Euilibrium

Equilibrium Viewing Guide
By: Raagulan Yogalingam

    1. A dystopian society is described as authoritarian or totalitarian form of government that set conditions on life characterized by violence, poverty, lack of emotions for the benefit of an unreasonable goal.(Muscat) In Equilibrium, we notice different events take place in the city of Libria that prove to be characteristics of a dystopian society. At the beginning of Equilibrium, there is a short narration of what has happened previously to the present day in Libria. It discussed the planet being devastated after World War Three and how humans weren’t able to survive another war. This led to leaders of the world wanting to create a society free of conflict. This event is an example of the characteristic of the back story for a dystopian story. The back story introduces a disaster which has a occurred previously that would result in a shift of control from normal political systems to totalitarian, authoritarian, and other systems.(Muscat) The movie shows that World War Three was the prime tragedy in which it has allowed a different political system to take over and run the country. Another characteristic of dystopian society is the information, individuals’ freedom and thoughts are restricted. This is shown in the lives of people in Libria. The government believes that emotions are the prime reason for conflict so the government has decided to eliminate the experiencing of different emotions. They do this by forcing citizens to take injections that are emotion-suppressing drugs, called Prozium, so that the people don’t have any type of feeling for anything or anyone. They also diminish emotion by destroying photographs, books and other objects that provoke an individual to express emotions. Another dystopian society characteristic is propaganda used to control society. Near the end of Equilibrium, the protagonist destroyed these machines which would broadcast images of the ‘Father’ all across Libria. This...