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In this homework, I will synthesis these four documents

while giving an answer to the problematic : « What is a
dystopia ? » The plan is in 3 parts. One : « How does reality
gives birth to a dystopia ? » Two : « What are the
characteristics of the dystopian art ? » And three : « How do
people reacts to these dystopian fictions ? » The conclusion
will summarize these three parts and will explain what is the
interest of reading or whatching a dystopia. Let's present
the documents quickly.
The document A is an extract of the novel « Make room !
Make room ! » written by Harry Harrison and published by
Doubleday in 1966.
The document B is a newspaper article from « The
Guardian » written by Sam Jordison, published the 24 march
2020 about a movie, Soylent Green, based on the novel
« Make room ! Make room ! ». More precisely, this article is
a comparison of the novel and the movie.
And finally, the document C is a poster of the movie Soylent
Green.

1) How does reality gives birth to a dystopia ?

A lot of themes can actually be used to make a

dystopian movie/serie. The authors can use the issue that
we face noadays, or, historical facts and base their stories
on real events. For example, George Orwell wrote his well
known novel « 1984 » based on the Nazi regime, inspired by
the propaganda, the total authority, the no freedom of
speech and the conformity of that dictatorship. We can also
cite « Fahreneit 541 » wich was inspird by the cold war, the
propaganda, the lack of freedom, the media and sources of
informations that was crontrolled by the governement.
Others will use natural catastophe, nuclear war, and other

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overpopulation. That's the subject that have been used by
the author of « Make room ! Make room ! », Harry Harrison.
Published in 1966, the novel is based on the declaration of
the president of the united states Eisenhower, who said in
an interwiew that « the governement don't have to, and won't
have a political doctrine about this problem of birth control ».
The biggest problem of that declaration is that if the
population is still increasing at the same rate, and, if they
maintain their current living standard, they'll be using by the
end of the century more than hundred percent of the raw
materials. Harrison asked himself, what will the world be
like ? And, bassed on that issue of overpopulation and lack
of raw material and food, the book was born.

2) What are the caracteristics of a dystopia ?

As I already said, there is not one type of dystopia. We

can be in a futur full of new technologies, in a futuristic city
as well as we can experience the past. But basically, the
common point between all these stories is that the
characters lives in a civilisation profoundly inhumane. Their
head full of endoctrinement and lies, a bunch knows the
truth and most of the time, not for the best. The government
is also often agaisnt it's administrator and provide a political
of comformity. Everyone must blend into the crowd. High
gray buildings abounds all of the same people, the world
seems deeply depressing. Wich is proved in the document
C, where we can observe a crowded city, the characters
seems panicked and stressed out. They look like some kind
of scary and teeming wave, ready to absorb you into it's
mass. The movie contrarely to the book takes place in 2022,
as it's written on the poster. A quote on the top left corner
says « People are still the same, they'll do anything to get
what they need and they need Soylent Green ». Quite odd
isn't it ? Well, even if that movie in based on the novel
« Make room ! « Make room ! » , it's really different. As said
in the document B, the plot is the discovery of the
composition of the Soylent Green food. Wich is basically
dead people. So, we are in a world so much overcrowded
that to survive, they need to get on the extremity of
canibalism. The drama is that no one knows it. But, our hero
will find out, and, eventually, will get killed for that.

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 And what about the book ? The story takes place in
New York, in 1999, a crowded city. two roomates. Andy
Rush, a 30 years police inspector who lives with Sol, a
retired engineer. They are going to face bad envents while
triyng to survive in a world where everyone lives in poor
conditions and where we need to fight for our rights against
the government, that Sol try to beat. So, like in a lot of
dystopia, the scene takes place in a world that doesn't seem
to have a place for hummanity anymore. A society profundly
inhumane, as always.

2) How does people reacts to dystopian content ?

I think that dystopia is a really popular genre for it's

trhrilling plot. The fact that we sunk in a world that is so close
of ours but, completely corrupted, is quite an amazing
experience. Everyone as a teenager have thought about
accomplishing some heroic stuff. And we think that we can't
because we're not in an urgent situation. We, at some point,
think that we need to live a catastrophe to prove ourselves
that we are enough, that we are brave, that we can be
someones model or hero, that we can survive. We are
sooner or later gonna realise that it's enough in the real
world.
In the he document b, Sam Jordison, journalist for « The
Guardian », explains why he preferred the movie rather than
the book. I don't have myself an opinion on what is said,
because i haven't read or watch the movie, but let's get
started.

In his point of view, Harrison's novel has a few faults.

The biggest blame is that the end is unfocused, kind of
disappointing , compared with that future-noir opening and
it's promise of a passionate detective story. Even if it's still
an effective portrayal of a messed-up world, as it's supposed
to be, besides all the preaching about overpopulation and
contraception that are a bit too much in his opinion. For
example in the novel Sol used to make hectoring speeches
about contraception wich is not really subtile. In the movie it
was decided instead of all this preaching, that the character
say far more with some perfectly mesured silence and misty
eyes, wich gives less the impression of forcing an ideology,
whether if it's bad or not.
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I think that a dystopia can make people feels a bunch of
different emotions, and the fact that it could, or did happend
can gave to some the chills.

3) What is so interesting about that genre ?

To conclude, a dystopia depicts, in narrative form, the

dangers of an ideology. By clearly opposing utopia, she
warns against ideals whose consequences could be
catastrophic, particularly for human freedoms. Wich make
this genre particulary frightening with all his trhilling plots, his
authenticity of the human cruaulty or even let's say
madness, and it's futuristic cities that makes us wonder what
is the future reserving to us, and, maybe, warn us about
what will happen.

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