The Importance of Children

Having read four different dystopian novels, I have noticed that all of the authors place importance on children. Both those in power and those suppressed look at the younger generations as a good thing.

The ones who hold power believe the children to be easier to manipulate and mold to 'perfection'. In Orwell's 1984, the Party brainwashes the young to become spies and even betray their parents. Atwood reveals how children can be used when the aunts in A Handmaid's Tale talk of when newer girls train, they will find it easier to become handmaids- and Offred reads in between the lines to see that young girls will not know any better. Even in The Road, McCarthy has the bad guys using the boy against his father, when one bad guy holds a knife to his son. The antagonists in dystopian novels- the Party, the men, the aunts, cannibals, and ect.- all use children to gain more control over others.

Ironically, the 'good guys' also put their hope on their children. In Zamyatin's We, one of the leaders of the resistance is I-330: a young woman with new ideas. And in The Road, all of the father's hope is placed in the boy. He believes that his son holds humanity- so much morality, kindness, and innocence that even the father cannot understand. The father exists solely to help his son. When the boy is sick, his father is in tremendous pain: "He tried to staay awake all night but he could not. He woke endlessly and sat and slapped himself or rose to put wood on the fire. He held the boy and bent to hear the labored suck of air. His hand on the thin and laddered ribs. He walked out on the beach to the edge of the light and stood with his clenched fists on top of his skull and fell to his knees sobbing in rage" (McCarthy, 250). Although the author does not come right out and say it, the clenched fists on top of the father's skull reveals his frustration and anger, giving a hopeless mood to the scene.

Even the boy feels that he has some duty and is somehow important: "You're not the one who has to worry about everything. The boy said something but he couldnt understand him. What? he said. He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one" (259). The boy knows that he is the future, although not in those exact words. He just knows that he is important, and has his own ideas that his father cannot even begin to comprehend.

I find this topic, how important children are, very intriguing. Not only is its relevance in dystopian novels interesting, but its relation to me, and children of the world as a whole. Again, I am reminded that "we are the future"- and as cliche as that sounds, its true. It's actually quite similar to my propaganda poster and its slogan "Students for the Future". The importance of children is still a pressing issue today. The Road to Nowhere addresses the stress we (as a society) place on children- and the question is, do we put too much? I'm not sure about this; because the future is important, and entails some stress. I think the way to go about answering this problem is to find a balance between pressure and learning and having fun. Is our education system working, or does it need to change drastically? And how will this impact children and their future? In history class, we looked at an article from The New York Times, where Shanghai scored the best. However, we talked about the education in Finland- how students are given the initiative, and the effect of this system- Finland has been at the top consistently. Everyone agrees that children are important- but now we have to find out how to best prepare them for that future.