Why are people so fascinated by the end of the world? Is it because we like to think about how the world will survive if society collapses? Or is it because of events that are happening in the world today that make us think about the end of the world. Could it also be because it helps us escape from our personal life or hardships through great characters and plot? Dystopian literature is about “perfect societies” that compose the feeling that they are perfect worlds but in all reality there is a lot of control, secrets, and fear over the mass population. This may be through technology, propaganda or fear. A good example of fear is “Ten With a Flag” by  Joseph Paul Haines the main characters’ unborn child is predicted with a ten rating scale but has a flag, the husband in the book wants to abort their unborn child because of the flag but the government will not allow it so they arrest him and deem him a traitor. Dystopian literature has seen a rise in popularity because people are fascinated by “perfect societies” and characters that rebel against the people trying to control.   

A key point comes from an article “The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature” through the quote found in the text “The idea of rebelling against the government to teenagers is quite outrageous until they see how it is done in dystopian literature. Though this genre is fiction, the situation seems realistic because the problems within the novels can be compared to problems within our own country or world. These ideas give hope to young adults to think that they can speak up for what they believe in whether it is in school or about the government” (The Artifice).  This explains very well why teens find this genre so interesting and entertaining because we as teens are often met with authority figures such as our parents or relatives and faculty at the schools we attend. These authority figures try to tell us what to do, how to act and we as teens obviously try to constantly rebel because we are teens and don’t like being told what to do. So through the books we can relate to the main characters and that makes the books that much better. To improve upon my point I grabbed a quote from “Ten With a Flag” by  Joseph Paul Haines “There is no flag on your baby, of course there is no flag on your baby just as central predicted you would” (Haines).

The second piece of evidence comes from the article “Why Teens Find The End Of The World So Appealing?” from the website “nprED” by Elissa Nadworny. how screwed up adults are (can you believe they think this book is dystopian? It's not.).

“That last one — how messed up grownups are — it's a hallmark of dystopia, especially in the young adult genre. When I ask the group why they think these types of books are so popular with teens, they tell me it has a lot to do with relatability” (Nadworny).From the source teens talk about their favorite types of books in this genre and why they like them so much. They also go into how adults made posters to put up around their school advertising popular books. The interviewers ask the teens about the poster they go into on how they do not “trust” the posters because adults made them, and they feel like it's not what the students really said about the books and more fabricated by staff so they feel like they cannot trust what’s said. To further the point I have a quote from the Veldt “I don’t think you better consider it anymore father” (Bradbury). This quote comes from the talk between father and son when the father wanted to shut down the nursery and the son has threatened his father. This backs up my point because the son feels distrust and feels like his dad is hiding something from him and not telling him the full story. This provides something with teens to relate too because often they feel distrusted and feel like they are not getting the full story on a subject.

The last piece of information comes from Virginia Tech and explains very well on why dystopian literature appeals to teens and adults so well. To back this up I used the quote “as protagonists awaken to the realities around them, they feel an overwhelming sense that life has lost the value that it once had in the world—respect for life has been sacrificed for comfort or security. In YA dystopian novels, it is often this inhumanity that pushes the protagonists to action” (Justin & Jon) this quote backs up what I have said because it proves that books like the “Hunger Games” and “Divergent” are action packed. I say this because usually after the protagonist “wake up” the fight begins. This attracts teens and adults alike because they are action packed and usually through this action characters rise that are fun and relatable. To further back up this point I used a quote from Ten With a Flag “I've just one question though. The flag how can there be a flag with a rating of ten!” (Haines) This helps the point because through this talk with Mr.White, Johnny begins to ask more questions than he should and at this point he “wakes up” and sees through the lies of the government. He starts asking questions he shouldn't and saying things that he should not all while central is monitoring him. He starts rising up against the government. The breaking point is when he takes his wife to get the abortion and he ends up getting arrested. From all of that the author has created a character that we as readers connect to and want to see more.  As we feel in real life, as soon as the character is about to succeed he's stopped. This is what happens in dystopian literature and we relate to this. This leaves the readers wanting more and more.

In the final analysis teens and adults alike love these books so much because it's an escape from the stressful lives we live. Teens love the action packed literature. It relieves some of our problems in life and just for a little bit makes us forget everything.