Brianna Parker - Blog Post 3

In Moylan’s “Preface” he states how the “dystopian narrative is largely the product of the terrors of the twentieth century” (xi). This creates the understanding that the events that happened during the 1900s are very influential toward the dystopian writing produced during that time. However, now that we have moved into the twenty-first century, we can conclude that the dystopian novels being written now, such as Divergent, are not influenced by these same events. Another idea that Moylan discusses in “Preface” is that there is “an unseen and unexamined social system” (xiii). In Divergent the social system is clearly discussed and examined. The citizens of the society are very aware of the five “factions” that make up their social system because they are forced to pick one to be a part of. In some dystopian novels, the people just do what they are supposed to do on a daily basis but they do not know how this lifestyle came to be. 

Factors that would need to be taken into consideration are the specific characteristics of society, instead of just certain events that take place. In Divergent, “they divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray” (42). Moylan makes it a point to say that the events are the main influence in dystopian writing, but because we have not faced the same events in the twenty-first century, dystopian writers must discover new influences.