Dystopian literature highlights the composer's perceived social flaws and questions the foundations of contemporary social practice. Unlike utopian fiction, which is rarely anything more than a speculation on a self-perceived ideal, dystopian works invite audiences to consider the inadequacies present in their own society. Works such as Ursula LeGuin's short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Eoin Colfer's children's novel The Supernaturalist, and the 2006 film V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue address issues such as human rights abuse, totalitarianism, and mass consumerism through the medium of the dystopian. genre, and in doing so they embody the main components of dystopian literature: the forced acceptance of an imperfection as an ideal, the questioning of social practice, and the revelation of imperfection and its consequences. The first distinguishing feature of dystopian literature is the forced acceptance of an imperfect or defective state as an ideal by the population of the state in question. James McTeigue's 2006 film V for Vendetta (based on a graphic novel series of the same title) is the prime example of this trait. Set in Britain in 2020, the film portrays a totalitarian regime reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The extremist policies of “The Party”, such as the denigration of Muslims, homosexuals and “foreigners” (anyone not of English origin) are accepted by propaganda force-fed to the population by the state television network BTN, and any dissidence it is quickly and ruthlessly repressed by the secret police force known as "the fingermen". The use of propaganda to gain support for the flawed state is common in many dystopian works, and is directly parallel to its use... middle of paper... ...microphone practice throughout dystopian fiction. Thus the dystopian genre is very effective in conveying the social commentary of its composers, and McTeigue's V for Vendetta, Colfer's The Supernaturalist, and LeGuin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas are excellent examples of this. capacity, with their allegorical critiques of human rights abuses, totalitarianism, and mass consumerism represented through the medium of the structural features of the dystopian genre. Works Cited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Utopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Thiefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_terms_in_The_Quantum_Thiefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Supernaturalisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/V_for_Vendettahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/