During the past few crazy weeks our class has embarked in a project all about dystopias, how fitting. Our learning styles however have shifted, we are now learning entirely through zoom, basecamp and showbie. Although this was quite the adjustment for other classes, PLP is actually functioning quite well online! Anyways, back to the project. Basically what we would be doing is reading a dystopian novel, creating discussion journals as well as discussion groups. Finally we would create a presentation representing the effects and connections of a dystopian society. 

Every second zoom class (so once a week) we would disperse into our break rooms where we would discuss the section of our book we were assigned for that week. During these meetings we discussed anything and everything; could be modern day connections, author’s craft, dystopian aspects or any questions we had. This kind of helped us stay on track and better understand the books we were reading. Forgot to mention this, but I was reading 1984. I ended up finishing it quite quickly so I switched over into the handmaid’s tale. Both books were classics and quite interesting to read. There were moments in the two books and overlying themes that were quite similar but many things that were totally different. Both books took on the modern day problem of privacy, or lack thereof. They also showed very clearly how much minorities struggle in these hard times. It seemed like the power gap between rich and poor just kept widening and widening. 

Once we had thoroughly discussed our sections we had to complete these novel journals. The idea was to make connections from our book to real life. No more than 500 words and very focused. At the beginning of these I had a little bit of trouble narrowing down my ideas. In my first journal I talked about the lack of privacy in general, and for my second one I discussed North Korea and its lack of factual information and transparency. Although both these connections were completely valid, I still wasn’t focused enough. I really needed to pinpoint one specific idea. Like they always say, third times the charm! Personally, I thought by the third round I made tremendous progress. I ended up connecting the government’s ability to erase your live (in the 1984 novel) to one specific law called the “Right to be Forgotten” in the GDPR (general data protection regulation). This allowed me to go more in depth about one thing rather than sporadically changing topics throughout my paragraphs. Overall I would call this aspect of the project a success because progress was made!

The time had come to begin the project. My group decided to do a classic keynote and a symbolic video to represent our ideas. Our thesis was…

“When a society transitions into a dystopic state, people with lower incomes face much more adversity and misfortune than rich people.” 

As I was explaining before, some people are greatly benefiting from this coronavirus, while others are severely suffering. 

VS.

This isolation has impacted people’s mental health, it has increased domestic abuse, and stripped people’s assets and real estate. The following information was gathered from the research we did for our presentation as well as the presentation itself!

Click here for our presentation!

So how has this affected real estate? Well, people in a lower income bracket most likely rent, or have a mortgage. Eventually when they lose their jobs they will be forced onto the streets, unable to afford rent or mortgage. This will force them to become homeless or have to move to cheaper residences and sell houses at a distressed price, losing a large sum of money in the long run. We see very similar patterns in the Novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. The societal structures and lack of stable government intervention led to the freezing of women’s assets, and bank accounts. All finances were controlled by men at that point. No woman even had the opportunity to own property. In time, only men with power and money could choose what they wanted to do and what they wanted to own. On the cusp of the pandemic, this will soon be the case. The power gap between the poor and wealthy will keep soaring until it’s too difficult for those in financial crises to get back on their feet and own property and assets after this crisis is over.

How has this affected mental health? In the handmaid’s tale, when the dystopia first started, Offred was a poor/middle class citizen and was faced with not knowing what was going on, or what the future held. This caused her anxiety to increase and for her to panic. She was put under a lot of stress and pressure due to decisions she had to make about her family and their future. When anxiety levels get very high, depression can also rise and result with more people suffering with mental health issues than before. Stuff like this is happening to people all over the world right now and we are living through it. When the virus started we didn’t know if we would finish high school, our parents didn’t know if they would keep our jobs, and many people were facing more mental health issues than ever before. The only people mostly unaffected by this were people with enough money to feel comfortable not making any for a while, well poor people suffered through even more stress than usual. 

Finally, how has this affected essential workers? During the current pandemic, low income essential workers are at the highest risk of getting sick. In the Handmaid’s tale the same issue is seen as women of lower class are only forced to adapt to a new society where they are oppressed to work as handmaids. The cost of food, medicines and supplies have peaked since the outbreak. This means that those that are wealthy will be able to maintain their lifestyle regardless but the lower and middle classes will become impoverished this time next year once their savings have dried up.

“How Do Literary Dystopias Help Us Understand What Is Happening Now?”

Through studying multiple real world scenarios, reading dystopian literature and most importantly living through a pandemic I have learned one thing. The modern day societies we have created are intricate and delicate. As soon as one aspect of the society is disrupted it creates a ripple effect. 

One example we talked about during class was Las Vegas and pigs. Ever since the city went into lock down their famous buffets have been put on halt. Many peoples jobs are being affected, and weirdly enough also pigs lives. The scraps and leftovers from the buffets are always dinner for the pigs. So no buffets, no food for pigs. No food for pigs, pigs die. No pigs, no money or food for farmers. As soon as you begin to remove branches of systems it disrupts the rest of the society. Saying this, during these tough times we need to be especially aware and cautious of the actions we are taking.

Also the Japanese garden eels are suffering! These eels are aquatic animals and live in the sand. When people at the aquarium visit them they pop out of the sand to say hi. The issue is, nobody’s been visiting these adorable creatures so they haven’t been popping up. They’re not the sharpest tools in the shed so with their lack of brain capacity they haven’t realized that this can seriously harm their health. The aquarium is now asking people to FaceTime these creatures so they pop out of the sand! So if you have any spare time FaceTime an eel pal!

The literary dystopias that I have studied have helped me make sense of this, and the “new normal”. These novels can help us gain a broader perspective of what’s happening outside of our ‘quarantine bubbles’. They show how people from all different religions, cultures and backgrounds cope with these new dystopias. On top of this, the characters in the novel help us have little more compassion for others during times where it’s really needed. 

Time to wrap this up! All I have to say is this could not have been better timed. It was very surreal to learn about dystopias while living through a pandemic. Once in a lifetime kind of experience. 

WORKS CITED

       Das, Satyajit. Debt, Wealth Destruction and Lower Pay Will Be Coronavirus Legacy. MarketWatch, 25 Apr. 2020, www.marketwatch.com/story/how-the-coronavirus-will-widen-the-gap-dividing-rich-and-poor-2020-04-23.

       Welle, Deutsche. Coronavirus Exposes the Divide between China Rich and Poor. DW.COM, 25 Feb. 2020, www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-exposes-the-divide-between-chinas-rich-and-poor/a-52526369.

       DeParle, Jason. The Coronavirus Class Divide: Space and Privacy. Https://Www.Nytimes.Com/#publisher, 13 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/coronavirus-poverty-privacy.html

       Holcroft-Emmess, Natasha. “The Handmaid’s Tale Depicts Life Without Human Rights – It’s Terrifying.” EachOther, 26 Nov. 2019, eachother.org.uk/handmaids-tale-depicts-life-without-human-rights-terrifying.

       “OACIQ | COVID-19 and Your Real Estate Transactions: What You Need to Know.” OACIQ, 6 Apr. 2020, www.oaciq.com/en/articles/covid-19-and-your-real-estate-transactions-what-you-need-to-know.