Dream And Reality Human Nature Reflected In Utopian And Anti-Utopian Works

Despite the fact that the term "utopia" originated from Thomas More, the Utopian tradition dated back to antiquity. The ancient Greeks expressed their special longing for such ideal societies as the "Golden Age" and "Arcadia"; the Christians ardently anticipated the arrival of "the Millennium"; the ancient Chinese dreamed of "the World of the Great Harmony" and "the Peach Blossom Valley". It is no coincidental that in spite of their cultural differences people across the globe shared an aspiration for a better world as a result of their dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the here and now. Utopia reflects a conviction that the world is sure of perfection on the ground that man is born good. All Utopians are idealists; however, where there is an idealist, there is a realist. The realists view utopia as unrealisable fantasy, beyond the reach of humankind due to its fatal flaw. The future society they visualize is reversed and distorted, an anti-utopia. As utopia concentrated on the positive, so anti-utopia paints the most negative, the blackest, picture possible of the present and the future to come. There has been a heated debate among philosophers over whether man is bom good or evil; I may personally argue that man is a battlefield upon which goodness and evil struggle to prevail. The good nature of humankind inspires utopia and the evil nature breeds anti-utopia.The dissertation is designed to expound the respective traditions of utopia and anti-utopia, their characteristics and approaches, and analyse their representative works by centring on human nature and the fettering and straggling of individuality. The Utopian works discussed are Plato's the Republic, More's Utopia; the anti-utopian works, Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. The Republic sketches an idealised world of order, hierarchy and justice. Utopia concretizes the abstract form of Plato into a picture of better life with graphic depiction and exceptional vision. We portrays a future world where a high degree of uniformity straggles individuality and affluence is achieved at the cost of freedom. Brave New World satirizes the revolution against human soul and body by way of genetic engineering and fordism, with an aim to achieve "community, identity and stability". Animal Farm allegorizes the delusion of revolution and the pervasiveness of distorted facts. 1984 reveals the three-fold conquest inflicted upon humankind by totalitarianism: physical surveillance, ideological captivity, and dehumanization.Dream and reality, freedom and captivity, these are the haunting topics literary men and philosophers probe into; Utopians cherish a firm belief in human nature and a bright future of mankind; anti-utopians, despite their satirical depiction of a dark and wicked future, harbour an equally keen affection for humankind and a deep concern with the future. Hence their cautionary works of the impending disaster.