Pet

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What is a utopia? How is utopian literature related to dystopian literature? What would a false utopia be?

Teaching Suggestion: Students are likely to be familiar with dystopian literature, but they may be unaware of its relationship to the ideas of utopia and false utopia. After establishing the meanings of each term, students may enjoy discussing examples of utopian and dystopian games, videos, or stories that they have already encountered. This can be a natural opportunity to reinforce how the three terms relate and overlap. Advanced students might also be ready to discuss why these terms overlap, due to the subjective nature of “perfection.” Consider accessing or sharing these or similar resources with students to help inform this work.

• This site offers a thorough explanation of the characteristics of utopias and dystopias.
• This 5-minute animated film from the Autodale series offers a great example for discussion of what constitutes utopia, false utopia, and dystopia. [Content Warning: Contains brief animated violence.]

Short Activity

Imagine a society that seems perfect at first glance but has a hidden dark side—a society that is a false utopia. Write a scene of 1-2 pages that establishes how seemingly perfect the society is and then ends with a character discovering the society’s hidden dark side.

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt asks students to write just one scene. Rather than focusing on a storyline, however, you might ask students to simply establish the setting and introduce the character who, at the end of the scene, makes a significant discovery. If your students are ready for a challenge, you might ask that they include elements of foreshadowing early in the scene or establish a tone that contradicts the apparent perfection of the setting. If students struggle to understand how to construct a false utopia, the resources linked below should be helpful to them.

• This site explains the telltale signs of utopias and dystopias.
• This brief definition discusses false utopias and offers literary examples.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with executive function differences or who struggle with anxiety or other emotional issues may find it difficult to choose among the many options afforded by this prompt. If you have students whom you suspect will take an inordinate amount of time to decide what to write about, you might prepare a few scenarios ahead of time and simply ask students to choose among these. Alternatively, you might offer a few prompt pictures for students to choose from—some great images are available here and here.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

What is your personal idea of a utopian society? Explain why the characteristics you describe are important to you.

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt is intended to encourage students to see that each of us has ideas about what would make society “perfect” but that these ideas can be highly individual. If you choose to have students respond in writing, you might offer them a chance to share and discuss afterward, in small groups or as a whole class. Or, if circumstances do not permit for discussion of this prompt, you might ask students to add to their written answers a brief explanation of which elements of their own personal utopia might strike other people as dystopian.