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Ross, Amber

English

MA

It is evident, through the examination of dystopian works, that those holding power maintain that power not necessarily through force; rather they possess their power with the consent of the masses. This is an occurrence that many authors have noted in society and have provided literary warning against. Aldous Huxley and George Lucas comment upon the subtle slippage into a stringently controlled world. Not all authors choose to highlight the negative. B.F. Skinner's Walden Two is a seeming utopian text until one notices the horrors underlying the manipulations of the masses. The masses, in dystopian works, not only accept, but also embrace the control of the ruling elite.
Literature shows many ways in which the controlling body manages the masses utilizing a variety of means. Using Louis Althusser's Marxist ideologies, this text examines the function of the state, meaning the relationship between the Subject and masses, or subject. The reliance on technology, pharmaceuticals, religion, brainwashing, and biological training allows the ruling body to control the individuals that make up the masses, thus producing populations that abide by the laws and that are thankful for the stringent structure of their lives. This limiting of the human mind and body diminishes the human qualities that are characteristics ofthe individual. In this way, the individual becomes no more than one of the many that composes the masses. If an "individual" escapes the confines imposed by the Subject, one finds that often the escapee desires nothing more than to return to the same oppressive society.