I'm going to use six different dystopian series, as well as references from history, as my examples when answering these questions, but it really all boils down to four very simple things: apathy, fear, blame, and hope. This blog will actually be broken up into four separate posts to prevent having to scroll through a lengthy research-paper-length post if anyone wants to look for something specific.
Fear
The second factor is fear. According to the dictionary, fear is a feeling of alarm, dread, panic, apprehension, horror, concern, or terror. Everyone knows what it means to be afraid of something. Everyone's afraid of something. I'll tell you what—almost everyone is afraid of dying. And if they're not afraid of dying, they're afraid of either a boat-load of pain or someone they love experiencing a boat-load of pain/suffering…which leads me to our new examples for this particular thread of explanation.
In Divergent by Veronica Roth, a lot of crud happens to a lot of people, and things get ignored that shouldn’t, because people are afraid of what will happen to them. In Divergent specifically you see the kind of fear often found in school bullying situations, where someone is afraid to speak up for fear that they'll be targeted next.
At one point, a combat trainee gets several knives thrown at his head by order of a sadistic teacher. No one does anything because they're afraid of being the next target…until Tris, the main character, stands up and says "enough," and stands in the other kid's place so she can take his punishment. She volunteers for the punishment everyone else is afraid of—which is actually the point of the book; she's what's known as Divergent, someone whose aptitude tested high for both selflessness and bravery. But that's neither here nor there and will be touched on in my review.
There is another point where a different trainee is punished for "cowardice" by being forced to hold herself suspended for five minutes from a bridge. If she falls, she'll die. No one says anything because if they do, they'll have to do the same thing.
I should back up for a moment here and explain why they obey this whacko. He is their instructor for the initiation into Dauntless, the warrior clan of their city—which they chose to enter of their own free will. If they fail initiation, they'll be factionless, which basically means they'll be homeless, without a job, without contact with their families, living on their own on the streets. They were raised from early childhood that this is bad (aren't we all?) so even those who aren't sickos like this particular teacher still have to live with that fear, that potential consequence.
Back the girl on the bridge. If she falls, she dies. If she refuses to do the bridge-punishment, she fails initiation and gets kicked out of Dauntless, leaving her factionless, alone in the world, and totally screwed. No one says a word as she holds onto the bridge until Tris can't take it anymore and starts cheering for her (imagine a deadlier version of the Chocolate Cake Scene in the movie Matilda). One of Tris's friends also joins in, spurred on by Tris. And when the five minutes of punishment are up, even though the teacher says it's not okay, Tris and her friend help the girl back onto solid ground. But they are the only ones who are willing to face punishment by doing this.
In Delirium and The Iron Codex, the things everyone fears are pretty much the same: getting sick with an incurable disease and being ostracized from society because of it.
In Delirium, nearly everyone is afraid of amora deliria nervosa because they're raised to be. It didn't start out that way (it evolved over about 100 years, I seem to recall) but by the time the first book takes place, everyone is raised to fear this particular "disease." It's considered a contagious mental illness.
It's almost like the Communist Scare in the 50s—anyone who may have the deliria, as they call it, is considered high-risk, practically an enemy of the state. People will lock themselves in their houses to get away from it. Sure, there are rebellions who know it's all a load of crud, but those people who don't are basically brainwashed by the fear of getting sick and losing everything. You see in Requiem, the third book in The Delirium Trilogy, just what happens to people even associated with someone who might be "sick."
And of course in The Iron Codex by Caitlin Kittredge, people fear the necrovirus. At least there, they have somewhat tangible "proof" that there is such a thing. The government's scientists and researchers claim that anyone infected with the virus will go mad (which, most people accused of having the virus do go mad, but for a completely different and understandable reason; case in point, the MC's mother). Once they lose their minds, they start mutating into these monstrous creatures that roam the land around the walled city of Lovecraft.
Why isn't this totally bogus? Because the monsters actually exist. The government's not making that one up. But in order to explain where the monsters really come from, they'd have to explain alternate worlds to the populace, which would not go over well. And there is something that connects those people who contract the "necrovirus" and go crazy to these monsters from other worlds. So this particular fear is based on legit concerns and evidence twisted to suit government theories. Clever.
Add onto this that in The Iron Codex, America's in the middle of the Cold War, except now we've got monsters and madness-inducing viruses to worry about, and unlike the whacky US, Russia sometimes works with these monsters. They just basically turned into the Antichrist. So then we've got the fear of being called a Communist during the Cold War in a country where witches are still persecuted and anyone who's a Communist is generally considered a witch, on top of the necrovirus and the monsters. And the government of Lovecraft (and the US) is promising to keep everyone safe from all three of these terrible, terrible things so long as everyone continues to be good little boys and girls.
Fear of a specific group is an effective tool, all right. Look at Nazi Germany. How did Hitler turn so many people against the Jews and other non-Aryans so that things like the Night of Broken Glass occurred? Fear. The Jews, according to the Nazis, were the enemy.
You see the same thing in Delirium—the Invalids, the people who refuse to be "cured" of the deliria, are the Enemy, they're out to get you. In Divergent, there's talk of an Enemy beyond the city gates, and that's one of the things Dauntless are supposed to do—defend the city against this Enemy. In The Iron Codex, there are heretical Communist witches who consort with virus-spreading monsters, and they're the Enemy. And in Matched, there's a war supposedly going on in the Outer Provinces that helps to reinforce the idea that only an Enemy, or people classified as dangerous by the Society, would attempt to attack that same Society.
And what does the government always do in these novels? The government offers to protect its people from these Enemies that seem to be everywhere.
A type of fear that's used in Delirium and Matched (and to some extent in Divergent) is the fear of the unknown. The biggest instance of that is Matched, but we'll explore that last. For now, we'll touch on the other two.
In Divergent, fear of the unknown is a big problem. People are afraid of being factionless because without their faction, they feel they have no place, no purpose, no role in society. Having been there before, I know how scary that can be. So do a lot of young people beginning to enter adulthood.
And even the antagonists of the book have to deal with fear of the unknown in their own way. They have to deal with those who tested as Divergent, people the villains are afraid of. Why do they fear those who are Divergent? Because being Divergent means you're harder to understand, harder to predict…and that makes you harder to control. That makes you an unknown factor. So it isn't just the oppressed masses that can be manipulated by their fears.
If we look at Delirium, you see a more subtle form of this fearing the unknown. The deliria is a "disease" that brings with it a rollercoaster ride of emotions and feelings that can sometimes make you feel like you're crazy. You definitely feel out control. That lack of control in and of itself can be scary, especially when pressured (as many young people are) to always be and feel in control of yourself.
But this use of fear is especially strong in Matched. Why do people give up their choices? Because they are afraid of making the wrong ones. Why does Cassia, the MC, choose to be Matched for a spouse instead of trying to find her own love? Because she's afraid of what will happen if she isn't. Why does she follow the rules of the Society? Because she's afraid her life will fall apart if she doesn't.
You see this most strongly in the main plot of the first book (since this fear no longer rules Cassia in books 2 & 3). Cassia believes she is Matched to her best friend Xander (which makes her really, really happy). Then her Match Card supposedly "malfunctions," showing her someone other than Xander, and she practically has a panic attack because she literally doesn’t know what it means or what to do.
In times of stress, what are two of the most common pleas people make? "I don't know what to do" and "Someone help me."
Translation: Please, someone take over for me because I can't handle this. Fear will make you need someone to trust, someone to hand over the reins to when you can't take it. And if that trait, that inability to handle opposition and stress and unhappiness, is slowly nurtured by the shape our government and society is taking in response to that flaw? It's a never-ending circle, and eventually, it would get to the point where people are at in the Society in The Matched Trilogy.
Now, is everyone like this in the series? No. There's a whole rebellion going on that Cassia finds out about in book 2, and it's been going on for years and years. But the point I made above is a big foundation of the Society.
So that's fear of the unknown used to a society or government's advantage. Then, of course, there's fear of the government itself. You see this in Enclave and The Hunger Games, and even a little bit in Matched.
In The Hunger Games, rebellion is quickly squashed without mercy. The first time the districts rose up against the Capitol, the bad guys firebombed the entirety of District 13 to charred rubble and smoke and then, after executing every high-ranking member of the rebellion they could find (and probably their families, though I don't remember), they instituted the Hunger Games as a reminder that rebelling against the government will get you nothing but suffering. And while the harsh living and working conditions of Districts 5-12 also contribute to the difficulty in striking back at the government, another thing that does it is fear.
Unfortunately you don’t see this in the film, but in the book you find out that anyone suspected of committing "treason" against the Capitol is rounded up and turned into something called an Avox—basically a slave-class person subjected t experimentation, who can't speak, who's wired with some kind of "disobey and you die" device. They basically torture you, experiment on you, and make you into a slave. Fun stuff.
And then of course, there's the basic principle you see a little of in Britain during the rising tensions between the Saxons and the Normans, as well as between the Nazis and the non-Aryans—the fact that if you tick off the wrong person, they can and will kill you without mercy or fear or reprisals. Each district has a company of Capitol soldiers chillaxing there. Apparently the ones in District 12 are nice, but the ones in District 11 are psychotic. We don't get any details about the others, just that they're there. And yes, I suppose the populace could attack and kill the soldiers…but the soldiers are better fed, better trained, and they're armed. And of course, everyone remembers what happened in District 13.
In Enclave, it's barely touched upon—the same as in Matched—but one thing people worry about in those books is what happens when you break the laws; what kind of effect the government's punishments will have on you and those you love.
In Matched, Cassia is threatened by an Official who says she can ruin Cassia's chances of getting her dream job, can have Ky (her real love) sent somewhere horrible, screw up her parents' careers, etc. At the end of the book, Cassia is threatened with having her citizenship taken away.
And in Enclave, Deuce is thrown out of her enclave—though luckily, her partner cares for her enough to follow her so doesn’t die alone in the tunnels from zombie death—when she's framed for breaking the law; this fate is one of the reasons she's always been careful to walk the line.
Fear. Fear is the mind-killer, to quote Frank Herbert. Fear can destroy people's hearts and wills, but it has to be wielded carefully or that fear can turn into a desperation that ends in mass suicide/homicide for everybody. And that is where blame and hope both come in.
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