Definition
Misconceptions and Myths:
Some common myths about dystopian fiction are that they are books from which students can gain nothing and are read for pleasure only. Also, many people, administrators and parents included, feel that dystopian fiction is not academic and that it is somehow inferior to traditional narrative fiction. People sometimes believe that dystopia is packed with violence, gore, hatred, and loss, and lacks any redeeming qualities or comic relief.
Problems/Difficulties to expect:
Some of the main literary themes present in dystopian literature are war, famine, death, pain, and poverty. For this reason, many parents and administrators are wary of introducing the “raw” material of Dystopia to students, especially younger ones. Especially when they feel that similar lessons can be constructed around less violent or graphic books.
1. The Hunger Games, even after its recent success at the box office as a movie, gained a top spot on the American Library Association’s Banned Book List for 2012.
2. This article from the Huffington Post presents a list of “surprisingly banned books.” The reasons for banning include “violence, sexuality, homosexual themes, and devaluing the life of a child.”
3. Parenthetical Views gives reasons for the banning of some of the most commonly banned Dystopian novels in elementary, middle, and high schools. To better lobby for the choice to teach these controversial books, we must understand why people are so opposed to them.
How to respond:
First, you will have to keep an up-to-date list on which books are banned in your district. Some districts ban books all-together, some give a strong cautionary warning, and some leave book choice up to the teachers’ discretion. If a particular dystopian book which you would like to teach is banned in an entire district, chances are you are going to face problems the whole way trying to teach it. More than likely, the parents in the district had some say in banning the book and don’t want their children reading it anyway. In these cases, it’s best to count your losses and try to get your lesson across with another book. Ultimately, you must put yourself in the parents’ shoes. You wouldn’t want someone teaching a book to your child which you have specifically stated you are opposed to.
But if the book is not “banned” but only opposed by administrators, or seen as inferior to canonical works, these arguments could help: (*Note: These are only suggestions*).
Judging by best seller lists over the past decade or so, people like to read dystopian fiction. Ultimately, English teachers want kids to read. If it comes down to reading The Scarlet Letter or The Giver, most kids are going to say they want to read The Giver. Dystopia is usually set in the future, the setting gives students something fresh and new to think about instead of “old people a long time ago.” They feel as if there might even be something they can do about the future—change it, make it better, different. Books that have been recycled for decades, and sometimes centuries, are frankly boring to students. They feel that they have no agency, that they are just observers. Not to mention, many canonical books are written in a nearly unmanageable type of prose that is irrelevant and incomprehensible for students. This language makes it difficult for students to gain any higher understanding from the story because their time is spent wading through dozens of words they have never heard.
Even if an administrator doesn’t think that The Giver, or The Hunger Games is as academically valuable as some canonical works, he or she cannot argue against results. Get half the class to read a chapter or two from The Scarlet Letter, and the other half to read from The Hunger Games. Give the exact same writing assignment to both groups; Something like, tell me how the main character feels isolated from the rest of society. Compare the results. If students generally come up with the same quality of papers, which is unlikely, then maybe teaching canonical literature isn’t as outdated or boring to students as some may think. More realistically, students will be excited about Katniss, write longer papers, and generally want to find out what happens to her. Also, because of the more modern language in which The Hunger Games is written, it is more likely that students will gain a deeper understanding for the plot, characters, and themes present.
Strengths:
Some of the strengths of teaching dystopia in the classroom is to get students to look at their lives not only in the present, but to look to the future. Dystopia helps students to realize that what they do now, can negatively (or positively) affect what happens in their futures. The genre helps students to critically examine things that we do as a society and how those seemingly small things can escalate and spiral out of proportion.
Similarly, dystopias shine light in a satirical manner on the things modern society does for pleasure. Let us use The Hunger Games for example; One of the themes in the movie is that people seem to get enjoyment out of the televised pain, shame, and humiliation that other humans experience. This is Suzanne Collins’ way of showing readers what we already do; watch “reality” television shows in which people compete with one another, sometimes in dangerous or embarrassing scenarios, to win a prize. It would be much easier to show a classroom this dichotomy, and to help them make the connection that The Hunger Games could happen in a not so different/distant future.
Lesson plans and classroom resources:
1. Teaching the Dystopic Novel at Advanced Level English Literature
2. Scholastic- Lessons, Quizes, Tests, and Vocabulary on The Hunger Games
3. Dystopian must haves for teens
Introducing younger audiences to the ideas of Dystopia:
It would be interesting to experiment with younger classrooms that maybe cannot read full-length novels and examine what ideas about dystopia they could develop. Perhaps you could do a movie day and screen Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, or Disney Pixar’s WALL-E. Both of these movies have dystopian themes hidden under cutesy characters and vivid colors.
1. Read The Spirit
2. Lesson plan/activity for The Lorax
3. Lesson plan/activity for WALL-E (More focused on environmental responsibility)
Misconceptions and Myths:
Some common myths about dystopian fiction are that they are books from which students can gain nothing and are read for pleasure only. Also, many people, administrators and parents included, feel that dystopian fiction is not academic and that it is somehow inferior to traditional narrative fiction. People sometimes believe that dystopia is packed with violence, gore, hatred, and loss, and lacks any redeeming qualities or comic relief.
Problems/Difficulties to expect:
Some of the main literary themes present in dystopian literature are war, famine, death, pain, and poverty. For this reason, many parents and administrators are wary of introducing the “raw” material of Dystopia to students, especially younger ones. Especially when they feel that similar lessons can be constructed around less violent or graphic books.
1. The Hunger Games, even after its recent success at the box office as a movie, gained a top spot on the American Library Association’s Banned Book List for 2012.
2. This article from the Huffington Post presents a list of “surprisingly banned books.” The reasons for banning include “violence, sexuality, homosexual themes, and devaluing the life of a child.”
3. Parenthetical Views gives reasons for the banning of some of the most commonly banned Dystopian novels in elementary, middle, and high schools. To better lobby for the choice to teach these controversial books, we must understand why people are so opposed to them.
How to respond:
First, you will have to keep an up-to-date list on which books are banned in your district. Some districts ban books all-together, some give a strong cautionary warning, and some leave book choice up to the teachers’ discretion. If a particular dystopian book which you would like to teach is banned in an entire district, chances are you are going to face problems the whole way trying to teach it. More than likely, the parents in the district had some say in banning the book and don’t want their children reading it anyway. In these cases, it’s best to count your losses and try to get your lesson across with another book. Ultimately, you must put yourself in the parents’ shoes. You wouldn’t want someone teaching a book to your child which you have specifically stated you are opposed to.
But if the book is not “banned” but only opposed by administrators, or seen as inferior to canonical works, these arguments could help: (*Note: These are only suggestions*).
Judging by best seller lists over the past decade or so, people like to read dystopian fiction. Ultimately, English teachers want kids to read. If it comes down to reading The Scarlet Letter or The Giver, most kids are going to say they want to read The Giver. Dystopia is usually set in the future, the setting gives students something fresh and new to think about instead of “old people a long time ago.” They feel as if there might even be something they can do about the future—change it, make it better, different. Books that have been recycled for decades, and sometimes centuries, are frankly boring to students. They feel that they have no agency, that they are just observers. Not to mention, many canonical books are written in a nearly unmanageable type of prose that is irrelevant and incomprehensible for students. This language makes it difficult for students to gain any higher understanding from the story because their time is spent wading through dozens of words they have never heard.
Even if an administrator doesn’t think that The Giver, or The Hunger Games is as academically valuable as some canonical works, he or she cannot argue against results. Get half the class to read a chapter or two from The Scarlet Letter, and the other half to read from The Hunger Games. Give the exact same writing assignment to both groups; Something like, tell me how the main character feels isolated from the rest of society. Compare the results. If students generally come up with the same quality of papers, which is unlikely, then maybe teaching canonical literature isn’t as outdated or boring to students as some may think. More realistically, students will be excited about Katniss, write longer papers, and generally want to find out what happens to her. Also, because of the more modern language in which The Hunger Games is written, it is more likely that students will gain a deeper understanding for the plot, characters, and themes present.
Strengths:
Some of the strengths of teaching dystopia in the classroom is to get students to look at their lives not only in the present, but to look to the future. Dystopia helps students to realize that what they do now, can negatively (or positively) affect what happens in their futures. The genre helps students to critically examine things that we do as a society and how those seemingly small things can escalate and spiral out of proportion.
Similarly, dystopias shine light in a satirical manner on the things modern society does for pleasure. Let us use The Hunger Games for example; One of the themes in the movie is that people seem to get enjoyment out of the televised pain, shame, and humiliation that other humans experience. This is Suzanne Collins’ way of showing readers what we already do; watch “reality” television shows in which people compete with one another, sometimes in dangerous or embarrassing scenarios, to win a prize. It would be much easier to show a classroom this dichotomy, and to help them make the connection that The Hunger Games could happen in a not so different/distant future.
Lesson plans and classroom resources:
1. Teaching the Dystopic Novel at Advanced Level English Literature
2. Scholastic- Lessons, Quizes, Tests, and Vocabulary on The Hunger Games
3. Dystopian must haves for teens
Introducing younger audiences to the ideas of Dystopia:
It would be interesting to experiment with younger classrooms that maybe cannot read full-length novels and examine what ideas about dystopia they could develop. Perhaps you could do a movie day and screen Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, or Disney Pixar’s WALL-E. Both of these movies have dystopian themes hidden under cutesy characters and vivid colors.
1. Read The Spirit
2. Lesson plan/activity for The Lorax
3. Lesson plan/activity for WALL-E (More focused on environmental responsibility)
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