who is 60 years but looks younger than the 39-year-old Lenny. The novels reveal the excruciating circumstances that society subjects’ people too, which consequently destroy relationships during dystopian tyranny with the help of technological control.

Consequently, Shteyngart projects an economic and political collapse in the United States, which uses the technological advancement to deport the immigrants with the week credits. The America Restoration Authority used its technological prowess to strive to restore American economic and political powers that China had taken. With the absolute chaos and tyrannical leadership, the citizens are overwhelmed by social deterioration, prejudice, and marginalization. Foreign investors are also threatening to take over the economic and political powers of the United States. Due to the fall in the dollar, which goes for $4.90 against one yen, the People’s Bank of China dominates the economy of the country (Shteyngart 81). Many transactions in America are conducted in yuan since the American dollar has lost its currency prowess, and the former superpower surrenders to China leading the Restoration Authority to lead the country with military helicopters flying everywhere (Shteyngart 125). The author also reveals how political instability has resulted in poverty in the country, which not only caused massive class stratification and hatred between the rich and the poor but also hatred against Chinese-Americans prompted by the presence of Chinese Central Bankers in the country (Shteyngart 106). For instance, people watched on televisions and apparats how at Andrews Air Force Base, the Chinese Central Banker had the president and his wife in shivers, as “the nation lay prostrate before him” (Shteyngart 135). Therefore, grooving a conducive platform for a revolution against the political elites.

Conclusion

Conclusively, “Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart reveals the negative and adverse impact of a dystopian society characterized by technological control, social degradation, economic oppression, and political prejudice. The novel denotes the dystopian depiction of technology, which promises an elusive life but destroys the contemporary social, economic, and political trends. For instance, it has resulted in the invasion of privacy in the country as people predominantly stream personal information online. With little to no caution or sense of responsibility, the innocent and ignorant citizens actively cling on social media platforms such as the GlobalTeens to catch up and communicate. Moreover, with the advancement in technology, the intimate human relationship has also been destroyed as people profoundly depend on the statistical data to rate and verify others rather than engaging in a personal connection. Additionally, biotechnology technology also empowers humans to defy the role of nature as expensive anti-aging treatments to dominate the society, which makes the youths to view aging as a wrong thing or a sin against God. Therefore, in the novel, the author reveals the technological control, which results in a dangerous invasion of privacy among innocent citizens. The book is within limits in exploring the possibility of hazardous technological exploitation that people can succumb to in America.

Work Cited

Shteyngart, Gary. Super sad true love story. Random house trade paperbacks. New York. 2011.