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c. 375 BCE – Plato, Republic:
The perfect republic, Kallipolis (‘beautiful city’), features a harmonious balance of roles and responsibilities, where each person attends only to his own craft. To defend itself, the city needs an army comprised of guardians, gentle to citizens and harsh to enemies, who are carefully educated only through literature that is beneficial, rather than corruptive. The guardians are not allowed to own property, and live in communal housing, and are the height of intellect and virtue: they are later described as ‘Philosopher-Kings’.
In this way, Plato describes the ideal society as a benevolent totalitarian state, where the only people permitted to rule are those whose upbringing and temperament make them suitable to rule, through education that nourishes their intellect and virtue.
1516 – Thomas More, Utopia:
In 1516, Thomas More coined the term ‘utopia’, a Greek word that could either mean ‘good place’ (eu-topos) or ‘no place’ (ou-topos). Like the Republic, Utopia is a dialogue, a fictional conversation that starts with a critique of social issues of the time: state funds spent needlessly on war; overuse of the death penalty; enclosure of land driving people into poverty and crime.
The conversation then turns to the description of a fictional island, Utopia. Utopia is a democracy, although the Prince, once elected, rules for life. There is no private property, no locks on doors, and limited privacy, with communal dining and free healthcare. All citizens have to work for six hours a day (although many choose to work longer), but live a simple life, with basic clothing and other goods, to reduce workload. Each household keeps two slaves, either from abroad or Utopian criminals who wear chains made of gold (which is also used for making toilets, to discourage greed). Women work, can run for office and have many freedoms that women at the time lacked, but have to confess their sins to their husbands every month.
1626 – Francis Bacon, New Atlantis:
1726 – Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels as a first-person narrative by an explorer, Lemuel Gulliver, satirising colonial travel narratives of the time. Gulliver travels the world, visiting lands inhabited by tiny people (Lilliput), giant people (Brobdingnag) and talking horses (Houyhnhnms) who rule over deformed and savage humans (Yahoos) in a master/slave dynamic. Each land offers the chance to critique issues of the time, such as factional politics, warfare or the English establishment.
1826 – Mary Shelley, The Last Man
This novel is on a man that is the last man on earth, due to a virus having wiped out the population.
Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826) imagines a virus, like the bubonic plague, decimating the world, forcing societies like Britain into extreme politics, and leaving only one survivor. (This was part of Orwell’s inspiration for 1984, as it was originally titled The Last Man in Europe.)
1887 - Anna Dodd, The Republic of the Future
A socialist dystopia set in New York in 2050, in which women and men are equal, children are reared by the state, machines handle all the work, and most people, having nothing else to do, spend much of their time at the gym, obsessed with fitness. Dodd describes this world as “the very acme of dreariness.” What is a dystopia? The gym. (That’s still true. In a 2011 episode of “Black Mirror,” life on earth in an energy- scarce future has been reduced to an interminable spin class.)
1888 – Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
A socialist society, an equal one, without private ownership
In 1888, American writer Edward Bellamy wrote Looking Backward, where the narrator awakens in Boston in the year 2000, in a socialist utopia with commonly owned means of production and equal distribution of goods. Bellamy’s novel was hugely influential in starting a trend of political utopian fiction, often centred around a long sleep into the future.
1889 – Elizabeth Corbett, New Amazonia
1889 – Mary E. Bradley Lane, Mizora
1890 – William Morris, News from Nowhere
The British version of “looking backward”
William Morris was a Victorian writer, artist and designer; closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, he pioneered aestheticism and the Arts and Crafts Movement, emphasising the importance of decorative arts (especially using natural motifs) and promoting their accessibility. He is now known particularly for his wallpaper designs. He was also a socialist, promoting greater social equality and workers’ rights at the end of the nineteenth century.
Morris’ News from Nowhere was published in 1890 and combined socialist utopia and soft science fiction. The narrator, William Guest, falls asleep after a socialist meeting, awakening in 2090 to a society with no money, common ownership, no government and democratic control of the means of production – people especially find pleasure in nature.
1893 – Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant’s Unveiling a Parallel
A feminist utopia
1895 – H. G. Wells, The Time Machine*
Wells discusses the horrors of utopia, as Wells was a Victorian writer, and how society could be split into groups
Wells wrote the first time travel fiction, where a scientist invents a time machine and travels to the year 802,701. Here he meets a society of childlike people called the Eloi, who are peaceful but frail, only eating fruit and living in a natural paradise (satirising Morris’ News from Nowhere). Their utopian innocence has caused them to lose curiosity and interest in the world, and the remnants of London are decaying around them; they are the ‘sunset of mankind’. The traveller rescues one, Weena, from drowning and forms a close attachment to her.
But the time machine is missing! The traveller discovers it has been taken by the Morlocks, a savage race who live underground and appear only at night. He finds that they operate the machinery that supports the paradise of the Eloi, and in doing so control the race above ground; they also feed on Eloi flesh. He realises humanity has evolved to split into two races: the upper class has become the utopian but decadent and vulnerable Eloi, and the working class the brutal, industrious, parasitical Morlocks.
The traveller tries to get his machine back, but create a fire that accidentally kills Weena along with several Morlocks. He finally manages to escape back into his time machine and travels millions of years further, until he sees the earth stop spinning and the sun burning out. He travels back to his own time, before disappearing again into the future…
1896 – H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau
English narrator Edward Prendick is shipwrecked, rescued and taken to an island owned by the mysterious Dr Moreau, who fled England after his gruesome experiments in vivisection were exposed. As Prendick travels the island, he becomes increasingly afraid as he comes across various monstrous human-animal hybrid creatures, and becomes terrified that Moreau is vivisecting humans, and he will be next. Eventually he finds that they have formed a community called the Beast Folk, and are governed by the ‘Law’ which dictates they should only act according to principles of humanity. Moreau explains that he has been experimenting on animals, transforming them into humanoid creatures, hoping to eventually turn one completely into a human; however, many of the Beast Folk struggle and revert to their animalistic habits. Moreau dies in a fight with one of his subjects, turned savage and ferocious, and the Beast Folk gradually turn more and more animalistic. Finally, Prendick manages to escape and flees back to London, but can’t stand human company as those around him seem to be behaving like animals.
1899 – H. G. Wells, The Sleeper Awakes:
Graham falls asleep in Victorian London and wakes up in the year 2100. He is the richest man in Britain: the White Council invested his wealth and inheritance, and used it to establish plutocratic dominance over society. There is a revolution, but Ostrog, the new ruler, betrays his promise of change and liberation, and makes Graham a puppet ruler. Graham learns more about the society he is in.
All of Britain lives in four enormous cities, powered by huge windmills. Workers are oppressed and exploited, paid only in food, forced to wear uniforms that categorise them, and Ostrog controls them with a Black African police force. Children are raised by the state, euthanasia is widespread, and ‘babble machines’ constantly transmit propaganda. Graham turns against Ostrog, helps the workers to rise up against the government, and leads a new revolution.
1899 – Sutton Griggs’ Imperium in Imperio
A black utopia, a successful community of black people, commentary on race
1905 – Begum Rokeya Hossain, Sultana’s Dream
A south Asian utopia - The narrator, a Muslim woman living in colonial India, falls asleep and wakes up in the futuristic Ladyland, where through inventions such as solar power, women have taken control of society and men are restricted to domestic roles, in an inversion of the traditional practice of purdah (a form of gender segregation). Women rule peacefully, with crime eliminated (as it was mainly committed by men), and the working day reduced to two hours, as men would normally spend six hours a day just smoking. The women emphasise natural beauty and growth, and have accelerated scientific progress, for instance developing flying vehicles for transportation.
1907 – Jack London, The Iron Heel
1909 – Irene Clyde, Beatrice the Sixteenth
Another feminist utopia
1909 – E. M. Forster, The Machine Stops
1914 – Inez Haynes Irwin, Angel Island
1915 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
1920 – Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
Warning against the horrors of collectivism
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a dystopian novel set in a future totalitarian society called the One State. The novel, written as a series of diary entries, follows D-503, a mathematician and engineer who is working on the Integral, a spaceship designed to spread the One State’s ideology to other planets.
In the One State, human life is strictly regulated—citizens are identified by numbers, live in glass buildings for total surveillance, and follow a rigid schedule controlled by the Benefactor, the society’s leader. Individual emotions, imagination, and personal desires are considered threats to the collective order.
D-503 initially embraces the system but begins to change when he meets I-330, a rebellious woman involved in a secret resistance movement. Through her, he experiences irrational emotions such as love, jealousy, and desire, which challenge his belief in the One State. As he becomes entangled in I-330’s revolutionary plans, he struggles between his ingrained loyalty to the regime and his newfound emotions.
Ultimately, the rebellion fails, and D-503 undergoes a state-mandated operation to remove his imagination and emotions. He returns to being a loyal citizen, watching as I-330 is tortured and executed without any emotional response. The novel ends with the One State reasserting its control, reinforcing the bleakness of a society where individual thought is eradicated.
1927 – Fritz Lang, Metropolis (film)
On class divide, and how an upper class man falls in love with a lower class woman, Maria
The opening score is of a heavily industrial city, and then of a “Shift change” of workers, who file/ March into and out of their work place, with bowed heads and robot like movements
A lift takes the workers down to their workers city, where they seem to return to box like homes.
The vertical city (above ground) is for the upper class, whereas the working class live in the workers city down below.
Links to the Proles and the Inner and Outer Party who live in different places in 1984, also - the clock had numbers 1-10, like “the clocks were striking thirteen”
Or, The Time Machine, where the working class also lives underground (literally)
Links to “We”, where worker’ lives are also heavily regulated
1932 – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World*
Henry Ford is the man who creates the mass production line of human reproduction
Links to sexuality
Drugs and pleasure create the utopia, due to the sheer excess of it
Brave New World is set in 2540 CE, which the novel identifies as the year AF 632. AF stands for “after Ford,” as Henry Ford’s assembly line is revered as god-like; this era began when Ford introduced his Model T. The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting relationships because “everyone belongs to everyone else” (a common World State dictum). Huxley begins the novel by thoroughly explaining the scientific and compartmentalized nature of this society, beginning at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where children are created outside the womb and cloned in order to increase the population. The reader is then introduced to the class system of this world, where citizens are sorted as embryos to be of a certain class. The embryos, which exist within tubes and incubators, are provided with differing amounts of chemicals and hormones in order to condition them into predetermined classes. Embryos destined for the higher classes get chemicals to perfect them both physically and mentally, whereas those of the lower classes are altered to be imperfect in those respects. These classes, in order from highest to lowest, are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are bred to be leaders, and the Epsilons are bred to be menial labourers.
Bernard Marx, an Alpha, is one of the main characters of the story. He and his love interest, Lenina Crowne, travel to a “savage reservation,” where Marx’s boss (the Director) supposedly lost a female companion some years ago. When the two arrive, they see people living there engaging in unfamiliar rituals. They also stumble upon a woman (Linda) and her son (John, also referred to as the Savage) who Marx correctly assumes to be the lost family mentioned by the Director. The Director had recently been threatening to send Marx away for his antisocial behavior, so Marx decides to bring the two home with him. Unlike the conditioned citizens of the World State, John has been raised with Shakespearean ideals of love, suffering, and personal struggle.
When Bernard brings John back to civilization, John is horrified by the emptiness of this supposedly perfect world. He becomes a spectacle, celebrated as “the Savage,” but ultimately rejects the artificial happiness around him. After a series of conflicts, including a debate with the World Controller, Mustapha Mond, John isolates himself, trying to live a life of purity. However, the public’s curiosity and his inner torment lead him to despair, and he ultimately takes his own life.
The World State, ruled by a technocratic elite, maintains order through genetic engineering, psychological conditioning, and the use of a pleasure-inducing drug called soma.
In this world, emotions, personal relationships, and independent thinking are discouraged. Instead, citizens are conditioned from birth to embrace consumerism, casual sex, and constant entertainment. Religion, art, and family have been eliminated to prevent instability.
1935 – Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
The “American Hitler” - Hughy Long (Governor of Louisiana)
How America could create its own dictatorship
1938 – Ayn Rand, Anthem
Ayn Rand’s Anthem is a dystopian novella published in 1938. It is set in a future society where individuality has been eradicated, and people live under a strict collectivist regime. The novel is written as a first-person diary by the protagonist, Equality 7-2521. The story takes place in a totalitarian society where the concept of individuality has been eliminated. People live in a rigidly controlled world where even the word “I” has been erased from language. Instead, everyone refers to themselves as “we.” People are assigned numbers instead of names, live in communal homes, and are told that their purpose is to serve the collective. The government, called the World Council, controls all aspects of life, including work, education, and relationships.
Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, is different from others. He is physically stronger, intellectually curious, and taller than his peers. However, in this society, being different is considered a sin. Despite being naturally gifted, he is assigned the job of a Street Sweeper by the Council of Vocations, preventing him from pursuing his love for science and knowledge.
Though he obediently follows his assigned role, he secretly yearns for more. While working as a street sweeper, he discovers an abandoned underground tunnel from the “Unmentionable Times” (a past era before the collectivist rule). He begins secretly conducting experiments in the tunnel, rediscovering scientific knowledge that has been lost.
Over time, Equality 7-2521 rediscovers electricity and even creates a simple light bulb. He realizes the power of this discovery and believes it can benefit society. Hoping to share it, he decides to present his invention to the World Council of Scholars, believing they will reward him and allow him to work as a scientist.
While working as a street sweeper, he notices a woman named Liberty 5-3000, who works as a farmer. Unlike other women, she is strong, independent, and unafraid. They share secret glances and later meet in private, defying the laws that forbid personal relationships. He names her The Golden One, and she calls him The Unconquered, showing their growing individual identities.
When the Council of Scholars sees Equality 7-2521’s invention, they reject it, fearing that such an independent discovery could disrupt their control over society. They decide to destroy his work and punish him. Realizing that his discovery will never be accepted, Equality 7-2521 escapes into the Uncharted Forest.
In the forest, he experiences true freedom for the first time. He no longer follows rules, and for the first time, he refers to himself as “I,” marking his rejection of collectivist ideology. Soon, Liberty 5-3000 finds him and joins him in exile. They explore the forest together, strengthening their bond as individuals.
Eventually, they come across an abandoned house from the Unmentionable Times, filled with books, mirrors, and clothes. Inside, they find writings from the past, including books that explain the concept of individualism. Equality 7-2521 learns the forbidden word “I” and realizes that the key to human progress is the recognition of the individual self.
Now understanding the importance of individuality, he renames himself Prometheus (after the Greek Titan who brought fire to mankind) and gives Liberty 5-3000 the name Gaea (the mother of the earth in mythology). He vows to rebuild a new society based on freedom, reason, and individualism. He plans to gather others who seek independence and teach them about the lost knowledge of the past.
The novella ends with Prometheus looking toward the future, determined to fight against collectivism and reclaim the dignity of the individual.
1949 – George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four*
1953 – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451*
Utilises mass media and TV to reduce human creativity and productivity, The importance of books and literature
Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, when the memory was still fresh of the Nazis burning ‘un-German’ books, most prominently in 1933. However, the 1950s brought new concerns of censorship due to the Cold War and American anxieties about communist influences. Senator Joseph McCarthy led a forceful and aggressive campaign against suspected communist, ‘un-American’ writers and materials, often compared to a ‘witch-hunt’, giving his name to the movement: McCarthyism.
The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman whose job is to burn down houses in which books have been discovered. After leaving work one day, he meets Clarisse, a teenaged girl who enjoys nature and asks if he is happy. At home, he finds that his wife, Mildred, has swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. After he calls for help, two men arrive and revive her. The next morning, she behaves as though nothing happened and watches as usual the programs on the television screens that make up three of the parlour walls. Montag and the cheerful Clarisse begin talking regularly, until one day she is not outside waiting for him; he eventually learns that she was killed by a speeding car. Later, when the firemen are sent to burn down the house of an elderly woman, Montag takes her Bible—an act that he thinks his hand has undertaken on its own—and the woman chooses to die with her books. Montag begins to have doubts about his mission, and the next day he stays home from work.
1962 – Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange*
On gangs and the aftermath of WW2 and how this violence flooded into society, The resistance and violence of a young generation
Alex, the protagonist, has a passion for classical music and is a member of a vicious teen gang. He and his droogs (friends) engage in drug-fueled orgies (milk spiked with narcotics is the drug of choice), and their random acts of brutality—particularly against defenseless people—are detailed with enjoyment in Burgess’s made-up slang, Nadsat.
1962 – J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World*
The power that nature has over humans
The world heats up, going back to prehistoric times and how humans cope
By the 22nd century, most of the Earth has been transformed into a tropical, prehistoric-like environment. London, like many other cities, is submerged under rising waters, with only the tallest buildings sticking out of the flooded landscape. Mutated reptiles and dense jungles dominate the landscape, and humans have been forced to retreat to the Arctic regions.
Dr. Robert Kerans is part of a scientific team led by Colonel Riggs, which is studying the effects of the catastrophe. The team includes Dr. Bodkin, an older scientist nostalgic for the past, and Beatrice Dahl, a wealthy woman who has chosen to remain in her submerged apartment rather than flee north.
As Kerans and others remain in the drowned city, they begin to experience strange dreams filled with prehistoric imagery. These dreams seem to be triggering a deep, primal regression, making them feel more connected to the new, ancient-like environment. Kerans becomes increasingly detached from reality, seeing the flooded world not as a disaster, but as a return to a natural order.
Bodkin explains that the world’s climate shift is causing humans to biologically and psychologically revert to an earlier evolutionary state, linking them to the planet’s prehistoric past. Rather than fight against it, Kerans finds himself drawn to this new world.
Just as most of the scientific team is preparing to leave for the Arctic, a pirate-like scavenger named Strangman arrives with his crew. Strangman, charismatic yet menacing, thrives in this new world by looting the ruins for treasure. Unlike the scientists, who seek to study the drowned world, Strangman wants to drain it and restore the old cities.
He orders his men to use pumps to lower the water levels in parts of London, briefly revealing the old streets beneath the water. However, his efforts are more about dominance and destruction than preservation. The draining of the city feels unnatural to Kerans, deepening his feeling that humans no longer belong in this world.
Strangman soon turns hostile. He and his men take Kerans captive, humiliating and torturing him for defying their rule. He also targets Bodkin, who attempts to flood the city again but is caught and executed. Beatrice is also threatened, reinforcing Strangman’s complete control over the drowned city.
Despite being weakened, Kerans refuses to submit. Eventually, he manages to fight back, setting off explosives that destroy Strangman’s pumps, allowing the water to reclaim the land. In doing so, Kerans ensures that the city remains in its drowned state, reinforcing his belief that humanity must adapt rather than resist the planet’s changes.
With Strangman temporarily defeated and Riggs’ forces arriving to restore order, Kerans chooses not to return to civilization. Instead, he ventures southward into the flooded jungles, embracing his regression and seeking deeper immersion into the prehistoric-like world.
The novel ends ambiguously, with Kerans struggling through the swamps, wounded but determined, accepting his fate as part of this new world rather than clinging to the remnants of the old one.
1962 — Silent Spring (still relevant)
1963 – Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes
Could be read as a class criticism
Or on human evolution
1968 – Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
On the rise of technology and robots
1974 – Doris Lessing, Memoirs of a Survivor*
It is set in a collapsing society where infrastructure, law, and social order are gradually disintegrating. The unnamed female narrator observes this breakdown from her apartment, chronicling the decay of the outside world while also experiencing strange visions of an alternate reality.
The novel is set in an unnamed city in the near future, where civilization is falling apart. Government functions have eroded, food and supplies are scarce, and people have resorted to scavenging and forming small survivalist groups. Despite the chaos, society does not collapse all at once; instead, it deteriorates gradually, with people still clinging to routines even as they lose access to basic resources.
The narrator, an older woman, lives alone in her apartment, quietly observing the changing world. Though she rarely interacts with others, she notices the growing presence of gangs, desperate survivors, and a sense of lawlessness overtaking the city.
One day, a young girl named Emily is left in the narrator’s care by an unknown man. Emily is self-sufficient and mature beyond her years, adapting quickly to the worsening conditions. She is accompanied by her pet, Hugo, an odd, almost mythical dog-like creature that seems to symbolize both comfort and danger.
Emily gradually becomes involved with street gangs, particularly a group of young survivors who have formed their own society with shifting rules and loyalties. As she grows up, she begins to change, distancing herself from the narrator and forming relationships with others in the gang.
Throughout the novel, the narrator experiences surreal episodes involving a mysterious wall in her apartment. At times, the wall opens, revealing a strange, dreamlike world beyond. In these visions, she enters a house filled with shifting rooms, shadowy figures, and echoes of past lives.
These visions seem to provide insight into Emily’s inner world, possibly representing her subconscious fears, memories, or future. The narrator does not fully understand the meaning of the visions, but they act as a parallel reality that contrasts with the harsh survivalist existence outside
As conditions outside worsen, Emily becomes more deeply involved with the gangs. She forms a relationship with Gerald, one of the gang leaders, and becomes part of the street culture that now dominates society. The narrator watches but does not interfere, understanding that Emily must navigate this new world on her own.
At the same time, Emily undergoes psychological changes, struggling between the remnants of her old self and the brutal realities of survival. She seems drawn toward the violent, primitive world of the gangs, yet retains a connection to the narrator and her past life.
As the city continues to decline, an unspoken realization sets in that staying is no longer an option. One day, Emily, Hugo, and the gang members prepare to leave, setting off into the unknown in search of a better future. The narrator watches as they depart, accepting that Emily has moved beyond her guidance.
In the final moments, the wall in the narrator’s apartment once again reveals its mysterious passage. This time, she steps through it, suggesting that she, too, is transitioning into another reality or state of being. The novel ends ambiguously, leaving the reader to interpret whether the wall represents death, an escape from reality, or a deeper psychological transformation.
1982 – Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
James Mcteigue, 2005
Following a world war, London is a police state, and this film takes inspiration from Guy Fawkes
A masked rebel know as V, who is joined by a woman (Natalie Portman)
Links to 1984: the huge screen with a face (Big Brother), the rebellious woman who joins the main character, Brotherhood
Link to THT: Mayday (resistance group) - expect, here, the resistance group becomes the main narrative, not just ambiguous and in the background
The dictator in this world is played by the same actor who played Winston Smith in the film (almost like he turned into the dictator)
1985 – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale*
1992 – P. D. James, The Children of Men*
Fertility crisis, one women still manages to get pregnant
P.D. James’ 1992 novel The Children of Men is a dystopian story set in the year 2021, where humanity faces extinction due to mass infertility—no children have been born since 1995. Society is crumbling, and England is ruled by a totalitarian regime led by Xan Lyppiatt, the self-proclaimed Warden of England. The government enforces strict control, including forced suicide for the elderly and the oppression of immigrants.
The protagonist, Dr. Theodore “Theo” Faron, is a historian and cousin of Xan. Once apathetic, Theo is drawn into resistance when he is approached by a group called the Five Fishes, who oppose Xan’s rule. The group’s leader, Julian, reveals that she is miraculously pregnant, the first known pregnancy in decades. As the Five Fishes attempt to protect Julian and overthrow the Warden, Theo finds himself at odds with Xan.
As the story unfolds, Theo helps Julian escape and delivers her child, a baby boy. In the novel’s climax, Theo kills Xan and symbolically assumes leadership by wearing his cousin’s ceremonial ring. The book ends ambiguously, suggesting Theo may take control of England but leaving open questions about the future of humanity.
1993 – Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower*
A girl going through a world of violence and fading society, who creates a new religion, and she’s also black, so it’s a commentary on race too
Parable of the Sower (1993) is a dystopian novel by Octavia Butler set in the year 2024, where climate change, economic collapse, and social unrest have left the United States in chaos. Walled communities struggle to survive as resources become scarce, and violence from drug addicts, roving gangs, and corrupt police is rampant.
The story follows 15-year-old Lauren Olamina, who lives in a fragile gated community outside Los Angeles. She possesses “hyperempathy,” a condition that makes her physically feel the pain and pleasure of others. As society deteriorates, Lauren develops a new belief system called Earthseed, which teaches that “God is Change” and that humanity’s destiny is to take root among the stars.
When her community is destroyed in a brutal attack, Lauren is forced to flee north, gathering a group of survivors along the way. She spreads her Earthseed philosophy, offering hope and a vision of a future beyond Earth. By the end, she establishes the beginnings of a new society dedicated to adaptation and survival.
1994 – Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police
A society that keeps forgetting things, with a memory police that ensures people don’t remember what is supposed to be forgotten
2005 – Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
clones, who’s organs are deemed useful but not their lives, so are harvested
Commentary on science and the power of it
2006 – Cormac McCarthy, The Road*
A post-capital commentary, remember that this was after 9/11
The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel set in a bleak, ash-covered world following an unspecified cataclysm that has wiped out most of civilization. The sun is obscured by thick clouds, plant and animal life have largely disappeared, and the remnants of humanity struggle to survive. The novel follows a father and his young son as they journey southward toward the coast, searching for warmth, food, and safety.
Plot Summary
The Journey Begins
The novel opens with the father and his son traveling through a barren, devastated landscape. They are unnamed, reinforcing the universality of their struggle. They push a shopping cart filled with scavenged supplies, wrapped in layers to protect themselves from the cold. The father is sick and coughing blood, but he remains determined to keep his son alive.
Through flashbacks, the reader learns that the mother, overwhelmed by despair, committed suicide years earlier. She saw no hope in surviving in a world that had lost all semblance of civilization. The father, however, has resolved to protect their child at all costs.
Encounters and Threats
The road is dangerous, filled with desperate survivors, some of whom have turned to cannibalism. The father and son avoid others whenever possible, hiding from roving gangs who enslave and consume people.
They scavenge for food in abandoned houses and buildings, often finding little. In one house, they come across a horrifying discovery: a locked basement filled with naked prisoners being kept as livestock for cannibals. They narrowly escape before being caught.
Moments of Hope
Despite the horrors of the world, there are rare moments of hope. They find a hidden underground bunker stocked with canned food and clean water, allowing them a brief respite. The boy, who is deeply compassionate, urges his father to help others they encounter, though the father is wary. This is also where the coke can scene happens, laying ode to consumer culture and comforts of the past.
At one point, they meet an old man named Ely, who speaks cryptically about the futility of hope. The father and son share food with him, highlighting the boy’s kindness.
Final Leg of the Journey
As they continue south, the father’s illness worsens. They finally reach the coast, but the ocean is as lifeless and gray as the rest of the world. They briefly find a boat with some supplies, giving them temporary relief.
However, their struggles continue. A thief steals their cart, and the father, in a rare moment of cruelty, forces the man to strip naked and leave everything behind. The boy, deeply disturbed, convinces his father to return the man’s clothes, demonstrating his moral compass even in a world devoid of humanity.
The Father’s Death and a New Beginning
Eventually, the father succumbs to his illness. Before dying, he reassures his son that he must carry on, saying he carries “the fire”—a metaphor for hope, morality, and human goodness. The boy mourns but understands his father’s message.
Shortly after, the boy encounters a man who appears to be good-hearted and traveling with his own family. After some hesitation, the boy decides to go with them, possibly securing a future in an otherwise dying world.
2008 – Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
2016 – Naomi Alderman, The Power
Women gaining power over men after being able to electrically shock them
2019 – Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
Sequel to THT
2023 – Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
How society can crumble into war zones, a commentary on people affected by war, and if that happens in the West
2009 - District 9 (film)
By Director Neill Blomkamp, 2009
30 years ago, aliens come to earth, and are separated by humans in a South African slum - told by the academics that dealt with the aliens
The spaceship arrived above Johannesburg, and humans had to cut through it to get inside it
Inside, they found malnourished, creepy aliens - who were relocated to temporary, militarised tents, which turned into a slum, known as district 9
Links to the way that the Proles also live in a slum like area, and are treated almost like sub- humans, like the aliens
Link to THT, which also uses academics and commentary by academics (in the Appendix)
Link to H.G Wells, “The island of Dr Moroe” - exploring the line between human and “creature”
2019 - Us (film)
Directed by Jordan Peele, 2019
A horror film, that is very dystopian
“The Tethered” - who are clones, that are identical to all humans, and live underground, but are sadistic and unable to speak
They were originally cloned by the government, and now live underground
Links to any dystopia on a lower class living below
1985 - Brazil
A spoof on 1984, released in 1985
Directed by Terry Gilliam, 1985
A Low level bureaucrat, Sam, who wants to escape the monotony of his daily work life, and dreams of becoming a superhero and saving a beautiful woman
His dream becomes a reality and he does end up meeting her
Links to 1984: the affair with the rebellious woman, his bureaucracy office job, the brainwashing/room 101, the field that Winston sees, interrupted by the authorities when sleeping with the woman
2014 - The Lego Movie
Directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, 2014
An ordinary construction worker is chosen to help take down a dictator like figure, President business - who is a play on Donald Trump, who used to be a judge on The Apprentice, and then became President
A Lego brick city
Link to 1984: the heavily regulated and controlled routine of the worker, Ingsoc and other dangerous things being covered up by humour or brushed away (like the “Prayvaganza” in THT)
The heavy regulation and perfection in society links to “Brave New world” - that people are so happy and so “free” that this is inescapable
When mentioning this film, always discuss Dorian Lensky and his book, in which he mentions the Lego Movie
The last of us:
A game in 2013, and became a series in 2023
A pandemic that destroys civilisation, and a hard ended survivor and a 14 year old girl navigate this world, festered with a zombie apocalypse too
The opening is of many years ago, where on a talk show, fungi and other microbes are discussed, on the risk of bacteria and fungi taking control of humans, using humans as a host, which is exactly what happens, causing the global pandemic, since the earth’s temperature increases
Link to THT: global pandemic, and global warming causing issues (Silent Spring and eco dystopia)
