On Constructed Enemies in Dystopian Fiction: Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cat's Cradle, and Snowpiercer

Abstract

Dystopian fictions often feature a constructed enemy figure: this is a character whose image has been moulded in such a way that he or she is perceived as a threat to the focal group of the narrative. This thesis investigates two novels and a film in order to find out how and why this enemy figure is constructed, and how its presence could be a way of identifying a narrative as "dystopian". The methods of construction discussed are the distribution of propaganda, and othering of the enemy figure. The main motivation for the construction is to perpetuate current power relations, but underlying reasons may be that the presence of an enemy will allow citizens to unite against him, that they will always be employed in this perpetual state of war, and that even those that turn against the totalitarian regime will have some sort of organisation to join and belong to. Still, while the motivations for reconstructing reality are considerable, the fact remains that every choice a citizens of the dystopian society makes supports the regime. This thesis concludes that the removal of real free choice makes real rationality and morality impossible, and that it thus removes essential aspects of humanness.