Utopia/Dystopia

Utopias in literature are ideal societies. The word utopia derived from Greek has a dual meaning of "no place" or u-topia and "good place" or eu-topia. The word dystopia, also derived from Greek, means "bad place." The two places stand in opposition and in The Fifth Sacred Thing, the worlds of the north and the south are split between the good and the bad. The Fifth Sacred Thing contrasts the utopia of the San Francisco or the "City" with the dystopia of "Angel City" or Los Angeles and the surrounding hills.

The three main characters of Maya, Madrone, and Bird live in the City, the former San Francisco. As she relates the history of the City, Maya, an elder of the community, helps establish the steps that activists had to take in order to stand up to the Stewards and establish a free and egalitarian society. In...