After the first wave of Orwellian-like dystopias, it might have seem that the humankind is fed up with all kinds of ideas about the idea of introducing future as the time of hatred, prejudice and totalitarianism. However, the idea appeared to be too enthralling to leave it rot, and in the second half of XX to XXI century, it has spawned a large number of movies and novels. Three specimens of these movies and novels are going to be considered in the given paper. Although the plots of V for Vendetta, Blade Runner and Parable of the Sower do not seem to cross at any point, all of them make one speculate on the fragile balance between the people representing one school of political thought and the groups of others.
Each of the above-mentioned stories represents an image of a post-human, and, needless to say, this image is rather deplorable in the best traditions of Orwellian novels. Each of the leading characters in the movies and the novel, V, Blade Runner and Olamina have nothing else left to fight for. Yet they fight for the sake of ancient, an-eye-for-an-eye kind of justice. In a way, they succeed; at least, they manage to reach their state of enlightenment, even though their revelation comes at a cost of their lives.
It is worth asking a question, why disturbing ideas like these would be so popular among the general public. While fighting for freedom does seem quite exciting, the prospects of spending one’s life as a maniac trying to survive in a den of snakes is not so great after all. However, the attractiveness of the movies and stories that focus on the story of a rebel and have the only-the-strong-survive idea as a basis can be explained from the standpoint of Darwin’ theory. Indeed, in every single plot that has been mentioned above, the idea that a man will never lose the will to fight is present, which sums Darwin’s research in a nutshell. Moreover, there is certain link between the ideas of the movies and Darwin’s speculation about the game and the vermin:
If not one head of the game were shot during the next twenty years in England, and, at the same time, no vermin were destroyed, there would, in all probability, be less game than at present, although hundreds of thousands of game are annually shot. (Darwin 198).
Therefore, if considering that the rebellious characters in the stories were “game”, while the authorities were the “vermin,” the stories clearly illustrate that there will always be balance between those for a specific idea and certain tendencies in the government, and there will always be those opposed. Therefore, making an attempt to wipe the latter off the face of the Earth seems not only cruel, but also unreasonable. Even if every single specimen of a certain movement vanishes, the idea of rebelling against the system will finally emerge, and a new opposition of “prey” will be formed.
The given argument, however, takes the idea expressed in the novels and the movies in question to a different level. If considering the rebels in the novel and the movies the “vermin” instead of the “prey,” the idea of the stories will change slightly. Viewing these plots through such lens means accepting that “vermin” also performs a positive function, i.e., making the society more diverse and not allowing the existing regime turn it into stagnation. A very basic, yet very true idea of a human, it was right then and it is still right nowadays. The rebellion will go on, no matter what the authorities think of it.
Works Cited
Darwin, Charles. From the Origins of Species and The Descent of Man. n. d. 195–199. Web.