Teaching Dystopian Literature to a Consumer Class.

TLDR: In this paper, the authors discuss the dangers, demands, and opportunities common to the "consumer class" without alarmism difficult terrain to navigate and how to guide students to navigate such treacherous, shifting seas.

Abstract: students are struggling with more depression and anxiety than ever before. These are characteristic dangers of the "consumer class" 1.7 billion people worldwide who are "characterized by diets of highly processed food, desire for bigger houses, more and bigger cars, higher levels of debt, and lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non-essential goods" (Mayell). Mindless consumerism threatens physical, social, and psychological health; total abstinence, on the other hand, means starvation. How do we guide students to navigate such treacherous, shifting seas? I teach dystopian literature, which exaggerates our modern context so that we can challenge it. Providing for its readers a glimpse into a horrifying but fully possible future, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and M. T. Anderson's Feed show how unrestrained industry often relies on manipulation and herd mentality, an unspeakably grim encroachment on the individual. When the important thing is selling and buying, the individual becomes nothing more than consumer or worker. This is where it gets tricky: Young people love advertising, consuming, entertainment, and technology. If we attack these trappings of modern life, we risk nurturing defensiveness. The challenge is to focus on the dangers, demands, and opportunities common to the "consumer class" without alarmism difficult terrain to navigate. It's a matter of human nature, not stuff: "man in using his reason to create the ultimate life of pleasure has ceased to be human" (Greenblatt 97). Dystopian literature such as Feed and Brave New World is to consuming as Frankenstein is to cloning theoretical exploration and warning. Four important traits of modern consumerism that these two novels address are powerful advertising and industry, mindless consumption based on instant gratification, reliance on technology, and the resulting atrophy of language. English teachers can explore these important concepts with their students, as I explain below. Using these texts, we can meaningfully discuss what it means to be responsible, aware, knowledgeable, and moral consumers.