Negotiating progress and happiness in brave new world and the handmaid's tale.

• Main Author: Yuen, Melissa Si Wei.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52207
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Dilip Soman and Mengze Shi state that progress amplifies an individual’s level of physical and mental health (cited in Brunstein 1993). An improvement in an individual’s life, as we see here, is directly related to the notion of a greater well-being, and by extension, happiness. The presentation of a utopian or a dystopian literature, which will be defined later, often celebrates the overarching idea of progress- of how society is presented to have achieved a state of stability, with all of its citizens working towards the common goal that has been prescribed by society. However, this essay seeks to question whether progress as defined by the state, is indeed the path towards happiness. This will be examined in relation to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.