Dystopia Vs Utopia – a Clockwork Orange Vs. Player Piano
Essay Preview: Dystopia Vs Utopia – a Clockwork Orange Vs. Player Piano
Report this essay
Utopia can be defined as a place immune from inhumane treatment and absent of the hardships
of society , where the population is blindfolded from fear, anxiety, and general negative aspects
of human nature. A utopia can be generalized as that perfect society. This is one type of a drastic
society. There is another, more appalling type of society, that of a dystopia. A Dystopia is nor a
fairyland or the promised-land like the utopia is, it looks at the chaos, anarchy, rebellion and
disorder of a society. As we compare these two opposite society types, there are two books that
are the poster child of utopia and dystopia. Those two books are Kurt Vonneguts “Player Piano”, and Anthony Burgesss “A Clockwork Orange”. In Kurt Vonneguts “Player Piano” we follow
the hero Paul Protues through his utopian society. Where in his society they have just recovered
from a ten year war and now has been built up and ran completely by machines. Furthermore a
super computer always controls the populations actions, it acts as a shepherd leading the sheep.
However where there are sheep there is always a ever lurking black sheep, Paul is that of a black
sheep. Through his journey in this utopian society we follow his rebellion against the super
computer and machines. As Paul progresses in his society it becomes less and less of a utopia on
more and more of a force fed, totally governed society where there is little freewill. As we follow his expedition we can see the changing society from a utopia to what Paul perceives as a
dystopia. In Anthony Burgesss “A Clockwork Orange” we observe the antagonist Alex in his
blatant dystopia society. Where in his society they have high criminal activity and few police.
We follow Alex and his “droogs” as they acts like Vikings, raping, pillaging, and burning. Alex
has no respect for law and order he rebels in part one of the novel . However Alex is eventually
caught by the police and put in jail. In jail he is tricked to being rehabilitated to becoming a
productive member of society. After this forced rehabilitation Alex is then to perceive society as
a utopian society and stop being so violent. He has lost his own freewill and his identity. When ever Alex thinks of violent images he then gets sick to his stomach. When Alex is released back
into society he is no longer the victimized but rather the victim of society. Alex becomes
unhappy and has no choice in what he does. In further examination we can see in both novels that when there is a dystopia society there is freewill, no one to rule you, however the more you move towards a utopian society you become the ruled and freewill is compromised severely. In both
novels you must ask yourself, Do you want to choice goodness or have goodness imposed on
you? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good
imposed upon him? In both society types we can undeniably perceive that both the hero and the
antagonist face a horror show of dilemmas, and trying times. The society has a direct association
with the hero and antagonist emotions. As we can see the more the society leans towards utopia,
they both become less satisfied and become hungry for freewill . However they more the society
is a dystopia there craving for freewill is satisfied and they are happy-go-lucky.
In Kurt Vonneguts “Player Piano” we can see that his world has just recovered from a long and
grueling ten year war. Many men and women lost their lives in this horrible war. His world was
in ruins and was built back up by technology and was once again a “normal” society. The
government kept on introducing new machines to make their world easier to live in and try to
make it a generally happier place. However the government did not stop there, they kept on
introducing newer and newer equipment. The government deceived the population by creating
the illusion that technology was the only way to restore order. This was not so, this was all a plot
by the government to have a reason to introduce the super computer to control the economy.
Before Paul knew it his world had production of goods without any man power. His world was
eventually totally governed by a super computer. Jobs where taken over by robots, many people
would loose their source of income to these robots because the robots would work for free. The government made a a terrific amount of money of this new invention of the super computer and
robots. In the beginning of this new “super computer” it did seem to the general population that
this is a amazing new idea, and they marveled at this fantastic piece of technology. As time went
on and on, the population started to realized that the super computer and machines, where not so
glamorous as it once seemed. The only ones who had a purpose was the elite and the engineers
who designed the super computer. The government would provide the people everything they
needed but a propose in life. The super computer over time suffocated freewill the people did not have a choice of what they wanted to do. The super computer would create laws, and military to
enforce those laws. The punishment was so ludicrous to the law that had been broken. There was
no longer