Dystopian Discussion

Alright, so today I wanted to talk about the popular YA genre at the moment: dystopia. This genre has picked up quite a bit in recent years although, it's not new. Yes, we've all heard of The Hunger Games and Divergent, but there are also books such as The Giver, 1984, and even Uglies that have come before this new wave of dystopian books. I think this is important to point out in this discussion even though that won't be the main point of it. Which brings us to the whole point of this post: plot.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, or if I'm just seeing things, but it seems to me that many dystopian series at least loosely follow the same basic plot. It goes something like this: book one; main character gets thrown into some big situation that their world sets them up for and it presents the world like a somewhat decent place to live but it is through the main character's eyes that we see it differently and through the course of the book, it is revealed how terrible the world is. At the end, the protagonist does something major that sets the ball rolling for a revolution. Book two: a continuation that basically the protagonist rallying the troops for a major army in preparation for an all out war. Book three: the all out war that  results in the government being over thrown and a new system for governing being set in place.

That's your basic YA dystopian trilogy plot, which, if you think about it, is a lot series out there today. Now, I could be completely wrong with this but that's just what I noticed while reading series like The Hunger Games, Legend, Divergent, The Darkest Minds, and Uglies. Some obviously fit that description more than others but at some point, on some level, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between these series. Yes, the plots have different twists and turns and they are completely different in term of world building and detail, but when you boil it down to their structures, they all share these similarities. Now, I know there must be many out there that don't follow this same plot line, but why is it that the most popular series are the most alike? I think the reason for this is that although we claim to want new and innovative plots and stories, familiarity is something that humans find comfort in.

I know, this post just got more philosophical, but think about it. Genres, plots, characters. Think about your favorite books and find similarities between all of them. You just may find that all or most of them share something in common. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but think about when you are trying to describe Divergent to a non reader and they say "So it's like The Hunger Games?" You may get mad or annoyed by their ignorance, but on some level, they're right. If we, as book worms, want this to change, we need to hype up books in the same genre that are more diverse but it is also up to authors to write books that are unique to their own genre. That's it for this post, see you guys next week.

*I'd just like to admit that I haven't read the most from the dystopian genre, but I have read some of the most well known which is what this post is mainly about: popular books from this genre and why they are compared to each other.