It is an imaginary unpleasant society marked by poverty, miserable living conditions and lack of freedom brought about by a totalitarian government. It is the opposite of utopia, which is an ideal state.
Novels which describe such a fictional world where people are oppressed and dehumanized in a post-apocalyptic world form a genre called ‘dystopian fiction’. These novels paint a grim picture of the future of human civilization if people fail to fix the political, economic and social issues playing their society. The novels usually depict a lone rebel or band of rebels who tries to change the system for the better by clashing with the dictatorial authority.
Some famous dystopian novels are George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The recently popular young adult novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, is set in the dystopian nation of Panem in North America where 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen leads a rebellion against the tyrannical Capitol.
Movies like The Matrix, Blade Runner and 12 Monkeys also explore the dystopian theme.
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