Fifteen Million Merits

Kevin Chalu

From Utopia to Dystopia  CORC 3117

April 5, 2016

            Within the production of “Fifteen Million Merits” not much is said through words but, the background information does a very good job of showing that these people live in some kind of dystopia. First we will look at color, start with what everyone is wearing. Most people wear grey which takes away most of the individuality. The only ones that don't wear grey were the sanitation workers, who wore bright yellow, and people who were said to have “worked their way to the top”. When looking at the music, it changes very slightly.

The music is a major part of this production because it is a way of portraying the illusion of happiness. By this I mean that in their bleak and band world, they higher-ups are trying to make it seem as if these people are happy by playing up beat and high pitched music. When listening to the music it changes with some of the scenes to either intensify or relaxed the listener in the moment.

When making connection with the sounds and the actions on screen we start to notice what all the subtle action mean. This in turn they symbolizes how bleak this world really is, and that every person only has a small amount of freedom.They way that they do this is by giving each person a virtual avatar, and with this avatar they can show their individuality in virtual reality, as long as it is not too out there. They can buy new clothes and accessories for their avatar even though in reality they are not allowed to do this. When combining all these aspect this world creates a very compelling dystopia. People just continue to go through their lives that never seem to change. Another way that this shows a dystopia is by having people work for what they want then going up and showing judges what they specialize in. When in reality, the judges are just trying to fill people in roles that are necessary to continue living in their world that they want

            This production is satirizing our world and how we use technology and depend on other to help us get somewhere in life. It does this with technology by showing that the general public live though their avatar, which in our world would be our phones, and that all they do is earn merits to buy the avatar me clothing or new shoes. We work had for something like a fancy car or nice house, these are not necessary to our lives but, it is a statement to show others how well off we are. If you don't understand, just look at social media, everyone is doing great, they have everything they want. We all know this is not the cases in real life. Another way that this production is satirizing our world is by showing us how people are willing to leave their overall message unheard if it means a better life for themselves. This is shown when the Bing is trying to kill himself and is then offered a better job which he takes and just turns into some thing that most people just scroll by when they are on their bikes.

            Is our world getting close to this? Yes, I think our world is getting close to this but, it will never go to the extent to which it is shown in”Fifteen Million Metis”. We are getting close to this because, everyone is always glued to their technology, be it computer, tablet, phone, etc. We are even getting close the virtual reality because, companies are now making virtual reality with commercially available devices like the Oculus Rift and The Vive So yes I think that we as a people are getting closer to this world that was portrayed but, we will also never let ourselves be controlled by a fake reality. We will always want some sort of individuality; it may be in the form of clothiers, hairstyle (note that a person in the episode did not choose a certain hairstyle because it was too “out there”), tattoos, and many other variation of these things. We will all most likely become more and more glued to technology but, will n