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John Vincent Saulan California State University Northridge Professor Florian English 114B 27 February 2014 My Response to Utopia Thomas Mores fictional narrative, Utopia, contains brilliant and radical ideas about an isolated righteous society during the 15th and 16th centuries. He introduces the island of Utopia that has fifty-four identical cities, each with equally cultivated farmlands in its county side. Every citizen speaks a common native language, dresses the same and are educated. Agriculture is the strongest asset of Utopia as almost every citizen is a farmer while having to work for only six hours a day, and they are also trained in a specific skill such as masonry or carpentry. Although the majority of the population are equally the same, there is still a distinct social class where only a small percentage of the population are excluded from labor and are able to pursue higher education and eventually become leaders. Utopia is an absolute peaceful society where public affairs and disputes are rare. Everyone must follow a common law such as not leaving their specified district, and if it is broken then that person will become a slave. Political and public corruption is never an issue since citizens are in fact restricted to their own city which forbids and limits ideas of revolution to prosper throughout the nation. Each and every Utopian city is also fortressed by thick walls to prevent invaders. They are also very conservative on conquering their enemies as they avoid bloodshed at any cost, and spare defeated peoples and cities. The greatest implication through my readings of Utopia though was the idea of freedom of religion. This proposal by Thomas More was such an abstract concept during the inception of

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the Renaissance era where governments and nations were controlled through a dominant religion such as Christianity. In the island of Utopia, citizens are able to freely worship any religion and beliefs they desire. More speaks about various religions worshiped by Utopians from solar deities, god-like war heroes, animism, and monotheism. He emphasizes the religious tolerance of the Utopians and everyone is free to convert anyone to theirs. Criticism of another belief is not allowed publicly and can lead the aggressor to exile or slavery. Thomas Mores Utopia is a satirical novel that criticizes contemporary European societies and beliefs of the sixteenth century. He creates this fictional island as a basis for what his own society should progress and develop into. Utopia acts as this unbreakable paradise while being isolated from the corruption of the world. More proposes an almost equal and peaceful society where everyone has their life necessities, education, freedom of worship, freedom from harm, and pursue any pleasures they desire. This was definitely radical and abstract in his era where only the privileged were educated, farming were only for the poor, and people with different religious beliefs were prosecuted. Certainly, Mores philosophies and ideals in his narrative can be connected with modern ideologies such as communism, socialism and even democratic governments. His proposal of a balanced and equal society where the majority of citizens must be laborers draws from communistic principles, much like the Soviet Union. Having a common language and clothing in the Utopian society also creates an equal status among social classes that prevents influence from foreign visitors. This preserves a unique Utopian culture that further prospers their society much like the ideas of socialist leaders such as Adolf Hitler. Utopia also contains a democracy as thirty households from each city choose their own officials and chief executives, much like kinship ties in Native American societies or in ancient Greece. It can also be drawn from this example that

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Thomas More denied monarchies that tyrannized much of Europe, especially England, during his time. Pitch for Utopia Research Essay Thomas Mores Utopia is certainly one of the most interesting and thought-provoking fictional narratives that I have read. It is quite fascinating that a sixteenth century author, who was quite ahead of his time, could propose ideas that could be connected with modern concepts. As soon as I learned the concept about his Utopian society, I quickly grasped the knowledge of comparing it to Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi regime, had the fantasy of creating a thousand year global rule for German and Aryan peoples. Germany, a heavily ravaged country from the First World War was a dystopia. But during the reign of Hitler, he transformed the country into a prosperous nation by creating jobs for every citizen and educating all of its children. He was surely thriving to a utopian society and if the Axis powers won in the Second World War, then his vision of a utopia for Germans and Aryans could have been a reality.