"The Hunger Games," "Divergent," "The Maze Runner," "Legend," "Matched" - What do all these immensely popular YA books have in common? Well, apart from the fact that they are all about how a group of teenagers fight to save the world, they are set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future.
Now don't get me wrong, I love a good book about how America falls and rises again as a dictatorship and how a seemingly ordinary girl or boy becomes a hero, but after reading so many books ,where the plot is almost predictable, they become rather boring to read. So what inspired so many authors to write about the same topic?
It is no secret that this trend started with George Orwell, with his highly notable book "1984" and the impending fear of a "Big Brother" watching over our every move. The funny part -- this book was written in 1949 -- meaning that what we consider our ancient past of 1984, was the future to the readers of this book. Now, we may laugh and say that 1984 was not a special year at all, and that the Internet had not even been created at that time.
Another highly notable book is "The Giver," written by Lois Lowry. Personally, I absolutely loved this book. The idea that the future was so bleak for mankind that the entire idea of colors was erased from the human brain, and everyone saw everything in black and white, was unimaginable. It has been 23 years since this book was published, so we may still laugh at this book, telling ourselves that a dystopian future that was this radical could not simply occur.
How can everyone follow ideas of 'Sameness' and forget about colors? Similarly, the sci-fi movie released in 1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey" still makes me laugh, since the movie portrayed the year 2001 as an era of space exploration, while in 2016, the farthest man has been is the Moon.
So we can all definitely agree that the post-apocalyptic, dystopian future idea is not a new writing theme, but it has been around for a while now.
So, in an era where a new social trend lasts two years at best, how has this theme been so popular for almost 70 years ? The answer simply lies (ironically) in history. If we look at the Cold War era, we can see that many people on the west of the Iron Curtain were afraid of how Communism, Socialism, and Dictatorships might affect the future.
This time period was when all the books with the dystopian theme starting appearing, many of them setting their characters in a land ruled by a cruel dictator and no sense of democracy. Readers were more than eager to read these books, talking about how the governments they hated so much would change the course of the future. All the dystopian YA books that are popular now also follow the same theme. Main characters are forced into conformity, from which they display their uniqueness and individuality, and break apart their social barriers.
This idea, of a different, unique character, who does not give up his/her individual characteristics, is actually very comforting to the readers. It allows people of all social classes: rich, poor, popular, geeks- the comfort that it is actually okay to be different. Nonconformity is healthy for a functioning society, and readers find relief in this books, understanding that their individuality is actually saving their society. The sole fact that the only reason someone is a hero is because they are different, is the best lesson that any author could portray to their readers,
So the next time you pick up a book, talking about the year 3079, where humans are all forced to eat the same food, speak the same language, wear the same clothes, and learn the same lessons, think about how your own individuality helps 2016 not look like this bleak dystopian future.
