When finding out we were reading Thomas More’s Utopia, almost instantaneously I thought of a couple of books I read in Middle School that related to a Utopian society. For example, one book titled The Giver by Lois Lowry focuses on the combination of both a utopian and dystopian society. In The Giver, the surroundings and environment appear uncorrupted, where all its members are comfortable and cause no harm to themselves or to others. Therefore, the reader views this as a Utopian society, or an ideally perfect state. But there are evident differences in Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Thomas More’s Utopia, such as it is said that there are no animals, (pg. 547 in Book 2 Utopia discusses how farmers feed the animals), there is no nature (pg. 529 in Book 2 Utopia says, “Every house has a door to the street and another to the garden”), and in the The Giver as the story unravels we find that is not a perfect society, but a society that is missing diversity, color and love which demonstrates the idea that their world obtains dystopian characteristics as well. Another story that popped into my head was Animal Farm by George Orwell. A main difference that stood out to me was government. In Animal Farm it is evident that each individual wants full power and no one is willing to share it. In the beginning of their plot of rebellion they decide their government system will be called ‘animalism’ with specific guidelines they all must follow. A main one that causes controversy is, “All animals are created equal” which, as time passes, turns into, “All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal.” On the other hand, in Utopia there is a representative democracy. Even though both of these stories exerted the idea of a Utopian society all had different occurrences and outcomes within. In my opinion, More’s story appeared to have the most peaceful described cities, and organized leadership and lifestyles, which made me question, whether or not a Utopian society in reality, could ever exist. Therefore I decided to look into what More’s main purposes of writing these books were.
Utopia was written in response to some difficulties More was having within his own life due to the way that England was being run. More’s new idea and way of thinking ignited some chaos. A main one, for example, was between the powers of religion over the power of monarchy, which resulted More being beheaded. A direct quote in Norton shows this, “When More was required to take the oath for the Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy, affirming that the king rather than the pope was the supreme head of the church in England, he declined.” Overall, I feel like More’s intentions were to open people’s eyes to a life they could dream for and put into actions and not have to be forced under cruel rule filled with malfunction, and misuse of power. I liked the way More put forth his ideas and because of that it definitely opened my eyes to a more positive way of running a society…. if only this did actually happen, I wonder where we would be today.
Is it really a utopian society? It doesn't seem that all are treated equally. They have the slaves to fulfill the work they feel is beneath them. The concept that More was trying to open one's eyes to a better life is certainly interesting. You could be right, he does give examples of wasteful people when he talks about the large number of the population that generally do nothing (pg 552).
ReplyDeleteYour rumination brought about alot of great parallels between More's version of a Utopia and other popular books that we have been exposed to throughout our years of education. Although I never read The Giver, I do recall Animal Farm and the conflicts that ensued once the animals thought they created their own version of a utopia. It seems that all three of these works have one thing in common: dystopian ideas. The Giver does not show any diversity, Animal Farm did not represent every animal equally, and Utopia by More does not have any emotional attachment to their society. Perhaps the authors' main purpose in writing a relatively utopian novel is to show that there is no such thing as a utopia. There will always be something missing in society before you can call it perfect.
ReplyDeleteAnimal Farm, such a good book, and also really interesting to bring up in the context of reading More's Utopia. I think that these books show us that a certain degree of corruption or hypocrisy is necessary to keep up the appearances of a civilized society. Hence the slave class in Utopia. Without the hard work of the lower class, the upper class could not live as peacefully as possible. And i think this is a fact of all cultures, including our own.\
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your rumination, and it was interesting to learn the actual reasons for More writing this piece of literature. It makes a lot of sense, after learning that he was not falling for the social proof principle that many in Europe fell victim to!
ReplyDeleteI agree- I'm glad you wrote about why More wrote Utopia. Now having the context a little clearer, I think I can see where he was going with the novel a little better. I also agree with you that the overall main idea of these novels is that a Utopian society is impossible. I believe, just as Greg said above, that without the hard workers of the lower class or in this case, the slaves of Utopia, it is impossible for the upper class to even exist in peace. And in the case of Utopia, it is impossible to achieve perfection without emotional attachment to your society..or anything for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the majority of what you wrote in your Rumination, and like that you were able to connect the canonical work to a few of the more modernized pieces of literature that we read in middle and high schools today. I think that your discussion of The Giver and how it's a dystopia in the fact that there was no diversity is an important point. As much as more seems to create a world where things are the same, he still incorporates diversity into the mix in multiple areas. Once again, it seems the most obvious area of diversity in More's utopia is religion, which like you stated, ended up getting him into a bit of trouble. The differences between accepting and embracing diversity versus creating a world with no diversity at all is HUGE and I think that makes what More created a lot more realistic than what Lois Lowry did.
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