Emma Robinette- BP3

In Moylans "Preface", Moylan states that the "dystopian narrative is largely the product of the terrors of the twentieth century." He then goes on to list what some of these terrors were and explain how the dystopian authors of the time used these instances as fuel for their stories. In Roths "Divergent" however, the society is not based upon any sort of noted historical past event but rather on an event sometime in our societies future. While the dystopias of Moylans day used the terrors of the past as a building block for their novels, dystopian authors of today use the possible threats of the future. If Moylan were to write about the twenty first century dystopia rather than the twentieth century dystopia, he would not only comment on this but also on another characteristic noted in modern dystopias which is the concept of hope and ultimate resolve. Modern dystopias serve as a not only a warning but also as a call to stand, often commenting on the problems of todays society taken to an extreme, resolving with some sort of revolution of the ordinary people of the society. They call for the individual of today to stand up against that which they believe to be wrong.