Why does More present the traveler as a sensible reformer early in Book I, but not later?”
This week in the RPC we learned about Thomas More. We learned that Thomas lead a life with contributes to society. Thomas More lived from 1478 to 1543. During his years he acquired many respectable positions such as Lawyer, Judge, Philosopher, Author, States man and Humanist. All of these positions helped create a name for Thomas More. H lived a life for society and the general Public. One of his main works a book called Utopia. This book was speaking on the reformation that was happening in the church at the time. The book is fiction with a fiction story line but is important because of the messages about society within. He writes about the political system of a Island society and the people, politics and religion inside.
Within the novel, Thomas himself had been written in. He is traveling with man named Rapheal Hythloday. Rapheal speaks about his travels through the world, and then talks about a place he vistied called Utopia. Raph describes it as “The land of perfect.” He dicusses the place as a place of wonder and peace. A place where everyone can live happy. There is no war, no anger, only love and together ness. There is no hunger in this place and only smiles. Through this description the author can presume that Raph is a normal man who belives in some reforming ideas of society. As oof this point the reader did not suspect anything of Raph as he was just talking about a world built for everyone. A place of equality and freedom for all.
However as the book goes on, it becomes ubuntly clear that Raph wanted other things from the reformation. He continues to talk about the ideal society but evertime becomes more and more extreme. He talks about how he hates drinking and thinks that taverns should be banned. He thinks dice and gambling should be taken away from the people. He claims to hate kings and nobels and says he is a skeptic. He thinks that private property should be banned. He thinks that private property creates greed and creates starvation and sickness. He think that their should be a limit on population size and that families need to restrict child birth to prevent the world from becoming over populated. He thinks for each city their should be a set limit of families that can live in them. He also belives that if there is a surplus of anything that it should be shared to keep things even and fair. He continues to say no one should have a job except wroking for the government.
What becomes clear quickly is that Raph is insane. He thinks that a perfect world ias a dystopian communist nightmare. If this were real and society was being run like this, it would last about 2 days before everyone through a revolution and killed the whole system. What seems to have started off as a conversation about a peaceful place quickyly turned into a discussion of Communism.
Raph’s ideas are dangerous. Anyone who believes people can be controlled is wrong. While for a little bit it may work, nothing is permanant. Raph wanted to push oush a society thta controlled everything through central government.
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