Reilly Crabbs Blog Post #3

Moylan’s “Preface” covers the basic qualities needed to write a successful dystopia. Many of these concepts, such as a society “besotted by greed, destruction, and death”(xi), are exemplified in Veronica Roth’s “Divergent”. However, Moylan’s statement that “the dystopian text refuses a functionalist or reformist perspective”(xii) distinctly contradicts contradicts Roth’s “Divergent”. A functionalist perspective is one in which the society is dependent on each faction to preserve the balance of the culture(Moony). The culture present in “Divergent” is heavily dependent on the cooperation of the factions and the preservation of that harmony is a strong theme throughout the book, “We can’t survive alone… without a faction we have no purpose and no reason to live”(20). The community set in “Divergent” is so balanced on each faction carrying out its specific duty challenges Moylan’s belief that a dystopia cannot have a functionalist perspective.

If Moylan were writing about 21st century dystopias instead of he would have to consider not only the political changes but social changes as well. He’d have to look at more than what the government is doing but also at how the people are reacting to the government compared to the 20th century. Also, Moylan would have to consider the boom of pop culture in young adult readings; the fact that teens are more interested in a fantasy dystopia like Twilight.

Work Cited

1. Roth, Veronica, and Veronica Roth. Divergent. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.
2. Moylan, Tom. “Preface.” Scraps Of The Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000. xi-xvii. Web. 31 Aug, 2015.

Moony, and Knox. "Spanish Abstracts of Sociological Perspectives."Sociological Perspectives 43.4 (2007): 699-703. Laulima Hawaii. Web. 19 Sept. 2015..