Essay Questions

What is a utopian community?

The novel has been characterized as being a utopian novel and thus understanding the meaning of the word "utopia’’ is important in understanding the novel. The term utopia refers usually to a society or community considered as being perfect or ideal by modern standards. The idea of a perfect society existed since the times of the ancient Greeks and among the values considered desirable in a utopian society are equality, justice and egalitarian distribution of goods. A large number of utopian novels were written in the 19th and 20th century and the reason behind this is that many people were affected globally by various pandemics or wars that widened even more the gap between the rich and the poor. Because of this, many became interested in engineering a society that is perfect in comparison with the societies and communities ruled by greed and the desire to be the best.

What is behavioral engineering?

In Walden Two, a desirable behavior is achieved through what the leader of the community, Frazier, calls as being behavioral engineering. At the time when the novel was written, the idea of behavioral engineering was still a new idea yet to be accepted by the community and by the world. In general, what the people who pushed for behavioral engineering tried to achieve was to eliminate certain behaviors they considered as being dangerous or not useful and to replace them with what they perceived as being desirable. In Walden, the behavioral engineering was used to get rid of certain emotions such as greed and jealousy and also to weaken the link between parents and children. While some visitors did not approve of the practice, others were excited to see what they could achieve through the idea of behavioral engineering.

How did the society’s behavior and ideas changes after the Second World War?

The first half of the 20th century was characterized by two wars that affected the vast majority of the countries. Many people decided to go and fight for their countries and when they returned home, they had to learn how to live a normal life. Many people were affected by the atrocities they witnessed during the war and thus their perception changed. After the war, groups promoting peace and love appeared all over America and they wanted to show just how negatively the wars affected the societies in general. Many people also became interested in utopian societies and in fact the novel is the result of a new way of thinking promoted by the societies who survived the war.