Dystopian literature is that which presents a pessimistic view of the future. Famous dystopian novels include Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. A common theme that emerges in many of these novels is that of unchecked sovereign power, which presents despotism, the exercise of absolute power in a cruel or excessive way, as having the potential to lead to abuses of human rights. In Farenheight 451, Bradbury imagines a future where the state restricts learning of all kinds in order to suppress the ideas that lead to change. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell imagines a future where the state surveils its citizens to an extreme extent and uses this surveillance in order to control all aspects of their day-to-day lives. In The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood imagines a future where a totalitarian state dictates which women can give birth in society. The Selection by Kiera Cass falls within this canon. In her novel, Cass imagines a future where a tyrannical monarchy creates a caste system and suppresses information in order to keep its subjects in control.
In these books, the state works as an antagonist, limiting the rights and freedoms of the protagonists of the novel. Sometimes the state will remain faceless, and other times individuals will come to represent the state as sovereigns, or as officials of the government. In The Selection, which is set in a monarchy, the royal family is the direct embodiment of the government. The messaging of these novels is one of the implicit distrust of power when it goes unchecked. In the United States, where democracy and freedom are hailed as the ultimate ideals of society, there is a belief that democracy is the only antidote to despotism, as checks to power are inherently built into the system. This does not mean that all dystopian novels exist outside of democracies. The young-adult novel Ready Player One" operates within the American democracy as it exists now, but imagines a future where the Internet becomes such a precious resource that it is utilized to exploit Americans and push many into poverty. Here, the power that goes unchecked and that robs people of their human rights is that which is given to the richest members of society.
It is no mistake that the words dystopic and despotic are semantically related. These novels all present the pessimistic view that when facing a structure as large and unstoppable as a state, the individual cannot adequately fight against it in order to improve their situation. They are the stories of the struggle for liberation against the worst of odds. In many ways, The Selection does not live up to its predecessors in offering a full-fledged criticism of the system that exploits its subjects. The country of Illéa is less the focus of the novel and more the mechanism through which the true focus—the romance between America and the prince—is given a space to play out. This is a trait specific to the first book of the series: In the next novel of the series, The Elite, America more actively challenges the status quo, and it is not until Maxon vows to begin to disband the caste system that she agrees to marry him. Still, we see that America must become elite herself before she is able to make a change in the system. This is not a hopeful conclusion, as it relies upon those with power to willingly sacrifice that power for the greater good.
