Sam Wittmer<\/p>\n
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What are some characteristics of the manipulation of youth (base) for the good of society and how does conditioning affect family structure and values in a utopian or dystopian society?<\/p>\n
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The paper will generally focus on how the manipulation of children in a utopia or dystopia changes family structure and values.\u00a0 I will mainly write about this topic as seen in film and literature. The paper will be limited to perhaps a few references to historical texts and real world applications, and the focus will be mostly limited to fiction.\u00a0 I will use evidence from literature and film and compare the different modes of the society\u2019s manipulation as well as the effects of these actions.<\/p>\n
In this paper, I will attempt to address the following issues and questions:<\/p>\n
From where does the need arise for a society to manipulate children? So often it seems, very cruelly, that a fictional government chooses the youth as its means of creating the society that is desirable.\u00a0 Why start so young?\u00a0 Is it because children are impressionable?\u00a0 Is it because they are the future and will in turn perpetuate the legacy of the society\u2019s goals and aspirations?<\/p>\n
Even if the ends are truly just in nature, is it right to manipulate a child\u2019s mind to desired standards of behavior.\u00a0 Cotillion? \u00a0Is there still meaning behind the actions of the child if it is not truly because of the child\u2019s goodness, but is in fact, their conditioning that leads to their choices?<\/p>\n
What are the various techniques that different societies use in order to manipulate children?\u00a0 Do they use fear or happiness to make them do what they want?<\/p>\n
Is it the government specifically, or the society in general that conditions the children into behaving the way they do?<\/p>\n
How do family values and the family dynamic change when manipulation is present? (GATTACA\u2014One brother is valued more than the other.\u00a0 Hunger Games\u2014family\u2019s pulled apart.\u00a0 1984\u2014Kids turn in their parents when they are going against the party and committing thoughtcrime.)<\/p>\n
Children are definitely influenced by their parents and the society that we live in.\u00a0 When does the teaching of children become manipulation?\u00a0 Does our society manipulate children now?\u00a0 (Institutions such as Cotillion, kids often having parents\u2019 political values, law that kids must go to school.) Is this ok\/just\/good?<\/p>\n
When do societies come to the conclusion that they must actively manipulate the children?\u00a0 Is <\/em>this and active choice by society?<\/p>\n What is the right setting to manipulate a human being?\u00a0 What types of societies have conditioning?<\/p>\n Any dystopian novel will demonstrate in its contents the role of youth.\u00a0 All the works of fiction that I am focusing on show the role of children in society.\u00a0 Some of the secondary sources I am considering are about the Hitler Youth and Red Guards \u2014but most likely the paper will focus on primary sources and secondary sources that analyze the texts.\u00a0I believe that the paper will support the ideas of how children are manipulated by their societies.\u00a0 The paper\u2019s originality is the focus on fictional utopias and dystopias.\u00a0 This paper will extend the understanding of conditioning effects on children because I will be using a wide range of primary sources, thus perhaps bringing a comprehension to the reasons, settings, outcomes, etc., for said conditioning of children.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are many sources available for this topic, and a wide variety of sources.\u00a0 There is plenty of fiction\u2014primary sources of movies and literature\u2014as well as non-fiction.\u00a0 For non-fiction I will look into the Hitler Youth movement or the Red Guards in Mao\u2019s China.\u00a0 I will sparingly reference secondary sources concerning these topics.\u00a0 Another non-fiction source could be any parenting magazine articles on how to raise your kid to be respectful: this in order to display the current life of the topic.\u00a0 Is that manipulation of children?\u00a0 However, I will focus on primary sources of dystopian literature.\u00a0 Even if the focus is not on children, these sources always make reference to the role of children.\u00a0 I will compare the different answers to the questions posed from each piece of literature and compare them.\u00a0 In the comparison I will look for patterns in the manipulation of the youth.\u00a0 I would look at the roots of each characteristic of the society in question to make these connections. \u00a0I will also reference some of the many criticisms of the primary sources that appear in the bibliography.<\/p>\n Bibliography<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1a. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, \u201cThe Manifesto of the Communist Party,\u201d in The \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Communist Manifesto and other Revolutionary Writings<\/em>, ed. Bob Blaisdell (Mineola: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dover\u00a0 Publications, 2003), 123-150.<\/p>\n Focusing on Marx\u2019s points on: a) the current status of the family\u2014his observations on the proletariat family and its degeneration into simply another asset to the bourgeoisie and b) his proposals for change.\u00a0 He proposes abolition of inheritance, and a different style of family relationship.\u00a0 There will be new \u201cfamily values.\u201d (A community of women??) (inheritance, family values, community of women)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1b. Davis, Todd F. and Kenneth Womack. \u201c’O my brothers’: Reading the Anti-Ethics of the \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pseudo-Family in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange.\u201d College Literature<\/em> 29 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (2002): 19.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2b. Kirby, David A. \u201cThe New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in \u00a0 “GATTACA”\u201d Science-fiction studies <\/em>27 (2000): 193.<\/p>\n 1c. More, Thomas. Utopia. <\/em>Toronto: Dover, 1997.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2c. Plato, The Republic. <\/em>Toronto: Dover, 2000.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1d. Niccol, Andrew. GATTACA<\/em>. DVD. Directed by Andrew Niccol. Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 1997.<\/p>\n The film displays a society in which everyone\u2019s destiny is determined by genetic modification before they are born\u00a0 Society manipulates the youth before a child is even born.\u00a0 Genetics bring an entirely new way for possible discrimination.\u00a0 In the movie, a family has one son whose DNA is manipulated in order to make him predisposed to success, and the first who is a \u201cGod child\u201d\u2014one who is treated as less because he has inferior genes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1e. Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange.<\/em> London: Heinemann, 1962.<\/p>\n Society corrupts a child at first and then tries to recondition him.\u00a0 There are two examples of conditioning in this novel.\u00a0 In the beginning, the protagonist is a general hooligan who rapes and robs as he pleases\u2014a side effect of the dystopian society\u2019s unintentional conditioning.\u00a0 Later, when he is arrested, the state attempts a reconditioning process.\u00a0 He becomes \u201cgood\u201d simply because he will feel violently ill when evil thoughts come to mind.\u00a0 Is it still just to be good if the goodness is not inherent.\u00a0 Can you treat humans like clockwork?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2e. Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. <\/em>New York: Scholastic, 2008.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3e. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.<\/em> London: Chatto and Windus, 1932.<\/p>\n (genetic mod., conditioning with repetitions)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4e. Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. <\/em>London: Secker and Warburg, 1949.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5e. Twain, Mark. Pudd\u2019nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins. <\/em>New York: Norton, 2005. (inheritance)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sam Wittmer What are some characteristics of the manipulation of youth (base) for the good of society and how does conditioning affect family structure and values in a utopian or dystopian society? The paper will generally focus on … Continue reading