Sanjita Laky
English 1121
05/2/2019
    Genre Research paper

Part 1
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
“Sultana’s Dream” by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut

Part 2:

Dystopian science fiction short stories are one of the important genres in our society. The younger kids and teens are most interested in this genre. In the 20th century, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Yevgeny Zamyatin contributed the first dystopian science fiction. This genre helps to imagine the world differently than it is now. In science fiction, short stories assist us to visualize things that we can’t find in our society. According to Science fiction and Imagination “ The science Fiction label denotes books with things in them we can’t yet do or begin to do, talking beings we can never meet, place we can’t go” (Ketterer 246). Science fiction gives the opportunity for people to travel to place a where it’s not possible to go or exist. The setting of stories becomes different from our society because of new technologies and social systems. Many of the procedure writes dystopian science fiction short stories for the audience to be aware of futures. As the article Teaching Dystopian Literature to a Consumer Class states “ I teach dystopian literature, which exaggerates our modern context so that we can challenge it. Providing for its readers a glimpse into a horrifying but fully possible future,…”(Wilkinson 22). It tells us that some of the dystopian stories can be scary but there is a possibility that our society will turn into that in the future.
In order to write dystopian fiction stories, it is significant to look at other examples first. Then choose a topic, setting, characters and a message you want to share to the audiences. Many of our teachers/professors want us to read dystopian science fiction stories because of our obsession with technology and social media.
Part 3
There are many dystopian short stories. But they each have different meaning or messages for society. The first story is “The Lottery” and the message that the author trying to share was that tradition sometimes not unnecessary. The author use symbolism in this writing. The second story was “The Veldt” and messages were depending on technology can negatively affect people lives. The author used a lot of imagery to describe the setting. The third story is “Sultana’s dream” and it was about the female voice being heard. The fourth story is “The Machine Stops” and it was about how technology can take over the world and make people useless. Lastly, the “Harrison Bergeron” was about the dangers of having total equality. All the stories messages were different from each other but they all had a negative impact on the society because of the event or things they were following. For the stories, the constraint of words in the text was different from each theme. Some of them were longer and other was shorter. Somethings that was common in the text was the use of figurative language. They all decide to use figurative language to describe the setting and the problems. Most importantly all the stories were unique from our society.
Part 4
“Harrison Bergeron” is one of the dystopian science fiction short stories. It was written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr in 1961. Kurt Vonnegut wants to share the dangers of total equality. The story was taken place in 2081, where everyone was equal in every way. It was possible because of the new law that they have created. As the article states “George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” ( Bergeron 1). The law was to provide smarter people with mental handicap radio that didn’t make the person deeper and stronger had to carry handicap bag that the pound was based on how strong the person was. Also, pretty people had to wear masks. This how the government tried to make everyone equal. It was painful for the people who had to wear these all the time. However, nobody speaks up for it because if they didn’t listen, they will be punished. According to the article “Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out,” said George” ( Bergeron 3). People were afraid to avoid the law because of the consequences. Harrison Bergeron was the one who didn’t want to follow the law and he got punished for it. This stories tried to prove that it is not possible to make everything equal.
This story was written for the audience who is not thankful for that they have given from government or countries. The text is important for society because it might help people to realize that there will be a negative effect of total equality. In the text, the author involved dialogue as a constraint in this writing. Somethings I found most significant about this text was the message that in our society everyone wants to have everything’s equal. But people forget about equity that is more important for society.
This story was written for the audience who is not thankful for that they have given from government or countries. The text is important for society because it might help people to realize that there will be a negative effect of total equality. In the text, the author involved dialogue as a constraint in this writing. Somethings I found most significant about this text was the message that in our society everyone wants to have everything’s equal. But people forget about equity that is more important for society.

Part 5
Year 3045-
This World With Technology
I woke up to the bright blue light radiating from the curtains. It’s going to be a long day.
There’s no such thing as bright yellow sunshine. Not in the 30th century. Our world is now a
ball of blue light. The technological light. Just like the advertisements say: Wake up to our technological light every day and start your automation day.

“Alexa, what time is it?” I’m still laying in my bed, looking at the ceiling. “The time is 6:36
a.m”.
I sigh. What if I don’t go to work today? I haven’t used up my sick days yet, I can-. A knock shakes me from my thoughts. I get up and walk to the sliding door. I see Johnson and
Alexander smiling wide. “It’s too early for you guys to fool around in my living space” I press the buttons on my tablet that’s on the wall to fix up my outfit for the day and let the boys in.

Alexander jumps on to my bed and lays down. “Are you going to work?” He asks while staring at me. I nod. I walk into my closet and see the outfit set up. Not…bad. I put the clothes on and
I walk into the bathroom. The robotic hands brush my teeth and hair. They wash and moisturize my face. Patting my face, I walk back into the room. Looking at Johnson and
Alexander talk. They notice me. “Let’s go,” Johnson says.
—
I walk into my workspace. The atmosphere feels…sticky like very jolty. I breathe in the kinetic air. Jolty.

A few hours pass by. Then suddenly, somebody screamed bloody murder. I rush over to where I heard the scream. Janice was on the floor. “Oh my gosh! What happened?” I bring my hand to my mouth. “We- I-, she just screamed and now-” Thomas started crying. I kneel down and tried to find a pulse. She’s dead.

I get up and walk to her desk. Electrocuted. “What do we do?” I look at Thomas. “Let me call

the Vocational Ambulance.” I am more than confused. “Wait, why the technician, we need a
human ambulance!” Everyone looks at me. “She’s dead, Dakota. It’s fine.” I looked at everyone in disgust. “This is not right! We’re trying to save technology before a human being!”
I walk out of the building.

Anger. Repulse was in me. I called the ambulance. “Oh, um… I need an ambulance to All Day
Technology Headquarters-. What do you mean you’re out of? I need an ambulance! Please!”
They hanged up. Our world cares about technology more than humans.
—
I’m at home. I scroll through Instagram and see it. An ad. I sit up.
TECHNOLOGY IS RUINING OUR LIVES.
SAVE THE EARTH.
SAVE YOUR LIFE.
The Anti-Techs
I click on the link in the caption. It takes me to this whole website. I read it and see that the foundation is doing a protest on Saturday.
—
The day is Saturday. I’m outside of the Government Technological Building. The whole group is protesting. Cops are lined up and guns are being fired.
“This world is full of corruption from our so-called “life-saving” technology. Have you seen what our lives have turned into” Protesting with my blood, sweat, and tears?
The guns fired again. When will they learn? Technology is taking over.

Work Cited
Bradbury, Ray. “The Veldt”. www.juhsd.net/cms/lib/CA01902464/Centricity/Domain/256/2016_The%20Veldt.pdf.

Forster, E. M. “The Machine Stops”. www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf.

Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat. “Sultana’s Dream.” Sultana’s Dream., digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html.

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. 2010, sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf.

Ketterer, David, et al. “Science Fiction and Imagination.” PMLA, vol. 120, no. 1, 2005, pp. 246–249. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25486156.

Kingsbury, Margaret. “25 Must-Read Dystopian Short Stories.” BOOK RIOT, 17 Oct. 2018, bookriot.com/2018/06/27/dystopian-short-stories/.

Klus, Dr Helen. “Imagining the Future: Why Society Needs Science Fiction.” The Star Garden, 6 Aug. 2017, www.thestargarden.co.uk/Why-society-needs-science-fiction.html.

Wilkinson, Rachel. “Teaching Dystopian Literature to a Consumer Class.” The English Journal, vol. 99, no. 3, 2010, pp. 22–26. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40503477.

Vonnegut, Kurt. “HARRISON BERGERON.” Full Text of “Harrison Bergeron (& Activity)”, archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt.