The Purpose of Various Dystopian Novels

               

                In my previous blog post I covered the popular series The Hunger Games, and currently I have my hands on another novel called They Both Die at the End. These two stories are commonly called "dystopian," but what does that really entail?

                According to Oxford Languages, a dystopia is "an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic." I've already went into depth about what I believe the meaning of The Hunger Games is in a previous blog post, but now I hope to explain more broadly the universal purpose of any dystopian book, by introducing variety and comparing They Both Die at the End and The Hunger Games. 

                To do this, I first need to explain what They Both Die at the End is about. The novel is set in a society where you receive a phone call on the day of your death; specifically the book covers the final day of the young Mateo and Rufus's life, which they decide to spend together. Inevitably, whilst reading this emotional rollercoaster one thought comes to mind: would I like to receive this phone call on the day that I'd die? The answer may be a clear yes for some people, who would want to plan out their final day, which is pure fate and unchangeable, and get their life in order. However, is the constant mental anguish every time you pick up the phone, and the petrifying thought of it being your last day alive worth it for the greater good? There are moments in Adam Silvera's story that cause the reader to really question this matter--for example Mateo appreciates the fact that he can say one last goodbye to his sick father, but also mentions how stressed he had been contemplating his entire life during his Death-Cast call.

Differences between They Both Die at the End and The Hunger Games:

    The two novels tackle drastically different issues; The Hunger Games portrays a dystopian, totalitarian/fascist government and how via revolution it gets abolished, however They Both Die at the End tries to get in your head from the start. The latter novel attempts to describe the differing feelings and views on life one might have in a world where death is so predictable, whilst The Hunger Games doesn't really try to get you into the perspective of Katniss, Peeta, or any other character of relevance. You still read The Hunger Games from your out-of-book standpoint on what is right or wrong mostly, but They Both Die at the End forces you to consider what you would think like if it was your last day on Earth and how your thought process would change. There is nothing realistic about the plot of They Both Die at the End, as you'd never be able to know which day was your last, and that fantastical aspect, alongside a lack of political material, makes it a different subtopic of dystopian novel from The Hunger Games which doesn't really contain any implausible material (aside from maybe advanced technology).

Similarities between They Both Die at the End and The Hunger Games, and the point of almost every single dystopian novel:

    The overarching idea of both these novels is to create a made-up atmosphere which a reader can draw their own conclusions from; using a complex and fictional story, an author can immerse a reader into a train of thought which would otherwise be hard to describe non-fictitiously. The authors of dystopian books, I believe, have this purpose in mind when they write.

-Dan