8 of the Most Popular Tropes in Dystopian Fiction

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A dystopia is an imagined society where the ills of humanity have overtaken the majority of human life. In this kind of world, inequality, violence, fear, and hardship are normal elements in society.

Dystopian literature began as a response to utopian literature, which envisions a world that has achieved a perfect society. It challenges you to look closer at current environmental, political, and economic climates and judge what kind of future humanity is moving toward.

Common Dystopian Tropes

Over the years, dystopian fiction has become known for a number of tropes. And while we see them all the time, the way writers and directors use them are often varied. Below are just a few of these common devices.

1. Power Obsession

In a dystopian world, there’s always someone or something who wants to control humanity—militaristic leaders with a fetish for violence, self-aware A.I. rebelling against humanity, or the good old rich and powerful intent on keeping others beneath them.

In most cases, they do it for the sake of keeping power to themselves. The more that they have, the less others do, and the more they think they’re better people. But there are also those who seek power because of a misguided sense of good.

Their methods of control can vary, but they most commonly include constant surveillance, drugging the populace, indoctrinating their citizens, and overloading them with vice.

V for Vendetta‘s Adam Susan (Adam Sutler in the movie adaptation) is an excellent example of this trope. A pure fascist, he bans all civil liberties and seeks to oversee every aspect of his citizens’ lives.

2. Test or Lottery that Determines Your Life

Usually seen in YA dystopian fiction, this is when a teenager reaches a certain age and must undergo a test that basically sets their whole life.

Their role in society is chosen, which is either the most undesirable role in that particular society, or one that’s directly opposite of their interests. Either way, it’s the life they’re saddled with and they aren’t given a chance to object.

These roles are often specific. For example, in City of Ember, members of the city are assigned their jobs by lottery. The main characters, Lina and Doon, are given the jobs “pipeworks laborer” and “messenger” respectively.

Much of the stories that include this trope involve the characters defying their given roles. This often makes them outcasts or fugitives because objecting is considered rebellion, and rebellion means death or exile.

3. Oppressive Governments

Dystopian literature often presents the government as the biggest enemy in society. It is corrupt, incompetent, and run by self-serving people.

These governments are often indifferent to the plight of their citizens and only cater to those with money or influence. And in many cases, their agenda is to actually control people through a mixture of fear, technology, and indoctrination.

Some stories have corporations taking on the role of the government. In these narratives, society builds itself around these corporations’ identities. The majority of people work for them, consume their products, and die in the shadows of their skyscrapers.

Perhaps the best examples of this trope are in Great George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World. One controls its citizens with pain, while the other drowns them in pleasure.

4. False Utopia

There are stories that depict societies that look perfect. The world is bright, all is well, and everyone is happy… but it’s all a lie.

While true conflict, starvation, and injustice are practically non-existent, a closer look at these societies reveals a rotten core—it’s just hidden from outsiders and its own citizens.

Those who discover the reality behind their utopia may try to reveal the truth to everyone, but they are silenced the by those in power. Or, the masses may consciously ignore them, preferring to live in ignorance.

Wall-E is an excellent example of this. Throughout the film, you see humans being catered to excessively, but their overreliance with technology has turned them obese, complacent, and unimaginative.

5. Loss of Individualism

In maintaining a dystopia, power figures often use many methods to keep the populace under control. Memories and personalities are altered through drugs or surgery. People are indoctrinated from childhood to believe a certain ideology. Information is restricted to only show the people what the rulers want them to see.

This creates a nation of practically identical people who dress, act, and think the same. It never occurs to them that they might deviate from what they’re taught, because it’s the only reality they know.

Take the Uglies series as an example. Three hundred years in the future, the government conducts a mandatory plastic surgery operation for all 16-year-olds. They’re transformed into “pretties,” society’s standard of beauty. But it also makes them vapid and shallow.

6. Scarce Resources

Many dystopian stories are either near or already in a post-apocalyptic world. Most of the world has collapsed and resources are already depleted. The rich hoard what remains and sell it at cutthroat prices, even if they’re basic goods.

Those without money or power are left to buy, steal, or substitute what they can. In many stories, a trade economy among the poor is established, ranging from basic commodities to rare electronic components.

The scarcest resource is always food and the alternatives are often disgusting. In the movie Soylent Green, it’s revealed that the titular food wafer is actually made out of dead human bodies. Similarly, the more recent Snowpiercer has gelatinous bars that are made out of bugs and exclusively fed to the poor.

7. Education Bans

Because knowledge is power, the more that the masses are educated, the less they can be controlled.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, those in power indocrinate their citizens starting from childhood. They teach a revised version of history, ban any kind of information they don’t like, and invent any details they need to make their narrative stronger.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a great example of this. Literature is censored, and any outlawed books are burned.

8. Resistance

Dystopian societies naturally breed dissatisfaction and fear. When the people have had enough, they resort to destroying the status quo or at least getting a semblance of equality.

This resistance may or may not already be established by the time the protagonist realizes there is a need to change. They become the support system of the hero, giving them necessary advice, equipment, and information.

In some cases, the resistance doesn’t exist as a specific organization; it’s in the little things that people do, from establishing an underground trading system to choosing to hide anyone being unfairly pursued by the authorities.

In the Hunger Games, District 13, long thought to have been destroyed, turns out to have rebelled against the Capital. Being the nation’s primary weapons manufacturer, it poses a significant threat to the current regime.

The Importance of Dystopian Fiction

Dystopian fiction, by definition, is dark and depressing. It features a world on the brink of collapse and yet no one seems to care. To better illustrate that vision, many dystopian stories use real and current issues and imagine them at their extremes.

Most of these issues go hand-in-hand: tyrannical governments causing rampant fear; corporate greed and environmental disasters; and societal regression leading to mass apathy. They are problems that humanity is currently tackling.

Dystopian fiction uses these truths to make its stories more compelling. You’re familiar with the problems because you’ve either experienced them or have at least read about them happening somewhere else. And it makes you think about how horrible the future will be if humanity isn’t able to fix these problems early on.

What dystopian tropes do you like? Share them in the comments below!

 

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